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question about twelfth night
The oddest questions come into my mind sometimes. Today's came while reading an article about festivities of the day. I suspect I have both readers with the same question and readers with the answer, so I'll ask here. (Tried Wikipedia, tried Google.)
The feast of epiphany is on the 12th day of Christmas. The magi weren't there from the start; the star showed up on the day of Jesus's birth and, after seeing it, the magi spent some time getting there. (I don't know if that's in Christian scripture or tradition or what, but I understand it to be consensus.) Epiphany is the celebration of the magis' arrival.
The Christian bible tells us that Mary had to give birth in a stable because there was no room at the inn.
Every nativity scene I have ever seen shows the magi and everyone else crowded around the child -- in the stable.
Are we to understand that the family is held to have camped out there for 12 days? Or did artistic license get way out of hand and it wasn't worth the trouble to rein it in?
From what I've seen, these sorts of questions are less a part of Christian tradition than of Jewish tradition. So just to be clear lest I offend: this is sincere curiosity.
The feast of epiphany is on the 12th day of Christmas. The magi weren't there from the start; the star showed up on the day of Jesus's birth and, after seeing it, the magi spent some time getting there. (I don't know if that's in Christian scripture or tradition or what, but I understand it to be consensus.) Epiphany is the celebration of the magis' arrival.
The Christian bible tells us that Mary had to give birth in a stable because there was no room at the inn.
Every nativity scene I have ever seen shows the magi and everyone else crowded around the child -- in the stable.
Are we to understand that the family is held to have camped out there for 12 days? Or did artistic license get way out of hand and it wasn't worth the trouble to rein it in?
From what I've seen, these sorts of questions are less a part of Christian tradition than of Jewish tradition. So just to be clear lest I offend: this is sincere curiosity.
Re: A LOT of Artistic License
In the early church, Christian apologists would say "If you don't believe my arguments, look at the lives that have been changed by knowing Jesus Christ." Now adays, we say "Please ignore the Christians and look at my arguments!"
You need both arguments and anecdotal evidence, at some level.
Things are more complicated now; there are so many bad examples who can get the public's attention. Fortunately we all know that not everyone claiming to be a Christian is a good exemplar; unfortunately, it can be hard for any community to police its extremists sometimes. (This is not a problem unique to your religion, of course.)