Scholars have provided different interpretations of who the ‘wise men’ were who visited Jesus soon after his birth.
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As Christmas approaches, Nativity scenes showing three wise men visiting the newborn Jesus are put up around the world. A scholar of Christian literature offers an explanation on their identity.
The Magi’s latter two gifts to Jesus were natural resins that are becoming increasingly rare.
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Trees that produce resin for frankincense and myrrh – used for thousands of years in healthcare, worship and trade – are facing collapsing populations.
Magic fascinated and troubled early Christians as much as it does some people today.
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A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is giving rise to speculations that it is the same astronomical event as the biblical Star of Bethlehem. An expert explains why it is not.
A doll representing the infant Jesus in St. Catherine’s, the Franciscan church in the town of Bethlehem.
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The differences in the Gospels are hard to reconcile. That’s because, says a scholar, they offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity.