Seeking Truth: The Journey of the Magi

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"And it wasn't a sweetly singing o 'er the plain that the shepherds experienced, it was this stunning, shocking event. They were scared. They were scared to death, quaking their boots, and it was just this amazing event. And all of the events of the Christmas season are like that. They were not expected in the way they came about, and so they would have set people back on their heels in wonder." [00:00:50] (23 seconds)


"People have spent much time trying to figure out exactly what it was that the wise men saw in the sky, and we need to talk a little bit about the dates, first of all. We think of 0 BC as the year in which Jesus was born, but it actually wasn't. The monk that set our calendar in place centuries later got the calculations wrong." [00:02:30] (21 seconds)


"There are charlatans and petty conjurers, those who delve into black arts, men of vile character without moral grounding. But here in Persia, such is the association. The esteem of the magi that no one is deemed worthy to become king, who has not first mastered the understanding and discipline of this caste." [00:05:39] (23 seconds)


"Jupiter is the planet of royalty, he intoned, and Saturn has long been held to represent Israel. Can this sign mean anything other than a new king rising among the Jewish people? Another of the Magi, old, ordinarily stately in his learning, tumbled forth words in frustrated eagerness. There it is in the sky, there it is in the fish, right where the sun ends its old course and makes a new beginning." [00:09:03] (35 seconds)


"These were men devoted to learning, devoted to teasing out mysteries. They were committed to mapping not just the stars, but the course of divine influence in the affairs of men. How could they back away from such an opportunity, such a calling? Bags were packed for Judea." [00:10:41] (23 seconds)


"And how could I fail to welcome the sovereign whose kingdom will be established whether I bow the knee or not? What fool would I be not to pay him? And these magi lived their convictions, bringing with them exquisite gifts to place before the king, gifts of honor and reverence, wealth, and" [00:11:35] (27 seconds)


"Here was a king who had commended himself to the conquering Romans, receiving from them the designation King of the Jews, gaining for himself a position that his own lineage could never have supported, for Herod was himself but a half -Jew, and certainly did not come from the royal line of Hasmoneans. Forcibly, he had married into that family, and then overcome by suspicions, he had executed successive family members, eventually sending his own wife to her death." [00:14:28] (36 seconds)


"King Herod himself then granted us audience. But secretly, I attended on my master, fearing the worst. But we were greeted warmly. Herod was most gracious, eagerly inquiring for more information about this newly born king. What did we know and exactly when? Was it that the child had been born, that this star had first appeared?" [00:16:41] (27 seconds)


"Frankincense, accoutrement of worship. And myrrh, exquisite, fragrant ointment for embalming the dead. Light glinted from the gold. The close air filled with" [00:20:47] (19 seconds)


"These magi, interpreters of dreams, were wakened in the night with divine messages warning them to avoid Herod and return home by another route. And so we did. The dream itself accentuating the message of the stars. And on route home, my master recited often a poem he had gleaned in Jerusalem from the Jewish scriptures." [00:21:52] (29 seconds)


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