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

Christmas Oops of the Day

The  shepherds who the angels appeared to on the night Jesus was born were respectable men.

Luke 2:8-20  – I Samuel 17:34-36 – John 10:11 –  Genesis 46:33-34 

Christmas Fact of the Day

True, beloved King David had been a shepherd and Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd.  

But, no!  Shepherds were far from respected.  Shepherds were despised in many places.  The Jewish Talmud forbade shepherds from being witnesses.   Further, no aid was to be given to heathens or shepherds.  Shepherds were not even allowed in the temple proper. 

This was true even 1200 years before Jesus was born. In Egypt,  Joseph warned his father when he was introduced to Pharaoh, “Do not tell him you are a shepherd.  Every Egyptian despises shepherds.”

 

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

I ended up writing a biblical historical novel about the wisemen.  I made Michel a descendant of Daniel (who knows?).  Michel wants to buy and restore the Garden of Eden, where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers meet, where God walked with Adam and Eve.  He has hopes that God will return and walk the earth with people in his day.  Of course, the other wisemen laugh at him.

Most of the book is him and 9 other wise men traveling the then-known world trying to find the meaning of the star.  They run into barriers, handicaps, and dangers in their travels.  Further, they won’t give Michel’s God a hearing because he is invisible.  But eventually, they run out of religions and give his God a chance.  

If you want to read the first chapter, some reviews, and see some direct buy inks, just click ‘HOME” above.  It’s in the third row of books with the  INTREPID MEN OF GOD series.

Mum Katheryn

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.

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

Christmas Surprise of the Day

The wise men followed the star as it moved all the way from “the East” to Bethlehem.

Matthew 2:1-2  –  Matthew 2: 7  –  Matthew 2: 9-10

Christmas Fact of the Day

Hate to be a scrouge again about our Christmas carols.  But “We three kings from Orient are…following yonder star”  is not 100% accurate.  When they arrived in Palestine, they went directly to Jerusalem and probably wondered why there weren’t any celebrations.  Then they found out from King Herod (who was half  Jew and half  Arab and had to find out from the priests) that the prophesied newborn King had been born in Bethlehem, six miles away.

And then, they headed out toward Bethlehem.  

And then…  And then…  And then, they saw it!  Again!  The star had returned.  And they rejoiced! 

Why would they rejoice when they saw the star if they had been following it all the way from the East? 

P.S.  Tomorrow I’ll tell you how they figured out to go to Palestine in the first place.

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