What can we learn from the real story of the "wise men"?

Strong in Him said:

"Astrologer" did not mean, in those days, what it means today; they were more like astronomers.
But they were Gentiles. The birth of Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, was not just for Jews.

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Ken Rank said:

There weren't 3, but it is the same "tradition" mindset to say 12. The bible doesn't give a number, so we need not apply one. All of Jerusalem of in a stir over them, so however many there were, it was enough to get a city's attention.

They showed up when he was closer to 2 years old, and to his HOUSE, they did NOT show up to the manger.

Lastly, these men knew the bible. They weren't blindly following a star (which has a number of possible meanings, by the way) but rather they saw signs that pointed to the birth of the biblically promised King... which meant they knew the bible. Since these men came from the same area Judah had been captive in, it is very possible if not likely they were descendants of those Daniel taught, or... we members of Judah (Jews) who didn't come home when Judah left the Babylonian (Persian by that time) captivity.

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nonaeroterraqueous said:

This is the only way I learned it. If you look it up in the etymological dictionary, you can trace the relationship between the word, magi and the words, magic and magician. They weren't necessarily necromancers, but they were diviners.

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