Ringo writes:
So you agree that most of the people never saw any "star"? That's what I've been saying.
And I've been saying that you also need to read the story while considering the way people wrote down things in the ancient world.
Helen was the most beautiful woman on Earth and everybody knew this. Paris was the most beautiful man on Earth and everybody knew this. Troy was the most blessed city on Earth and everyone knew this.
Are we honestly going to point out that the regular Hittite peasant knew who the hell Helen or Paris was or what the City of Troy looked like? Or are we going to read it for what it was, a myth that probably was based partly on a real event and place with lots of exaggerations?
All I'm saying is what if it was a very faint but newly appeared "star" and the wise men happenned to be the only ones that noticed it? Let's look at the story passage by passage.
quote:
3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
Again, did everybody know who the bitch Helen was or the dumbass Paris was? And yet, everybody supposedly knew that these were the two most beautiful people in the world. Why nitpick the "all Jerusalem with him" part?
quote:
7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
Herod didn't ask the Magi to tell him where the star was because he couldn't see it. He asked them when it appeared.
Let me ask you something. If tonight a new star appears in the sky would YOU notice it by yourself or would you only notice it after someone else (probably who observes the heavens everynight) pointed it out to you?
quote:
9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
Ok... so we know it's impossible for any star to be directly on any one particular location on Earth. Still, I see this as nothing more than an exaggeration, if not total fabrication.
quote:
A fable doesn't need embellishment any more than the truth does.
What do you mean? Without embellishment, the Illiad would be just another war story... if that.
If there was such an event as the virgin birth and if there was such an event as the wise men visiting the newborn Jesus, I'd imagine that it would be a really boring story if told accordingly.
Disclaimer:
Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.
He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!
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