5 Things You Never Knew About The Three Wise Men

The Three Wise Men Were Not From Persia 

There has been much scholastic debate over the geographic origins of the wise men. We are told they come from “the east” and many people have used that and the term magi that Matthew uses to place them as coming from Persia/Parthia. However, as Longenecker shows, their visit to King Herod is strong evidence that they were actually Nabataeans, an Arab people living in what is now Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The Nabataeans, builders of the stone city of Petra that you might have seen in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, became increasingly involved in political events in Roman Palestine through the years, and therefore would have been very interested in the birth of the king of the Jews. Herod himself was brought up in the court of the Nabataean royal family, another strong indicator that what we thought we knew about the wise men is not as rooted in history as the facts are.

Tags: Dwight Longenecker, Mystery of the Magi