You seem to want to base a lot on a little "if". Since no ziggurats are even mentioned in any gospel account, I don't understand your need to incorporate them. You must really need Kidger to be right....?
There would be no need to mention ziggurats. It is not at all out of the question that those reading Matthew would know about them. Matthew’s readers are clearly Christians but of a Jewish background, since he expects them to get all of the references to Jewish scriptures. There was a brisk caravan trade with Babylon, where there was a thriving Jewish community. These were the descendants of those who remained behind after the Babylonian Exile. It could be that some at least of Matthew’s readers would ‘get’ the hidden reference to ziggurats becoming a tool of the true God and not of the false Babylonian gods.
I do not require Kidger to be right. However if he is, it could turn what sounds like a fairy tale into a believable event. Part of my proposition was that Matthew may have come across records written by Wise Men concerning the trip to Jerusalem and the reasons for it. Even if Kidger is wrong, the Wise Men from the east idea could have been enough to prompt Matthew into his hidden reference, if such it is.
Anyone who reads scripture and thinks its a fairy tale is not going to come to Christ as the one who performed miracles by the power of God's spirit then are they? Since faith is a requirement, then do you really think God needs to provide what you seem to need as proof? Faith needs no proof.....nor does it need to save face in the presence of skeptics by presenting supernatural occurrences as "natural" phenomena. You dismantle God's power by doing that IMO.
Those who do not know much about scripture might be intrigued enough to look into Matthew for the first time ever. Being prepared to think of it as something other than a fairy tale could lead somewhere. Is that a problem?
The star wasn't just over Bethlehem. It first led them to Jerusalem where their inquiries soon reached Herod's ears. Only after Herod hatched his plot did the star go ahead of them to guide them directly to where Jesus was.
Matthew 2:9 (NASB)...."After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was."
Or as the Greek Interlinear says...."And de having listened akouō to the ho king basileus, they ho continued poreuō their journey , and kai the ho star astēr that hos they had seen in en its ho rising anatolē went proagō before them autos until heōs it stopped histēmi over epanō the place where hou the ho child paidion was eimi."
This star moved like no distant celestial body.....it came to a stop over the place where Jesus was. It virtually pointed an arrow at his house. That is a bit 'sus' to say the least. Kidger can't explain that as 'natural phenomenon'....can he?
Again, you are counting on an "if" that is not mentioned or even hinted at in scripture. You seem to need to put more store in what Kidger says than what the Bible says......can I ask why?
Nowhere does it say that the star led them to Jerusalem. The Wise Men said that “
eidomen gar autou ton astera en te anatoie kai elthomen proskunesai auto” = “we-perceived for of-him the gleamer(star) in the rising(east) and we-came to worship him”. They saw his star in the east and went to Jerusalem to find “he that is born King of the Jews”. Nothing about being led by the star to Jerusalem. If the star was leading them to Jerusalem, why did it not just lead them straight to Bethlehem instead.? Nothing in scripture about how they knew that the star was connected to a newly born King of the Jews. Kidger explains how they could know this and decide to set out for Jerusalem.
The verb typically translated in the Bible as ‘went before’ is
proágō which means to lead forward. A lighthouse leads a ship to harbor but never moves itself. Kidger’s explanation of the star standing over the place is that in a very reasonably reconstructed timeframe the star would have been due south in the sky over Bethlehem at dawn, the conventional time for recording stellar positions.
It is noteworthy that the comment about the Wise Men being overjoyed at seeing the star comes after they are supposedly already at the place where the child lay. Should they not be overjoyed when they first see the star back in Jerusalem? According to Kidger, they would be overjoyed because it would appear to be over Bethlehem, which they just found out was the place they ought to be.
For this star to unambiguously stop over a single house would require that it come very low to the ground. How big was this star? Was it hot? Did anybody else notice? How high up was it when the Wise Men saw it back in Jerusalem? Exotic events, lack of real world details. It sounds like a fairy tale.
