Christmas Story Fallacies, Part 1

Recently at our training for our Birthday Parties for Jesus coming up this month we were reminded that we must be careful to look at God's Word for truth and not necessarily what someone else tells us.

Taking that thought, I want to expose some common misconceptions concerning the Christmas story. When we look at God's Word we will see that what we have often been told is not actually exactly what is the truth. So I may try to devote several posts to this topic over the next few days.

Fallacy #1: There were ONLY 3 wise men

Well, we probably have all seen or heard that there were 3 wise men that visited Jesus. Not necessarily. I mean there could have been 3; in fact there probably were 3, but not necessarily just 3.

We find the account of the wise men visiting Jesus only the gospel of Matthew. Matthew 2:1 says, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying," (NASB)

Notice that the text does not say 3 wise men. So where do we get 3? Well, it is true that 3 gifts are mentioned. Matthew 2:11 - "...and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh." (NASB). So usually when pictures or flannelgraphs are made, there is a different person holding each gift. So 3 gifts and therefore 3 wise men.

So while I can't dogmatically say there weren't only 3 wise men or magi; we also can't dogmatically say that there were. But that is what we are often led to believe. Even the song that starts, "We 3 kings of Orient are" implies 3 wise men. Most all of the nativities that are made include 3 wise men.

I'll end there and let you know that the next fallacy will also include the wise men and the common nativity scenes seen each Christmas.

The most important question...what does God's Word say!