Dec. 25, 2025
As I think about Christmas … and how modern America has almost completely scrubbed “Christ” from Christmas … as Christmas songs played on American radio about Rudolph and Santa, presents, trees, parties, GIFTS … and even sex: “All I want for Christmas is ~you~.!” …. have completely replaced Christmas Carols …

I am struck about what’s a fellow to do?


Fortunately, in his annual Christmas Facebook post, Yucatan Bill again delivers fascinating insights!

“The symbolism of this story is that the wise men or Magi were from the East, hence gentiles who were lost in sin, and yet they travelled West, the apparent direction of a star’s movement… and the direction of salvation, to find the recently born Jesus. In other words, it is a loving story revealing salvation for even the gentiles, not just the Jews. It seems God’s chosen people comes from a larger gene pool than originally thought.”

“Matthew’s first chapter concerned itself in showing Jesus was in the lineage of David, fulfilling scripture. In his 2nd chapter, Matthew’s point was that many of the powerful Jews in Jerusalem at the at that time failed to see this new born child for who he was. Yet these magi, gentiles from the East, came to bring gifts and worship him.”

“Could Matthew 2 be a symbolic story of love and salvation, and not a lesson in weird astronomy?”

“Adoration of the Magi”
by the Italian Renaissance master Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1485–1488

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Bill is leading us to an interesting dilemma:
Facts are often not truth … and facts often miss the greater truths … and in this case, I ask the reader to consider that the greater truths of Jesus ministries and messages ~transcend~ the differing “facts” that the Gospel writers tell in their Jesus stories…

Yucatan Bill has hit on a main theme of Matthew’s story of Jesus entire life, and how Matthew’s story (written around 80 AD) focuses on how Jesus came for the salvation of “the Jews” … yet “the Jews” keep rejecting him … Notice how even through Jesus was Jewish, and Mary & Joseph were Jewish … and Jesus’ brothers (at least 4) and his sisters were Jewish … Matthew distinguishes “the Jews” and their rejection of Jesus as a problem (especially by 80 AD when Matthew was written, after the destruction of the Temple) … where Matthew wants to identify to the Romans that the new Christian sect was different from the Temple Jews. … where the “Temple Jews” were rejecting Jesus by even Paul’s time of 37AD taking his version of the Jesus story to the pagans.

So, in Matthew’s Jesus story, the Magician/Sorcerer “Wise Men” as pagans worshiping Jesus … paired with Herod murdering all the infants … and the Temple Jews driving the murder of Jesus … combined a metaphor for how “the Jews” rejected Christ, while pagans accept him.

The final 9 unique bits of Matthew’s Christmas version of his Jesus story are revealing: Joseph & Mary are LIVING in Bethlehem in Matthew’s Jesus story … so there is no Roman Census … there is no Inn … nor birth in a stable … nor Angels … nor shepherds … nor going to the Temple to be registered … because they have fled to Egypt and are in Egypt instead of going to the Temple … AND Matthew says they return to Bethlehem (their home) from Egypt, but can’t stay because of the risk from Herod & the Jews… so they had to move to Nazareth according to Matthew.

…
Next read the Luke story of Jesus life … to compare & contrast Luke’s very different message that Jesus came to minister to poor people … and to care for poor people … (where the rich Magician/Sorcerer Wise pagan Kings have no place in Luke’s story) … and Herod’s murder of the Innocents has no place in Luke’s Jesus story … and Luke makes up stuff like how “Quirinius” was supposedly the Governor of Syria and running “the Census” … yet Roman records clearly show Quirinius only came to Syria/Palestine at least 6 years AFTER Jesus birth … and Roman records clearly show the supposed Census (taken every 14 years) happened either 8 years before Jesus birth or 6 years after Jesus birth.

And, just like how Luke added Quirinius & a Census, Luke also adds that Joseph & Mary were from Narareth, up in Galilee before Jesus birth, while Matthew has Joseph & Mary LIVING in Bethlehem before Jesus birth … and Luke has no Wise Men, no fleeing Jewish Herod Archealus persecution & murdering of babies, and no Egypt travels.

Yet, notice how both Luke’s & Matthew’s stories ultimately get Jesus. Mary & Joseph to Nazareth … just by different routes … because Paul writes about how Jesus was “from Nazareth” …

The bigger stories …
Where Matthew’s telling of Jesus life focuses on how “the Jews” keep rejecting Jesus, Luke never even mentions “the Jews” as some malevolent problem, and the Luke story emphasizes over & over & over how Jesus came to minister to ordinary working Jews throughout Jesus life … as Jesus was born poor, in a stable … and his father Joseph was a poor day-worker (tekton in Greek – worked with his hands, not a business owner) … as the local shepherds come, and Angels come … and Luke also tells how Jesus was a good Jew, by Mary & Joseph taking Jesus to the Temple as a good Jew, and how other Temple Jews (Anna & Simeon) recognize even the baby Jesus as special … while Matthew spurns Temple Jews … as Matthew sends the little family off to Egypt.

Then notice that Paul … our earliest written source … says nothing about Angels, nor Egypt, nor Wise pagan Magician/Sorcerer Kings … nor travelling stars in the East …

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So, the Gospels were never written as factual historical accounts (notice how in 3 Gospel writers’ stories, Jesus cleansing the Temple is his LAST big public act, while John says that cleansing the Temple was Jesus FIRST public act … and notice that 3 Gospels say that the Last Supper & Jesus crucifiction happen on Passover, yet John’s story has the Last Supper & his crucifiction a week BEFORE Passover) …. So each of the Gospels were each written as a separate Jesus story, to emphasize different aspects of Jesus and who he ministers to … and Jesus different messages …

IOW … There really can be differences between “the truth” … versus the facts.

Facts are often not truth … and facts often miss the greater truths … and the greater truths of Jesus ministries and messages ~transcend~ the differing “facts” that the Gospel writers tell in their Jesus stories…

Merry Christmas …

Dr. Steven M. Fry


…
Addendum to address one person’s questioning “historical Biblical facts”
Arland Hughes Dorais … Did those explanations make sense … like the explanation that truth often transcends the “facts”?

Example … Even though we think Matthew was “written” around 80 AD due to it’s historical contexts, and that Matthew & Luke both rely on the “Q” (Quelle) Jesus story as a source … realize the 120 AD Roman records & other contemporary 120 AD sources describe THREE (3) different versions of Matthew’s Gospel … each telling the Jesus story a bit differently …

and the earliest scraps of manuscripts of Matthew’s gospel story that we have (Papyrus 77 & Papyrus 103) date to approximately 200 AD …

and the earliest FULL version of a book of Matthew that we have are a Syriac version (a dialect of Aramaic) dates to around 250 AD … (found only recently in 2023 found as a palimpsest – text written over erased text)…

and it is not until 350 AD with the Codex Sinaiticus that we have a full version of Matthew in Greek …

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So, when Matthew’s Jesus story was clearly not written before 60 AD (30 years after Jesus death), and because there were 3 different versions of Matthew reported in 120 AD (a full 100 yrs after Jesus life) … and our first earliest copy of Matthew (only recently found) comes from 250 AD … and our earliest full copy of Matthew in Greek comes from 350 AD (220 years AFTER Jesus death) …

how much emphasis should we put on the details “facts” that our modern Matthew English translations report … versus how much emphasis we can put on Matthew’s truths about Jesus & Matthew’s message about Jesus?

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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry

Read on, MacDuff.