I never understood this. They could've told Herod where the baby Jesus was but refused. If they were Satan's tool, they would've been thrilled to give the report.
If The Magi Were So Bad Why Did God Actually Use Them?
by minimus 14 Replies latest jw friends
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Walkin
Mini, I am curious. You ask questions about what the Bible says, do you actually believe those accounts as being true or are you asking for those that do believe?
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Leolaia
From a post last year on the Magi:
What is interesting about the Magi is that they constitute one out of many links between the Matthean story of the birth of Jesus and OT/haggadaic stories about the birth of Moses. Herod in the gospel narrative takes the place of Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh's advisors were identified in midrash as Magi (cf. Philo of Alexandria, Vita Mosis 1.92; b. Sanhedrin 101a; Midrash Rabbah 1.9), and one of these Magi was Balaam son of Beor (cf. Eusebius, Supplementa Quaestionum ad Stephanum; b. Sotah 11a; Sefer Zikhronot 44.9; cf. Diodore of Tarsus on Balaam as an astrologer), who was thought to be the ancestor of all the later Magi (cf. Origen, Homilies on Numbers 13.7; Eusebius, Supplementa Quaestionum ad Stephanum), and whose servants or sons were two other magicians of Pharaoh, Jannes and Jambres (cf. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Exodus 1:15-16 & Numbers 22:22, Sefer Zikhronot, 45.2, 47.6). The connection with Balaam is fascinating because not only do the Magi bless Jesus in a similar way that Balaam blesses Israel, but Balaam's own blessing prophesied a star and sceptre rising in Israel (Numbers 24:17). This was a popular messianic proof-text of the era (cf. Damascus Document 7:18-26, Testament of Levi 18:3, Josephus, Bellum Judaicum 6.312, and cf. Rabbi Aqiva's naming of Simon bar-Kochba as the messiah) and it also provided the exegetical basis of the star in Matthew's birth narrative (cf. Justin Martyr, Dialogue 106, Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.9.3, Origen, Contra Celsum 1.60).
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/168595/1/What-is-jw-theory-on-magi
The OT depicts God using the pagan soothsayer Balaam to deliver prophecy (later interpreted to be messianic), so it is not out-of-place for the author of Matthew to accord a prominent role to pagan Magi whose forerunner in Jewish tradition was Balaam; the Magi would thus have been familiar with Balaam's prophecy of a star rising in Israel.
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Luo bou to
Well they didn't do anything bad and their gifts may have financed the family's flight to Egypt. Just the WT slant on astrology
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Kenneson
The Watchtower Society wants to make pagans look bad and think they are used by Satan. But why would God use the shepherds, but Satan used the magi? Since when does Satan have mastery of the stars? The Watchtower Society doesn't even compare to the Magi, since they don't want us to focus on Jesus' birth. Who is REALLY being used by Satan?
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minimus
I ask these questions because the Watchtower says something that doesn't seem to make biblical sense.
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littlebird
It's just wt bolognia to scare people from Christmas.
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wobble
I found the story of the Magi one of the strangest in the Bible, because it is not presented as an allegory, but as a fact. So why is it there ?
I bow to Leolaia's great learning, but I do not think that Matthew wrote his gospel with an eye to previous literary form in a conscious way, of course he wrote the kind of thing that was expected by his readers to a degree, as we would, but not slavishly producing a story based on past works.
I think that the story teaches us that many people approach the divine in their own way, and are able to learn truths, without being a son of Abraham.
This is what Paul argued, that all can come to God, and He will welcome them. The Magi are not judged or condemned, just mentioned.
Jesus said he would judge on the basis of how you treated others, the Magi are an example of how to treat a prophet, pity the majority of the Jews of Jesus day died not follow their lead.
Love,
a rambling Wobble
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choosing life
Maybe because God likes all kinds of people.
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minimus
btt