Yeah, I think that the notion of “three magi” just comes from the fact that there were three gifts, and it’s natural to assume one giver per gift.
Well, of course it will work, but only once.
Dan
2 years?? I guess when the star disappeared, they were kind of left in the dark as to their destination.
Just how much schooling can you buy with a fancy watch chain and some tortoiseshell combs?
When I was growing up my mother didn’t add the wise guys to the nativity scene until the 6th. That’s also the day the Christmas decorations came down.
If nothing else you learn to put reasonable limits on your Christmas spending budget.
For your spending - know when to cut…
To be honest, to me this sounds like something a modern-day preacher would make up, possibly under the impression of paying their child’s college tuition. The only event from Jesus’ childhood that the gospels tell us about is the Finding in the Temple - but the fact that Joseph and Mary were surprised by how learned Jesus was, rather indicates that they did not get him much of a formal education. The gospels also imply that Jesus worked as a carpenter before his ministry, which he would have learned as Joseph’s apprentice.
To be fair to the religion of my birth, the gospels are divinely inspired, and are the inerrant WORD OF GOD. I guess God only need one gospel to tell that particular detail.
(pay no attention to the contradictions behind the curtain)
Well, yeah, it probably was something a modern preacher made up. But you kind of make the point later in the paragraph: A carpenter’s son, in that time, probably wouldn’t have had much book-learning, because most folks back then couldn’t afford education.
Cite, though, on Jesus himself ever working as a carpenter?
Thanks for the tip.
No direct cite on this. But, per the gospels, Jesus doesn’t begin his public ministry, or otherwise do anything remarkable, until he is about 30; he must have done something to keep body and soul together before that time, and working at the family trade seems as reasonable an inference as any. The gospels also suggest that in his own community he was knows as the son of the carpenter, which suggests he hadn’t established any distinctive trade or profession of his own.
As to education, the gospels indicate that he could read, and don’t suggest that anyone found this surprising or remarkable, but people do comment on his preaching and expounding of scripture. I have read that in first-centry Palestine synagogues were expected to establishe and maintain schools where boy would to be taught to read and write at least to a level that would allow them to read scripture. I don’t know how true this is or how widely it was observed but, to the extent that it is true, a literate Jesus would not have been remarkable.
Oh, yeah, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising if he spent his early years in apprenticeship to his father. That’s probably the most likely scenario. I just don’t think that’s explicitly stated anywhere.
Well, there is Mk 6:2-3:
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”
Mt 13:54-56 has the same story, except that there he’s “the carpenter’s son”. Both versions associate him with the carpentry trade in the context of his family and relationships, highlighting that his vocation, as for many in that society, was more a matter of inheritance rather than an unconstrained career choice.
I don’t think the money was spent on lessons. The scholars were surprised, but I don’t think the fact that he was very learned would have come as a such a shock…unless he was taught at some secret school they knew nothing about.
My Dad didn’t take down the Xmas lights until Feb 1st. Is there some religious significance to that day?
Perhaps a neighborhood ordinance demanding he did so. 
Take this with a basketball-sized grain of salt, but there are stories of a “white” man traipsing all over the Americas preaching I-don’t-know-what to the Native Americans of both continents.
Yes, that’s from the von Däniken crowd.
Yup, Mark 6:3 was what I was thinking of (without recalling the exact location) when I said that the gospels imply he was a carpenter. They don’t explicitly say so, but they say that someone who seems to be familiar with Jesus’ background called him a carpenter. That’s a pretty good indication.
As for the Finding in the Temple, I always assumed that this story was meant to portray Jesus as divinely inspired - he was knowledgeable about theology without receiving formal training in it. If he had received formal training, Mary and Joseph would not have been surprised.