Sunday, December 20, 2015


John 14:23-26

Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.


Greetings Bible Enthusiast!

There are many traditions surrounding the holidays that are not Biblically sound. One example is the three wise men coming to the manger scene to visit the infant Jesus.

Matthew 2:10 & 11 says: "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him."

Almost all the traditional nativity scenes show the wise men coming to the manger to worship the newborn Jesus but the Bible strongly indicates otherwise. They are mentioned only in Matthew where it states they came to "the house" not a manger, and saw "the young child" not an infant (there are different words in Greek for infant and young child).

Also Herod, after interrogating the wise men on when the star appeared, had all the male children, in Bethlehem and surrounding areas, two years and under killed. This indicates that Jesus may have been close to two years old based upon what the wise men told Herod.

For another non-Biblical tradition, see the trivia question below!

God Bless You!
Annie

Email Annie

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--TODAY'S NOT SO TRIVIAL TRIVIA QUESTION:

Q. How many wise men visited the young Child Jesus?

Answer below.

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--TODAY'S BIT OF WISDOM/REFLECTION:

"A trip to nostalgia now and then is good for the spirit as song as you don't set up housekeeping."

- Dan Bartolovic

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--FEATURED FUNNY:

A Sunday School teacher was trying to explain about saying grace before meals. One of the pupils was the young son of the minister of that church, so she started the discussion by asking him, "Jerry, what does your father say when the family sits down to dinner?"

Jerry answered, "Dad says, 'Go easy on the butter, kids, it's three dollars a pound!'"

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--ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION:

Q. How many wise men visited the young Child Jesus?

A. unknown, but more than one

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem... and when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:1&11

Traditional nativity scenes show three wise men but the Bible only tells us that there were more than one; the number could be anywhere from two to twenty or more! The idea that there were three probably stems from the fact that there were three types of gifts mentioned: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Incidentally, it was these gifts that probably allowed the otherwise "low income" family to travel to Egypt so quickly to avoid Herod's killing spree.