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Showing posts from December, 2018

Kings, Magi, Diviners, Herod - what is it all about?

After we finish our celebrations at Christmas and make our new year promises and plans there is a time called Epiphany where we celebrate the visit of the Kings to the babe.   We all know there were three of them don’t we. There must be because I have been to Cologne Cathedral and seen their relics. It’s obvious isn’t it? Except of course it isn’t. They are only mentioned in Matthew and don’t seem to be present in Luke at all, not to mention Mark or John who don’t actually mention the birth narrative.   Matthew doesn’t refer to them as Kings. He doesn’t even say how many there were. Actually, they appear to be magi, from which we get the modern word magicians. In Jesus’ time then there were court officials from another country who would have used the art of divination and astrology to determine the influence of the stars and thus look for political portents.  How does that sit with some of the more contemporary evangelical Christian discourses that seem all powerf