Shawn Ryan

He was going to elevate the Jewish nation above every other nation.

He was going to create this Jewish culture that dominates and that rules the world and so forth.

He was going to be the Messiah, their answer to all that.

But here come the Magi, pagans, Gentiles.

They come to do what?

To worship the baby Jesus, the child Jesus.

That theological significance is Jesus was not—he is for the Jewish people, but it goes beyond that, that Jesus is the Savior not just of the Jewish people, but for all humankind.

Even these magi who were Gentiles, who were pagans, even they came, sinners who came to worship

They were included in God's plan of redemption.

That, to me, was a real eye-opening thing of these magi showing up to pay homage to Jesus.

They probably did.

A lot of scholars believe, well, they had to finance their trip to Egypt because they were avoiding Herod, who wanted to kill all the children who may be the threatening messiah.

And so how did they finance their trip to Egypt?

Some scholars believe they took the gold that they got and fortuitously sold that so they could go off and protect themselves from the evil intentions of King Herod.

Well, based on when that star first appeared, Herod,

said i'm going to kill all the male children in bethlehem up to the age of what was it um two i think it was so um

That gives some idea of the time frame.

Now, one of the criticisms you hear from skeptics is to say, well, wait a minute.

You're telling me that King Herod goes in and kills all these kids under the age of two in Bethlehem and nobody else in history reports it?

I mean, shouldn't Josephus, the historian from the first century, have said something about this?