Did Three Wise Men Visit Baby Jesus?

In Matthew 27, Jesus was brought before Pilate, who asked him, Are you the King of the Jews? At the start of Matthew's Gospel, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,

Where is he who has been born, King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.

Modern -day nativity scenes depict the Magi as three wise men, but there were many more than that traveling in a large caravan.

The Bible says that all of Jerusalem was troubled by them, attracting enough attention to earn an audience before King Herod. Herod's own wise men confirmed that indeed the prophets talked about a king being born in Bethlehem.

Herod sent the Magi on their way and told them to report back to him so he could worship this king too. The Magi came from the area of Persia and Babylon.

In 605 BC, the Israelites were exiled into Babylonian captivity, and the writings of many Hebrew prophets would have been catalogued by the

Babylonians, containing prophecies about a star and the exact time of the birth of the Messiah. So the

Magi knew who the star was leading them to because they read it in the Scriptures. When they found him, they worshipped him and presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, who then ordered that all boys in Bethlehem under the age of two be killed.

More than 30 years later, when Pilate asked Jesus, Are you the King of the Jews? In the context of Matthew's Gospel, what he was saying was this,

So you're the one who has stirred up all this commotion, starting with those Magi all the way up until now. Even to this day, the entire world, in fact all of creation, stirs at the mention of the