2007-01-26 11:43:22 · 22 answers · asked by The Truth 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I'm impressed. I expected more people to get this wrong.
The answer is complicated... As many have said, nobody knows how many visited as it isn't stated. It's a minimum of three.
There's also no guarantee they were men, as the 'wise men' is a translation of 'magi' which does not infer gender. Men makes sense historically, though.
As has been pointed out, he was less than two years of age and living in a house at the time.
NB - I suppose this counts as Christian-baiting, but I was just interested to see how many knew the actual answer. I only recently realised my understanding of this was wrong.
2007-01-26 12:28:44 · update #1
The Bible doesn't say how many wise men there were, just that wise men came from the East bearing gifts. Since there were three gifts that were mentioned, tradition says that there were three wise men, but this is conjecture and not Biblical. The wise men were kings that came with a large entourage, and a military escort to ensure their safety.
The wise men didn't visit Christ at the manger. When they arrived, Jesus was about two years old, and Jesus and His family were living in a house. When Herod found out that Jesus was declared the King of the Jews, he set out to have Jesus killed. It what has become known as the killing of the innocents, Herod had all the babies in Bethlehem, under the age of two, killed.
2007-01-26 11:53:02 · answer #1 · answered by ted.nardo 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The tradition is 3 wise men because 3 gifts are mentioned. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate how many.
Since Herod ordered the execution of all 2 yr. old and younger boys in Bethlehem after the Wise Men left, the estimage is that Jesus must have been under that age.
2007-01-26 12:07:03 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The minimum is 2, scripture Never gives a notion there where 3, there had to be at least 2 because of the wording, also be careful because it was no written in English, and Greek is only a maybe. And they are right about a house and not in the manger, He was almost 2. He also was called Yeshua meaning Salvation.
2013-12-25 12:26:28 · answer #3 · answered by Thomas 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Bible does not mention how many astrologers visited Jesus. Some assume it was 3 because Jesus was given 3 gifts. He was about 2 years old when the astroligers visited him. And he was no longer in a stable; he was living in a house. Matt. 2:11.
2007-01-26 11:59:31 · answer #4 · answered by LineDancer 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Actually Leslie C, I think u have it a bit wrong.
There is nothing in the Bible to say that there were 3 wise men, just that there were 3 gifts. People accept that there were 3 men due to Nativity plays needing to be tidy.
Also, there is nothing in the Bible to state how old Jesus was at the time. Again, the Nativity plays are responsible. It's called artistic licence.
To all you who are gonna tell me I am wrong, please read your Bibles properly.
God bless you x
2007-01-26 11:56:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Even non-Biblical sources don't say how many scholars visited Jesus.
Though we do know that they were the astrologers and "seers" from Babylonia and Persia.
They also don't say where or when they caught up with Jesus, but we know it was before leaving Egypt.
The three gifts they brought were symbols of who Jesus was to be according to the prophecies and the stars.
Gold: Because he was to be a king.
Frankincense: Embalming spice. Because he was to die unjustly for his people.
Myrrh: Anointing oil. Because he was to be the High Priest of the "One God."
2007-01-26 12:13:14 · answer #6 · answered by L Strunk 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who knows? You waste your time asking questions about a man who emerged from the desert and preached for less than three years. His early life was only written about 70 years after his death - by a man that had known him about 2 years - which was 103 years after his birth. So I don't think it is a very accurate record. They don't know even what day Christ was born, and have a rough guess at the month of September in about 3 BCE.
2007-01-26 12:02:22 · answer #7 · answered by DAVID C 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
3 wise men brought him frankinsence, gold and merrh, if they had any sense they would have brought him some pampers, feeder bottle and some baby grows as he was only a few hours old when they visited and bethleham in december cant be the warmest of places speshly in a stable!
2007-01-26 11:56:14 · answer #8 · answered by PInky without perky!! 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There were many, more than three for sure.
Jesus was between 0 and 3, because the flight to Egypt had to occur before Herod died in 4BC and Jesus is believed to have been born no earlier than 7BC.
2007-01-26 11:56:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
You mean Jesus the plumber in Mexico City or Jesus the saviour of the planet in Palestine?
2007-01-26 11:56:53 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