Things in the Bible not really in the Bible...and a few surprises

Christmas Surprise of the Day

So, if the wise men (magi) did not follow the star all the way from the East (today’s Iran Iraq, N. India) as the Christmas carol says, how did they figure out where to find Jesus?    

I’m glad you asked.

Matthew 2:2  –  Daniel 9:1; 24ff  –  Daniel chap. 10  –  Daniel chap.  11  –  Daniel 12:3

Christmas Fact of the Day

Yesterday I promised to tell you the answer to “HOW”?  Here it is:,

Pagans at that time believed a new star meant a new god had been born.  I think it took them so long to arrive (nearly 2 years, based on the age of babies Herod ordered killed)  because they investigated all the major religions of that time to find the meaning of that star. 

Each religion had its writings and government  archives in its main temple  (kings were “gods” at  that time).  That means  they traveled to all of them – N. India, Alexandria, Rome, ancient Turkey, and finally back to Ecbatana in today’s SW Iran, where their archives were kept.   (And, by the way, that’s where our Queen Esther was a hundred years after Daniel.)

We know from Daniel that the book of Jeremiah was stored in Babylon, which later was absorbed by Persia, and still later, Parthia. The wise men would have had access to Jeremiah’s book in the archives.   So, surely Daniel left his own writings behind along with Jeremiah’s.  In Daniel, they would have read (1) the prophecies and the timeline of the Messiah coming 490 years later, (2) the prophecies of world conquerors – Persia, Greece, Rome, and (3) a reference to righteous stars. With the writings of Daniel available to them, they would have been able to trace his origins back to being a prince in Jerusalem.  So, what better place to go in search of the newborn deity than Jerusalem?

You’re smart.  Read the Bible for yourself.  Find out for yourself.