Does The Bible Really Say....

No. But Revelation 4:10 does say the 24 elders "will cast their crowns before the throne..."

The magi brought gifts-- 3 gifts are mentioned-- but we are not given the specific quantity of magi, nor are they called "wise men" in that story; though twice elsewhere "wise men" is a term in the NT.

 

If your intention is to get technical about what scripture does not say, it does not say the magi did not see Jesus in the stable, nor does it say they saw him in a house some time after his birth.

 

Mathew 2:11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

It can be assumed that it was some time later since they were in a house, the magi needed travel time and had to search, and Herod had all male children under 2 put to death.

Mathew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.(esv)

 

Then why did you "go beyond what is written" by saying "Nor did they see Jesus in the stable but in a house quite some time after His birth"? As has been pointed out, "it can be assumed...", but scripture does not SAY that. If you take issue with it being pointed out that a statement you made was an assumption from scripture, and not what scripture says, then why begin such a topic?

 

*Ahem* What stable are you referring to? I see a feed trough in the narrative, but I see no stable.

Quite some time, you say? Reckoning like Herod, who timed the birth of Christ from the Wise Men's viewing of the star? But where does the Bible say that God did not show them the star months or years in advance of the birth of Jesus?

It doesn't say that. Folks just assume it. I happen to think that he started the Wise Men early so that they could get there on Christmas night. In fact, I saw a picture of it in my Bible when I was little.

 

Maybe you can see how these assumptions and conclusions arise-- I said nothing at all about a stable in any of my posts in this thread; it was Pipedude that said there was no stable mentioned.

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Not absolutely positively so. We have no idea what day [or days] the magi were in the same house with the "young child." So there is a probability of 0.00274 that that day was (by our calendar) Decembler 25. If they were there as long as a week, the probability is 0.019. If this mutual visit was a month (30days), the probability is 0.0822. So-- to state definitively that "is...wrong in thinking that the magi were present on Christmas" is anohter reasonable assumption, but it cannot be stated as logical truth. The only thing that can change these probabilities would be if evidence can be shown that a certain day, month, or season was more or less likely for the event to have occured therein.

Alright-- this the correct approach, since Matthew 2:1 denotatively states that after Jesus was born the magi arrived. Right idea!

You are back to assumptions. All we know is that Jesus was born in Bethelehem. Matthew does not say where the magi found Jesus, other than the star "stood over the place where the child was." Perhaps this one is a surprise to many, but no scripture says the magi found Jesus at Bethelehem, no matter how old he was when they found him; nor is any location given as to the place in which Joseph had the dream and from which he took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt.

It's not absolutely true that they were not that fast :laugh: .

 

How could they put the picture it in my Bible if it weren't true?

Rats! You got me.

I can't even put them in Bethlehem on Christmas Day, since they came to Jerusalem after Jesus' birth and they followed a star from there to Bethlehem, which implies a dark sky.

So the best I can do is to put them in Jerusalem on Christmas Day and then they made the short trip to Bethlehem that evening and found the Holy Family in the "chamber" (oikos) they made for themselves in the stable. And the shepherds came back for the group photo.

It's in the Greek.

 

That does not line up with the premise of this -- your-- thread here, which you entitled "Does The Bible Really Say...." You wish to begin this, and then go to assumptions anyway. That's a reason for denominationalism, disagreement as to what can be assumed or concluded from scripture [though not as much of a reason than as to how 'seriously' scripture should be taken].

I think that I had.

 

..Gotcha..