The JWs challenged me to read the story for myself instead of believing what I was told.
The first thing I noticed was that God makes the first move by sending the Angel Gabriel to tell some Jewish shepherds that he has been born and to go and see him.
And yet today we have what's called the nativity scene which shows the wise men instead of the jewish shepherds. We know from scripture that the wise men did not show up untill around 2 yrs later. And that was only the first mistake that I found.
Scripture is not in error. What is in error is the traditions that have grown up around Christmas. It was absolutely not winter. Shepherds are not that stupid. They don't sit around in the snow. It was much more likely in September.
I saw a movie last Christmas that went back to the Bible itself. When the wise men showed up, the family was living in a house and yes, Jesus was a toddler, not a baby.
There were almost certainly many more than 3 "wise men". They would have had an entourage of servants and an armed escort. The "3" comes from the number of gifts offered, not from what the Bible says about the men. That the men were of high office and highly influential is obvious from the fact that Herod met with them.
I saw a movie last Christmas that went back to the Bible itself. When the wise men showed up, the family was living in a house and yes, Jesus was a toddler, not a baby.
There were almost certainly many more than 3 "wise men". They would have had an entourage of servants and an armed escort. The "3" comes from the number of gifts offered, not from what the Bible says about the men. That the men were of high office and highly influential is obvious from the fact that Herod met with them.