The magi
Michael Wright reflects on biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus
What a fantastic story it is (Matthew 2:1-12): of wise men from the East journeying to Jerusalem and asking to know where the child is who has been born king of the Jews, so they could pay him homage. We have all known this and the other birth stories of Jesus for many years and, perhaps, in the past, unquestioningly accepted them as quasi-historical accounts with imaginative extras. They are now commonly acknowledged by biblical scholars to be fictions. The accounts in Matthew and Luke, astonishing and momentous in each case, are inconsistent with each other and include so many improbable features.
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