Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[HVC]

My father was going to be named Balthazar. Which means i would have been named Balthazar. So while my name is weird, it could have been worse since i grew up in the pokemon era.

[The Larch]

A friend of mine is called Gaspar. His surname is Rey. Yes, it's hillarious. 

[Barrister]

My father was going to be named Balthazar. Which means i would have been named Balthazar. So while my name is weird, it could have been worse since i grew up in the pokemon era.

I went to high school with a kid named Balthazar - he was Filipino.  Didn't seem that strange.  But I guess this was pre-pokemon.

[The Minsky Moment]

The Bible calls them "Magi" (well it calls them something in Greek typically translated as Magi).  It comes from Zoroastrian priests.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in that era there were no female zoroastrian priests.

And that ignores a sizeable amount of Christian tradition about their identities.

It's only in Matthew though there are lots of extra-Biblical traditions.  Matthrew just says "magon" from the "East".  It isn't in the other gospels.
The Greek word "magos" is actually borrowed from the Persian.

As to whether there were any female Zoroastrian priests - they do exist now (in Iran of all places).  I'm not aware of affirmative evidence of female priests in that era, but the head of the Tehran council of Zoroastrian clergy claimed to have access to archival research indicating that there were: https://www.middleeasteye.net/features/zoroastrian-priestesses-iran.  One may view such claims with skepticism but it's not clear how one would prove the matter with certainty. 

There is tangible evidence of significant roles by women in early Christianity, including what appears to be in some official liturgical capacity.

[The Minsky Moment]

The other interesting thing about the FB post is that nothing in it has anything to do with Christianity other than the reference to Jesus being a boy (is that really in dispute?).
This get back to the other thread about traditional celebrations and the thin veneer of Christianization.

[Razgovory]

The bible does not name "three" wise men.  It give no number.

[PDH]

So they could have been wise guys?

[Admiral Yi]

The bible does not name "three" wise men.  It give no number.

I thought it gave three names.  Or is that a later invention?

[Razgovory]

The bible does not name "three" wise men.  It give no number.

I thought it gave three names.  Or is that a later invention?

Later invention.  Names differ from tradition to tradition.  They are still cool names, just not biblical.  Mascot of my High School was named after one of them (probably not intended),  Jasper. 

[The Minsky Moment]

The magi are there as a lead in to a story about Herod which echoes the story of Pharaoh and Moses from the Exodus; it is even followed by a story where Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus go to Egypt.  This all appears all to be a literary invention by the author of Matthew, who implies, contra Luke and Mark, that Jesus and his family had no connection to the Galilee until after Jesus was born.

[Barrister]

The magi are there as a lead in to a story about Herod which echoes the story of Pharaoh and Moses from the Exodus; it is even followed by a story where Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus go to Egypt.  This all appears all to be a literary invention by the author of Matthew, who implies, contra Luke and Mark, that Jesus and his family had no connection to the Galilee until after Jesus was born.

I seem to remember than the Gospel of Matthew's big thing was to tie Jesus into the various prophecies of the Messiah, to show how he fulfilled them.

I'm going to politely ignore the "literary invention" part of your response.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm going to politely ignore the "literary invention" part of your response.

Don't think of it as anti Gospel, think of it as pro-Mark

[grumbler]

I'm going to politely ignore the "literary invention" part of your response.

Don't think of it as anti Gospel, think of it as pro-Mark

In the Jesus Comics Universe, all the Gospels could be true at the same time, just in different dimensions.

[Syt]

[Admiral Yi]

That might be true of twitter, but certainly not of Teh Corporate Press.