Theologian in Training Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 I do not want this to end up in the Debate Table nor do I want it to end up in the Transmundane Lane, because I am not looking for any proofs or arguments (maybe a little justification, but that is it). I am trying to write my Q&A for the bulletin and I am having a hard time writing it. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Si senor. Because the bible told me so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prose Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Hmmm. I never questioned it. I always assumed that they were historically real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmotherofpirl Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 IF the star was real why wouldn't the magi be real? It probably took them a year or so to travel, but that is no reason to doubt the story... Here's the earliest preserved meditation on Matthew's star of Bethlehem story, by Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Ephesians in the early second century: CHAPTER 19 19:1 And hidden from the prince of this world were the virginity of Mary and her child-bearing and likewise also the death of the Lord -- three mysteries to be cried aloud -- the which were wrought in the silence of God. 19:2 How then were they made manifest to the ages? A star shone forth in the heaven above all the stars; and its light was unutterable, and its strangeness caused amazement; and all the rest of the constellations with the sun and moon formed themselves into a chorus about the star; but the star itself far outshone them all; and there was perplexity to know whence came this strange appearance which was so unlike them. 19:3 From that time forward every sorcery and every spell was dissolved, the ignorance of wickedness vanished away, the ancient kingdom was pulled down, when God appeared in the likeness of man unto newness of everlasting life; and that which had been perfected in the counsels of God began to take effect. Thence all things were perturbed, because the abolishing of death was taken in hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I had no idea this was even a question.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IcePrincessKRS Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I always believed they were real. When I saw this thread I got a little nervous and started thinking maybe I'm the only moron and they're actually just symbolic or some story someone made up. Don't scare me like that. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sojourner Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I'm interested to hear from the person who thinks they're symbolic ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socrates Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 (edited) They're real. It's often a small step from declaring particular events and characters in the Gospels to be myths or "symbolic" to a "Modernist" interpretation in which much of the Gospel is dismissed as fable or symbolic, including Christ's divinity and Resurrection. Edited January 4, 2007 by Socrates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moneybags Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 [b]They are real. [/b] Pope Benedict XVI prayed before their relics in Cologne, Germany during World Youth Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N/A Gone Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Many people think they are a mid-rash, just a rephrasing of the shepards story... Common evangelical belief Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartjp2 Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Um, exactly what I was thinking, St. Benedict. How could they not have been real if we have their relics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesChristi Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Real. [quote]Many people think they are a mid-rash, just a rephrasing of the shepards story... Common evangelical belief[/quote] Images of the wise men dated from the beginning of the second century can be found painted in the catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome. It seems that folks back then considered them to be real, and Catholics still do today. Another example of the saying, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N/A Gone Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 The mid rash would not have been developed in time, rather something Matthew used to describe the wise men as a midrash for the sheperads is just a theory that neither of us can prove and I do not see as mattering to soteriology Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 [quote name='Revprodeji' post='1155585' date='Jan 3 2007, 08:28 PM'] Many people think they are a mid-rash, just a rephrasing of the shepards story... Common evangelical belief [/quote] I would hardly say "common." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socrates Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 [quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1155638' date='Jan 3 2007, 10:43 PM'] I would hardly say "common." [/quote] I'd say more common among modernists and liberal protestants than Evangelicals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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