CHRISTMAS STAR, WHO SENT IT Jehovah’s Witnesses are told by the Watchtower Society that the star of Bethlehem was not from Jehovah God Almighty the Father but from Satan the Devil; that it was sent in order to have Christ slain.  (Watchtower magazine of July 1, 1985: 16, 17 Matthew 2:1 and 2 says the wise-men saw Christ from where they had been in the east.  Directly east of Israel were the cultures and lands of the Arabs and Persians (Iranians).  Being relatively closer to Israel than people in India and China, they knew about Judaism. One indication that the wise-men came from more likely a relatively close Arabic or Iranian area to the east is the fact that the Bible says that they knew the star was tied to the birth of a king that the Jews had waited for a long time.  They went first to Jerusalem which was the capital of Israel.  The reason they went there was that a capital is the logical place to go in order to look for a new born king.  No scripture says the star led them to Jerusalem, but common sense or logic led them there. Matthew 2:9 says the star that they had seen back in the east advanced ahead of them then stopped over where the young child was.  Verse 12 says that in a dream from God, not Satan, they were warned to not return to King Herod as Herod had said they must do but instead to return to their home country by a different route. If the star of Bethlehem had been from Satan he would have sent the star to direct Herod to go at once and slay Jesus.  Also the obedience of the wise-men to what God told them to do proves that the wise-men obeyed God, not Satan. God could have stopped the wise-men from finding Jesus but Matthew 2:18 quotes a prophecy saying God knew Herod would be slaying young children.  To keep Jesus safe, God also gave Jesus' step-father Joseph a dream that warned him and Mary to flee with Jesus to Egypt.  Logically for this life-saving trip, money was needed. The wise-men had been aroused to go to Israel to find the new-born Jesus.  They had also been motivated to bring along gifts.  The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh were very valuable items, providing enough money to make the life-saving trip. So, who aroused the wise-men to go to Israel with valuable gifts to keep Jesus and his family safe?  Do you really think it was Satan the Devil as the Watchtower Society tells Jehovah’s Witnesses to teach themselves and others, or was it God Almighty the Father who loves Jesus Christ?   Should men who fail at such Bible basics be allowed to with impunity tell you, your loved ones and others how to run, ruin, wreck or actually destroy their lives?  Christ warns that we need to be alert that the blind not mislead the blind into stumbling into a pit.

THE MAGI (WISE-MEN)  In Biblical Greek the word "magoi" means wise men.  Depending upon the translator's bend, the  term can also be translated less positively as astrologer or magician.  The magi came from "anatolon" meaning the East, a term identified with nations spanning from Arabia to Persia (Iran). The Persians and in particular the Medes established the priestly caste of the magoi.  The magoi or Magi specialized in astronomy, medicine and religion although other such magi were also much involved with astrology and magic.  Words such as Magi, magician, magistrate, magnificient share a common root denoting for example that which is wondrous, of or from powerful knowledge. As said, the Magi were given especially set into power by the Medes who worked with the Persians.  The Magi were from the ethnic group that we now call the Kurds, a people who today reside largely in Mesopotami (Iraq) but also in Persia (Iran), and Turkey.  In general, the Magi of Persia were greatly admired for their intellect and religious attainments.  Those from Babylon (Mesopotamia/Iraq) were regarded in a negative manner, sometimes equated for example to astrologers and charlatans. The term magi itself comes from the Medo-Persians (early Iranians).  Early traditions for Syria give the Magi names that are Persian.   Second century Christian art in Roman catacombs shows them in Persian garments.  Most of the early church writers interpreted them as having been Persian (Iranian). For such reasons,  experts believe the three wise-men or Magi came from Persia, although some believe that they were from different lands.  Some speculations for other lands have been what are now Yemen, India or even China.  At the time of Christ's birth, those Magi who were in what is now Iran still held great religious influence as part of the empire of Parthia, the old empire of the Medes and Persians having long before turned over.  They knew that among Jews scattered in their region too, it was being said that the Messiah was to be born. Spotting the movement of a heavenly object confirmed what they were hearing.  The word usually translated as star from Koine or Biblical Greek can also refer, for example, to a comet.  Given earth's rotation they "followed it" east to satisfy their curiosity about the foretold new King. As can be seen, all the sources from over the many centuries have agreed upon the number of the Magi or Wise Men.  They all say there were three.  This has nothing to do with the "three" of the trinity doctrine, a wildly off-the-mark speculation by the Watchtower Society over Jehovah's Witnesses. One reason why they are said to have been three in number is that they bore three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  However, there are many other reasons why "three" is said to be the number. Christians in Syria to this day call the Magi by the three names Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas.  Unlike names given for them in the West and Ethiopia, these names do resemble actual names in the language of the Persians. However, from what may be a sixth-century Syrian source, cited by the Zoroastrian scholar Dariush Jahanian, come the Persian names of: “Hormizdah king of Persia, Yazdegerd King of Saba, and Perozadh King of Sheba." The explorer Marco Polo reported that he was shown the three tombs of the Magi during the 1270s.  This was at what is now called Saveh, which he transcribed as Saba, located south of Tehran, the capital of modern Iran.  Polo said that at the time there were three “very large and beautiful monuments, side by side. And above them there is a square building, beautifully kept. The bodies are still entire, with hair and beard remaining.” Germany has the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral.  Saint Helena lived from about 248 to 330 A.D.  She was the mother of Constantine I, and she is said to have had the remains of the three Magi transported from Persia to Constantinople, from which they later went to Milan, Italy, before finally going to Germany.