Matthew 2:1-2

KJV
1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

2Saying, 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.


Here come the wise men, not "three kings" but x number of wise men from the East. We're already done with the birth, so you can start to see that a lot of the Christmas story is missing: no full inn, no manger, no December 25th. We'll see what the other gospels have to say about this.

But we do have the wise men, perfectly vague, some sort of strange endorsement. I do find it comforting to think that the opinion of the "east" is given such weight here. Eventually, disagreements between "east" and "west" would split the church in two.

This brings to mind the History Channel and whatnot trying to date a comet to this era, or some astronomical phenomenon to correspond to the "star in the east." That's crazy on so many levels. Clearly, these wise men are just an invention. Once again, what "eyewitness," what "apostle" could possibly have seen these events at Jesus's birth? Does Jesus seem the type to talk about such things? And why didn't anybody bother to catch their names? With that in mind, do you really think someone writing a gospel in 90CE knew that their was a slightly irregular astronomical event 90 years earlier? No, you make up the wise men and you make up the star that they follow.