it's as easy as looking at wiki to discover that there was trade and communication between the Persian & Chinese regions at least 100 BC -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Persian_relations
the silk road existed as far back as the Han dynasty, 200+ BC
written, detailed Chinese history goes back ~ 5,000 years, and shows a rich tradition of astronomical observation. ancient China was also monotheistic, and held wisdom in high cultural value. without going into any serious historical poking around ((definitely not post's forte)) there's ample reason to presume that in addition to goods, knowledge and philosophy was transmitted between the east and the west. it's plausible that the lore and prophecies of Daniel, who was very great in Babylonian mystical & sagacious society, could have made its way to China - there's motive & opportunity in the shared cultural value of concern for heavenly things and astronomy between Babylon/Persia & China, and the existence of the silk road.
the biggest factor for me in coming to the conclusion that some of the magi could have been Chinese is as i previously intimated, the time factor - i think Herod's '2 years old' decision gives us a pretty good idea of how long it was between observation of the sign in the heavens and the magi's arrival in Judea, and it's hard for me to imagine why a trip from Babylon to Jerusalem would take that long at that time, with well established routes and probably persons of means being involved.
someone ((sorry i can't remember who offhand
)) shared a video of a sermon teaching about links between Chinese writing and the Bible not too long ago, which i found absolutely fascinating -- and which corroborates some of my thinking about this. in the sermon, the teacher muses that knowledge of the truth about creation would have come from descendancy through Noah to the founders of the Chinese race & empires, which makes sense, but it doesn't exclude the sharing of wisdom & knowledge from the Levant with the East through other means.
it's a couple hours to watch both of these, if you have the time, but even without it's relationship to what we're discussing here, i really really really recommend having a listen to the information in these videos; i think you especially would enjoy them:
God in ancient China part 1:
part 2:
there's some weird pseudo-prosperity-gospel stuff at the end of part 2, especially, but set that aside and take in the information this guy's presenting.
he does mention both prophecy and astronomical observation of signs in the heavens, in ancient Chinese records that corroborates the birth of Christ -- IIRC that's in part 2 -- but i encourage you to watch both, so you have the context of part 1 to see what he is saying in part 2.
i already had the possibly-Chinese-view before i saw these, and they reinforced it for me, and present information much better than i could.
the silk road existed as far back as the Han dynasty, 200+ BC
written, detailed Chinese history goes back ~ 5,000 years, and shows a rich tradition of astronomical observation. ancient China was also monotheistic, and held wisdom in high cultural value. without going into any serious historical poking around ((definitely not post's forte)) there's ample reason to presume that in addition to goods, knowledge and philosophy was transmitted between the east and the west. it's plausible that the lore and prophecies of Daniel, who was very great in Babylonian mystical & sagacious society, could have made its way to China - there's motive & opportunity in the shared cultural value of concern for heavenly things and astronomy between Babylon/Persia & China, and the existence of the silk road.
the biggest factor for me in coming to the conclusion that some of the magi could have been Chinese is as i previously intimated, the time factor - i think Herod's '2 years old' decision gives us a pretty good idea of how long it was between observation of the sign in the heavens and the magi's arrival in Judea, and it's hard for me to imagine why a trip from Babylon to Jerusalem would take that long at that time, with well established routes and probably persons of means being involved.
someone ((sorry i can't remember who offhand
)) shared a video of a sermon teaching about links between Chinese writing and the Bible not too long ago, which i found absolutely fascinating -- and which corroborates some of my thinking about this. in the sermon, the teacher muses that knowledge of the truth about creation would have come from descendancy through Noah to the founders of the Chinese race & empires, which makes sense, but it doesn't exclude the sharing of wisdom & knowledge from the Levant with the East through other means. it's a couple hours to watch both of these, if you have the time, but even without it's relationship to what we're discussing here, i really really really recommend having a listen to the information in these videos; i think you especially would enjoy them:
God in ancient China part 1:
part 2:
there's some weird pseudo-prosperity-gospel stuff at the end of part 2, especially, but set that aside and take in the information this guy's presenting.
he does mention both prophecy and astronomical observation of signs in the heavens, in ancient Chinese records that corroborates the birth of Christ -- IIRC that's in part 2 -- but i encourage you to watch both, so you have the context of part 1 to see what he is saying in part 2.
i already had the possibly-Chinese-view before i saw these, and they reinforced it for me, and present information much better than i could.
BTW...the ominous gravitas of the situation in Matt 2 cannot be overstated.
A sizeable Parthian military force (whom the Romans never conquered) along with duly constituted civil governmental authorities show up in Jerusalem demanding to know where is the King of the Jews. Knowing full well that Herod is the sitting king of course. The otherwise murderous and intensely dictatorial Herod appeases the Parthian forces in order to avoid an international incident with the powerful Parthian kingdom.
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