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the the magi or the three kings or the

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three wise men as as the tradition has

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come down to us um

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were originally uh shamans or witch

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doctors in ancient uh babylon in in in

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present-day iran and iraq um when i say

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ancient i'm talking about 5000 bc

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they were actually in those very

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primitive tribes they were the

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soothsayers the shamans the witch

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doctors uh the men of wisdom the men of

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lore the men of medicine and so forth in

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that primitive society they eventually

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became

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um

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a kind of cast of uh

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specialized

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wise men the one the masters of

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knowledge the masters of tradition the

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masters of the myth the masters of the

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medicine the masters of uh

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interpreting dreams they were

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astrologers they read the heavens and

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tried to foretell the future

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and they had a very important place in

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the court in babylon

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in the ancient in the old testament book

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of daniel for instance daniel is

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portrayed as one of the magi one of the

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wise men in the courts of babylon

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because he could interpret dreams

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and these magi

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became a very influential part of the

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babylonian culture

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eventually

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which in details i explained in the book

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they were persecuted and they um fled

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from babylon and they

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uh

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migrated to various other parts of the

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ancient world in the ancient middle east

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so by the time of matthew's writing just

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after the

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life of jesus

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magi was a generalized term for any

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um

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[Music]

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courtier any sort of steward in the

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household of the king who was

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responsible for keeping the archives for

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keeping the prophecies for keeping the

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wisdom for keeping the old lore alive

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for maintaining the religion for

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interpreting dreams

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reading the stars foretelling the future

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every court in the ancient world had

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these wise men and priests who were the

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religious men the wise men to uh

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interpret the future and

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in my book i explained how the

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wise men the magi in the court of the

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nabataean king in uh

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western arabia

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were the ones who were astrologers and

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astronomers who for who could tell from

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the signs in the heavens that a new

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newborn a newborn king of the jews had

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been born and they're the ones who then

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traveled i believe at the behest of the

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king of uh the nabataeans to king herod

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to look for this new king

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and they would be followers of the old

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testament

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all of the meije

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the magi would have been aware of the

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prophecies of the old testament they

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would have understood the prophecies

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especially of isaiah pointing to the

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messiah but they would also have been

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aware of the prophecies from persia

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and from the other the rest of the

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ancient world about this

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new this new um

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leader or king that was going to be to

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arise from judea and those prophecies

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from say persia are not in the old

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testament they're in something else

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no they're in they would be in the

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writings of of of the of the assyrians

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and the babylonians

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uh-huh and and what did it mean for them

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well

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again the prophecies are always awarded

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in an ambiguous and in a vague way it's

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difficult to interpret them properly but

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the the magi i believe understood the

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prophecies from these various different

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cultures as well as the jewish culture

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uh and when they read the signs in the

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heavens they believed that this newborn

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king of the jews had arrived

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and so we you believe the story is

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correct that they visited the baby jesus

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yes

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and and

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they were directed through

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um astronomy

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yeah the typical um

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legend that we have today is that they

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were from a far away land probably india

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or china or you know persia and they

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followed a magical star across the

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desert sands on their camels on a long

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long journey to find this baby jesus in

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fact that element of the story isn't in

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matthew's gospel at all

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that element of the story has been added

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was added mostly in the third and fourth

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century as the rivarious apocryphal

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gospels extra gospels written

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about the wise men and about various

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other aspects of jesus life

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and in some of those um really bizarre

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and outlandish stories there is this

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really highly magical element in which

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for instance

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these um

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eccentric and and bizarre visitors from

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a foreign land from a far away land see

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a burning baby that's floating in the

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sky and leads them like a star across

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the desert sands and provides miracles

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for them every step of the journey it's

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a very extravagant and

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highly embroidered and highly

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fantastical tale which has been written

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and these were written in the third and

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fourth centuries about the magi and

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about the the the stories about jesus

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birth which have nothing to do with

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matthew's gospel their embroideries and

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elaborations on the story mm-hmm

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so instead uh i've nonetheless

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i mean

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what caused them to think that jesus was

