Q&A Forum - January 2009 (best of Elise)

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And as far as the Wisemen are concerned, we all see the nativity scenes where the three Wisemen are in the stable presenting the baby Jesus with gifts. Those of the Christian faith were taught this story since childhood and most Christian adults believe it is factual. Yet, the very Bible that is the foundation for the Christian Faith does not substantiate this tradition. When one reads the Bible, one discovers that it never mentions how many Wisemen (or Magi) there actually were and in fact, by the time these Wisemen reached the child, he was approximately two years old and living in a house with his parents. They gave the child three gifts, thus people assume there must have been three Magi, but of course two men could give three gifts, as could ten men give a total of three gifts.

Some would argue that this is a minor detail in the big picture of religion. Perhaps, but this is but one of many examples of how people believe stories from their childhood and accepts them by faith throughout their adult lives, even when they read the passages every year in the Bible, which never claims how many Magi there were or that they were present at the time of birth.