Sufficient Self's Bible Study Group

[Bubblingbrooks]

Just stopping in for a minute.
We have been really looking at mans tradition for Christmas versus reality/history.
I get frustrated with the childs book version of the real deal
3 wisemen/wooden stable/on Dec. 25th, etc.

I know all the arguments for keeping the staus quo, but I have slowly been more and more convicted on the fact that we are dragging Christ through something that in reality has nothing to do with Him.
I do not want to go into the decor arguments, cause that will likely not be a good thing here. Just the Scriptural stuff.

If the text is taken for truth, and we apply what is known historically, we come up with a very different picture.

The Magi found Him in the house when He was around the age of two. We take the clue for that from Herods deduction on the information the Magi gave to him.
He ordered all babies age two and under slain.

It is believed that He was born during the taxation census, which happened to fall during the Feast of Tabernacles.
On our calender that makes it the third week of September.
The significance of His birth takes on a much deeper meaning when you look at it from this perspective

 

[miss_thenorth]

I think it needs to be a structured study, where we all commit to reading something and then coming back here to discuss it. Yea? Nay?

 

[Woodland Woman]

I think we should keep it simple with maybe a small passage of scripture to read daily and comment on. That way people can feel free to drop in without a lot of pressure.

 

[miss_thenorth]

?? http://www.crosswalk.com/who-is-jesus/ not the birth of Jesus, (which we are probably not going to find a study about), but....

 

[miss_thenorth]

Ok, i can understand that, how 'bout starting with Matthew then?

 

[Woodland Woman]

Matthew is a great book to start with. Should we skip through and just choose certain passages or are you thinking more of an expository study?

 

[savingdogs]

I think we should keep it simple with maybe a small passage of scripture to read daily and comment on. That way people can feel free to drop in without a lot of pressure.

I think that is a good idea....then we don't need to worry whose version.

But I think BB had already chosen Luke 2: 1-14

 

[Woodland Woman]

I think that is for today but we could continue with the same passage for 2-3 days.

Maybe we should get BarredBuffs opinion since he started this!

 

[Wifezilla]

I have slowly been more and more convicted on the fact that we are dragging Christ through something that in reality has nothing to do with Him........If the text is taken for truth, and we apply what is known historically, we come up with a very different picture.

Exactly.

 

[Wannabefree]

Interesting translations from Hebrew and Greek I like to dig a bit deeper and dissect every word to squeeze the truth out of the passages. You can't really do that easily just using English translations. Backtracking and finding Greek and Hebrew meanings of words is often very eye opening, and is my new favorite habit

Magi plural of magus, magos. Meaning simply "wise men" very similar to the hebrew word chakam.

Hebrew: Chakam means intelligent, skillful, artful or cunning man.

These were educated men in one form or another. No one knows for sure what country from which they came, but some have speculated it could have been Media, Persia, Assyria, or Babylon as these were the only places with known Magian preists at the time. Anyway...

Wise men apparently consisted of three different types: (1) astrologers, (2) Chaldeans, and (3) soothsayers.

Guess which was most likely the skill of the Magi who visited Jesus? Very likely astrologers, as they followed the star to find the child. It doesn't say particularly but one could easily make that assumption.

The bible doesn't specifically say that there were 3, this is an assumption from the number and types of gifts that were given to Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gifts reflected the aspects of Christ's nature: gold to a king, myrrh to one who will die, and incense, as homage to a God. These gifts were very expensive gifts, thus the assuption as well that these men may have been kings or at least very wealthy maybe even prominent men. You can draw your own conclusions, but this, to me, sheds a little more light on the circumstances of the Magi's arrival, and gives a deeper sense of their intent with such gifts. They came to worship, and they came on a long journey to do so, bringing the Messiah only the finest of gifts. I think it's sweet