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special to cause them to go visit him

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this is pretty complicated it gets into

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the intricacies of

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astrology in the ancient world

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basically there were

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about three different theories of

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astrology persian egyptian and greek

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and these were ways that the wise men

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from the different cultures would study

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the movements of the planets study the

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stars and through various symbolic

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readings which we understand for

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instance with um

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the horoscope you know and and so for

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different signs in the heavens um you

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can foretell the future so they thought

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and

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the theory is that the wise men

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studied the movements of the planets and

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there were certain movements of the

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planets and the all the planets

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symbolized something so each of the

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constellations for instance represented

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different nations and different peoples

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on earth

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and which ones represented which nations

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vary from the egyptian to the persian to

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the greek but anyway the theory is that

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they would have read the movement of

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certain planets like jupiter which is

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the which is the royal planet moving

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into the house of

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ares the ram the constellation of ares

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the ram which represented um jude the

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nation of the jews and therefore

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therefore they saw

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that

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a new king would be born into the jewish

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nation and this was such an unimportant

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and unusual movement that it was

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something which never happened before

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therefore it was unique and they

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therefore discerned and drew the

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conclusion that

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there would be a newborn king of the

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jews

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so

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this is just one theory there are lots

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of different theories about the

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different constellations some are very

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extravagant and detailed for instance

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some noticed that the planet jupiter was

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not only moving into the constellation

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aries but it was moving into the

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constellation aries by coming through

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the constellation virgo the virgin

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so therefore this uh king that was

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coming into the house of the jews would

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come through the virgin they actually

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some some um prognosticators actually

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try to show that the the planet jupiter

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was not only moving through the virgin

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but moving through the constellation

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virgo in the aspect of where the

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virgin's womb would be in other words

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through her belly and then down through

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her pelvis showing that jupiter was

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moving through the virgins uh womb

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and through the virgin's birth canal to

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come into then move into then the

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constellation aries which was the

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constellation associated with the jews

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so they didn't have gps at the time

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so how through reading the stars can

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they get

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precisely to

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baby jesus

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well there again the gospel of matthew

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does not say that the the star led them

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step by step we know the stars don't

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move planets move appear to move but uh

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planets move but stars don't move

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but however in the ancient world they

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didn't distinguish between stars and

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planets all of the heavenly bodies were

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called stars okay so

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um again there's lots of different

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theories about what actually happened

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the one which seems most convincing to

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me is that this they saw this planet

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moving and it says the car the st the

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star rested over the place where the

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young child was

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and there is a certain movement within

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astronomy which is pro called um

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precession

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where a planet moves but in relationship

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with the movement of the earth it seems

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to actually stop and move backwards

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because of the it's in conjunction with

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the movement of the earth and the people

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who study these these things say that

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this planet uh

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the wise men perceived that the planet

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moved and then stopped over bethlehem

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and that's where they that's how they

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knew that that's where the child would

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be born

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and at the end of the day

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what is important about

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these uh magi

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wise men kings

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visiting

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the baby jesus why is it important

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well it's important

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in in my opinion because

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because of the legends that grew up

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about the wise men the magical star

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coming from far far away lands i mean

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some of the stories were so extravagant

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and so fantastical but these are the

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stories from the third and fourth

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century three or four hundred years

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after jesus is born which have actually

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come into the western tradition in other

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words they came into the western

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tradition of the greek church and the

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roman church and then into western

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europe and into our civilization today

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so we now accept the pictures of wise

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men on camels making a long trip across

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the desert sands following a magical

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star

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that's not in matthew's gospel that was

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added three or four hundred years later

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and because of that a lot of modern

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people say oh yeah that story about the

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three kings and their wonderful gifts

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and following the magical star that's

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all fairy tale that was just out a lot

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later there's no historical basis to it

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and in my book i'm trying to say no

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actually when you look at matthew's

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gospel itself and look at the politics

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and the geography and the economics and

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um what's going on in the ancient middle

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east at that time it's a very credible

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story that these wise men could very

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well have made a trip to visit this