Merry Christmas!

What are you supposed to say? Is it "Happy Festivus" or "Merry Festivus?"

Whatever. I hope everyone's having a great day.

Got up late this morning (it's amazing to me how quickly I become nocturnal when I don't have to work for a couple of days. Sometimes I think I might have Transylvanian ancestry, if you know what I mean). When I finally did get up, I opened the presents my Mom mailed down to me.

Thanks, Mom!

Hawaii won last night, beat UAB, so now I have two wins in the football pool. But then, so does everybody else. There're no games today or tomorrow (NFL weekend), but I can pick up one game against the Witch Doctor Monday with a Toledo win over UConn, but it might be the 29th or 30th before I can catch up, or even pass him.


The Gospel According to Saint Matthew

. . . Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."

When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel."

Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also."

When they heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented him with gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.


I'll bet they did. Those wise men were no dummies. But who were they? Exactly where "east of Jerusalem" were they from?

My theory is they were Buddhists. Buddhism had been around for about 500 years at the time of Jesus' birth, and had spread from India all along the Silk Road. Between the second century B.C. and it's height around A.D. 150, the Kushan Empire controlled a territory that included all of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and most of Northern India, as well as parts of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Buddhism flourished under the Kushans. So there was a great Buddhist kingdom east of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' birth.

Granted, there were other kingdoms as well. But the hallmark of Buddhism is prajna, or wisdom. So the "wise men" would most likely have come from that eastern kingdom where wisdom was practiced. It's worth noting that the Buddha's enlightenment came upon seeing the morning star as he was sitting under the bodhi tree. It is not at all far-fetched to imagine that Judeans had heard stories of men from the east who gained wisdom watching stars (the wise men "rejoiced with exceeding great joy" upon seeing the star, not necessarily upon finding the young child). I'm sure that by the time of Jesus, word of the "wisdom from the east" had reached Jerusalem. Although, as far as I know, Buddhism never got established in their area, I propose that the "wise men from the east" was how Judeans refered to Buddhist practioners from the Kushan Empire.

I read the first chapter of Matthew as an attempt to legitimize the legacy of Jesus. The first chapter contains a genealogy establishing a direct lineage from Abraham to David to Jesus. "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations (Chapter I, verse 17)." This establishes for the "children of Israel" that there is no question that Jesus was in their lineage, was one of their kind.

But how to establish legitimacy to the outside world? What better way than to get the blessing of those star-gazing wise men from the east that they had heard about? Thus, we get the second chapter of Matthew, quoted above.

It is interesting to note that the Chinese Buddhists used much the same technique to legitimize their school of Buddhism by establishing the lineage of dharma transmission. According to this lineage, Bodhidharma, the great sage who brought what was to become Chan Buddhism to China, was the 28th patriarch after the Buddha. Halfway between the Buddha and Bodhidharma was Nagaruna, the 14th patriarch. The Buddha's teachings occurred around 500 B.C. and Bodhidharma arrived in China around A.D. 500, so Nagaruna, halfway between the Buddha and Bodhidharma, must have lived around the time of Jesus.

Whether or not wise men from the Kushan Empire or elsewhere actually showed up in Bethlehem is totally irrelevant. However, the story probably resonated with the early Christians as they spread the teaching because it offered a kind of "stamp of approval" by the fabled "wise kingdom of the east."

However, I think Christ's teaching stands on its own merit, without the need for Eastern legitimacy:

"Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matthew, Chapter VI, verses 25-29)."