Kidger explains a lot and makes Matthew more believable. What is wrong with that?
It seems strange to me that Jesus resurrected Lazarus but not John the Baptist. I am interested in why, and I have my own theory, but what are your thoughts? Since no one went to heaven before Jesus, (John 3:13) both Lazarus and John went to the same place when they died, but only one of them came back.
Why did Jesus not resurrect everyone who died? When Jesus raised someone from the dead or performed some other miracle, it was to prove his authority. This would mean that what he said was for real. There was no reason for raising John the Baptist from the dead. As I said elsewhere, John the Baptist was the end of the Old Testament era. He was Elijah preceding the New Testament Messiah – Jesus. Bringing him back would serve no real purpose.
There was a superstition in those times that a spirit stayed close to the body for three days after death, seeking to get back in, until decay made that impossible. Jesus deliberately waited until Lazarus was dead for four days and already stinking. This proved that Jesus really raised the dead on his own authority. It was not the spirit finding a way back into the body.
In Catholic theology, which I got fed to me until it was coming out of my nose, the righteous dead waited in the Limbo of the Fathers until heaven was opened to them by the sacrifice of Jesus. In the Catholic Profession of Faith is the phrase ‘he descended into hell’ By hell is meant Sheol, the abode of the dead. According to this, between the time he died and he rose again Jesus preached the gospel to the righteous dead and freed them.
No other world ruler is an invisible spirit who has many thousands of minions who are also roaming the earth invisibly, seeking to undo the faith of those who still cling to faith in God and churning out propaganda designed to make God appear to be redundant. Since their confinement to this earth, satan and his hordes are no longer subtle in their approach....they are now in all our faces....full frontal...no holds barred. They are running out of time. (Revelation 12:7-12)
Every game aimed at children in the world of entertainment, is violent and spiritistic, which translates over into the schoolyard. Supernatural themes dominate movies for kids, fostering an appetite for satanic things.
Adults want graphic sex and violence with supernatural themes. This is satan's world. He promotes its evil goals and its greedy, immoral, materialistic lifestyle. (1 John 2:17-19) The levels of evil we are seeing beggar belief sometimes.
I am not of the mindset that Satan controls the world. But it is not something I would find fruitful to debate.
Funny that. The Pharisees wanted a Messiah who was going to commend them and elevate them and reward them....not one who exposed them as the biggest and most hypocritical frauds in town! The humble "lost sheep" found refreshment in Jesus' teachings and gradually the "sacred secret" unfolded. (Romans 16:25-27) The Messiah was a man of peace who showed by his lifestyle that spiritual pursuits were more important that ego trips. He showed them the principles upon which the laws of God were based allowing his disciples to see the reasons for them and how to avoid taking false steps that lead to regret. He also showed how corrupt the Jewish religious system had become and how to come out from under that corrupt leadership. The Kingdom would rule mankind on the earth...but it would be from heaven. (Revelation 21:2-4)
I see Jesus as preaching a return to following the spirit of the law as opposed to the slavish attention to detail alone that the Pharisees were doing.
The demons knew exactly who Jesus was. (Matthew 8:28-29) and they knew exactly what he was going to do with them at "the appointed time".
My point was that Satan does not necessarily know everything especially when it comes to exactly what unexpected thing God might do.
If God sent the star, then he knew in his omniscience that Herod would use the information conveyed by the magi to murder those children.
I see the Magi as part of satan's plan to kill Jesus before he even had an chance to grow up. The star then becomes his symbol in a pagan celebration that promotes everything the Bible condemns.
I cannot see where scripture tells us anything about the material Matthew used to write his gospel. Since I believe that he was guided by God's spirit when he wrote his gospel, perhaps he needed no written material at all? All we can do is speculate. Does it matter anyway?
If the Gospel writers were guided by the Spirit to the extent that they wrote things which they had no prior knowledge of, then the differences between the Gospels become much harder to explain.[/I]
