Did the three wise men visit the manger or not?

Answer

The bible says that wise men visited the manger. It does not say how many. Matthew Chapter 2, verse 1.

Answer

Actually, that depends upon how you want to read your Bible ...

On a literal level: no, the Wise Men did not visit the manger. The story of the Wise Men is told in Matthew. Here's the relevant passages, Matthew 1:24-2:1 and 2:9-11:

"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem [...]

"After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh."

In other words, Matthew doesn't even *have* a manger in it. Jesus is born in Joseph's home, which is in Bethlehem, and the Wise Men visit Jesus there.

The manger, as we know it, appears only in Luke, and the Wise Men aren't mentioned there. In Luke, they go to Bethlehem for a census, and live in Nazareth. Because there is no room at the inn, Mary lays the child in a manger. Angels announce his birth to local shepherds, and tell the shepherds where to find Jesus. There's no mention of a star in Luke, either.

The popular reading is that these two "complete" each other, i.e. neither tells the whole story, but the reader must piece together the whole tale (which is a pretty shoddy way to tell a story, IMO). "Home" in Matthew is interpreted as Joseph's "ancestral home," i.e. Bethlehem is the home of the line of David, and the events in Matthew are said to take place *around* the events in Luke--so the star is shining in Luke, even though it isn't mentioned, and they laid him in a manger in Matthew, even though there's nothing in Matthew about the manger.

But even then, there's debate as to whether the Wise Men went to the manger. At my wife's Lutheran church, they don't place the Wise men in the Nativity scene, because they don't believe the Wise Men were at the manger, but instead came later (at their "home"). For that reason, the Wise Men aren't in the Nativity in our home, either; instead, they're on a nearby shelf, "traveling" :).

Answer

It does not depend on how you read your Bible. It is not up to you to decide what the Bible says or means. The Bible can only be read one way. It means what it says! It is absolute truth. It's God's Holy Word.

No. The wise men never visited the manger scene as many Christmas plays, cards, or pictures may display. Luke 2 depicts how the shepherds were at the manger scene, but the wise men were only mentioned in Matthew 2. The wise men came from the far east when they saw the star which appeared when Christ was born. With the distance that the wise men traveled from the Persian Empire, the journey could have taken up to 2 years. When the wise men finally arrived before the Christ child, He was with His mother in a "house" not a stable or manger scene. Furthermore, Matthew 2:8,9 depicts Christ to be a "young child" not a "babe" as it says in Luke 2. In the Greek, "young child" is defined as a young boy or infant, around the age of a toddler. Therefore, the group of wise men came to Jesus Christ as a young boy and worshiped Him as the One true Messiah, God Himself who came to save all men from their sin by dying on the cross and rising from the dead three days later. He did this for you and for me!

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