Christmas Story Fallacies, Part 2

I mentioned at the end of Part 1, that the next thing I would deal with would concern the nativity and the wise men.

Fallacy #2: The wise men visited BABY Jesus.

There is no doubt that these wise men or magi from the east did visit Jesus. But based on the nativities we see, these wise men visited Jesus when He was a baby. Many of them imply that the wise men were there with the shepherds when Jesus was born. This is not what the Bible tells us.

Back to Matthew 2:1, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea...behold magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem..." (NASB).

In Matthew 2:11 we read that the magi entered the house. This was not where Jesus was born. It is obvious that since His birth, Joseph and Mary had found a place to live in Bethlehem. In addition in the Matthew 2 passage, Jesus is referred to as the Child. This Greek word for child is different from the Greek word that would have been used for a newborn infant.

So how old was Jesus when the wise men visited? We can't say for sure, but he wasn't a baby and he was under the age of 2. How do we know that? Well, later in Matthew 2 we read about Herod's plot to kill Jesus. In order to make sure he killed him, Herod ordered that all the children 2 years old and under be killed (v.16). Where did Herod get this number? In v.7, we read that Herod met with the magi to find out when they saw the star? It seems that Herod was using this as a time when Christ would have been born. So from that information, Herod decided to kill all boys 2 and under. I would think that Herod would have added a little bit of time to make sure that he killed Jesus. I mean what if they were off a day or two and Jesus was 2 years and 2 days; Herod wouldn't have wanted to miss killing this one called the king of the Jews. (v.2).

So I would say that at this time Jesus was probably between 1.5-2 years old. Somewhere in there. Also, consider that the magi traveled from the east; not a short journey.

So why do all the nativities include wise men? I don't know. Maybe some of you know why. I haven't researched that. Maybe they want to sell more pieces. Maybe someone got confused early on and it just stuck. Maybe they were trying to put all of the visitors to Jesus together. Maybe it was a flannelgraph conspiracy (I don't hate flannelgraph, I just think it is interesting how much flannelgraphs can shape the minds of young children and confuse them if they are not accurate). But none the less, the nativities of the wise men visiting baby Jesus with the shepherds are not Biblically accurate.

So what do you do with the wise men in your nativity? That is for you to decide. My wife sets them up on the other side of the room as if they are traveling for their visit. Maybe you have other suggestions.