{"id":1747151,"date":"2022-11-21T15:02:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T20:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1747151"},"modified":"2022-11-21T15:03:10","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T20:03:10","slug":"raymond-arroyo-reveals-the-real-story-behind-the-wise-men-and-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/raymond-arroyo-reveals-the-real-story-behind-the-wise-men-and-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Raymond Arroyo Reveals The \u2018Real\u2019 Story Behind The Wise Men And Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fraymond-arroyo-reveals-the-real-story-behind-the-wise-men-and-christmas%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1747151&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Struck by new historical context, journalist Raymond Arroyo is sharing the <em>real<\/em> story about the three wise men who traveled to visit Jesus Christ after his birth \u2014 the most ubiquitous Christmas story on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything I thought I knew about them ended up not being true,\u201d the EWTN host told The Daily Wire. \u201cSo I dug into the research. I said, \u2018Wait a minute, who are these guys? Where did they come from? Why were they going to the Christ child? Are they even real?&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They were real, he found \u2014 just not at all how you might have been taught. The \u201cthree kings\u201d were not kings at all, they were not from as far east as Asia or Persia, and there likely were not three of them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce I discovered those answers, I had to turn this into a family read,\u201d Arroyo said. \u201cSo rather than a chapter book, which was my first impulse, I turned it into a picture book for families so they could enjoy it together at the holidays. And that\u2019s how we have \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/the-wise-men-who-found-christmas\/9781644136201\/pd\/4136201?en=google&#038;utm_source=google&#038;kw=&#038;mt=&#038;dv=c&#038;event=SHOP&#038;p=1221303&#038;cb_src=google&#038;cb_typ=pmax&#038;cb_cmp=18863800473&#038;cb_adg=&#038;cb_kyw=&#038;gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9n6xAGHcSHsl-g-DvtuO52hj-u_MKMQWAzvgq7Opee6uIEQtC12VF4aAoA9EALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Wise Men Who Found Christmas<\/a>.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arroyo\u2019s adventurous new family book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wise-Men-Who-Found-Christmas\/dp\/1644136201\/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9n9izEyvDCoSPd32qps1xT59KqEXg12M1q4u2WX7a7jxCATUaiz32gaArHLEALw_wcB&#038;hvadid=627278000812&#038;hvdev=c&#038;hvlocphy=9005573&#038;hvnetw=g&#038;hvqmt=b&#038;hvrand=4249039984358692961&#038;hvtargid=kwd-1718252833667&#038;hydadcr=27892_14512606&#038;keywords=wise+men+who+found+christmas&#038;qid=1669057036&#038;sr=8-1\">The Wise Men Who Found Christmas<\/a>,\u201d influenced by research from Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Dr. Margaret Barker, and John Healey, was released in October, and is already racking up hundreds of five-star reviews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were not three of them,\u201d Arroyo told us about the history of these wise men. \u201cThe gospel only says there were three <em>gifts<\/em>, not three kings or three wise men. And it turns out that they couldn\u2019t have been kings, because there\u2019s no way they could have made it from the far east \u2014 or wherever they\u2019re supposed to have come from, because of the political situation of the day. There were just too many blockades. You couldn\u2019t pass freely from one kingdom to the other without permission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arroyo posits that they wise men were likely Zoroastrian priests, mathematicians, theologians, stargazers, magicians, interpreters of dreams, and royal consults.<\/p>\n<p>So, where did the Magi come from?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe gifts indicate where they came from,\u201d Arroyo said. \u201cThose three gifts would only really be available and were, so to speak, the \u2018hometown goods\u2019 of the kingdom of Nabatea in Arabia \u2014 really, modern day Jordan, and a little bit of Syria. That is basically where I believe these wise men came from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSolomon\u2019s mines, or the Gold Mines of Midian as they\u2019re sometimes called, those are in Arabia, and were controlled by the kingdom of Nabatea at the time,\u201d the author explained. \u201cSo there\u2019s the gold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd frankincense and myrrh were only made in the Kingdom of Arabia,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019re derived from tree sap, which I had no idea of. So, that gives us a really strong indication of where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arroyo said that there are first and second century writings that say the wise men came from Arabia. \u201cJustin Martyr says that; Clement of Rome says that,\u201d the author noted. \u201cSo this is not a stretch, it\u2019s just we\u2019ve ignored all of those early sources and bought into the sixth, seventh, and eighth century creations, which are: they were kings, their names were Casper, Balthasar, and Melchior. Those are all creations much, much, further down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Raymond Arroyo <\/em><\/p>\n<p>These historical clues and findings about the wise men help to root the Christmas story in a vibrant historical reality, Arroyo argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere was my contention: If the wise men were not true, then the object of their devotion, the person they sought is probably on shaky ground as well, historically,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I went ahead and looked at the historical situation and read through the data. And what I discovered is this really happened, it really did happen in this particular time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change the story, but it roots it in a historic reality that I think gives it more vibrancy and makes it far more human and interesting than it might have been before,\u201d the author added.<\/p>\n<p>And the stakes are raised. \u201cThese guys were facing political pressure, sudden death from King Herod,\u201d he explained. \u201cI mean, there\u2019s a lot of pressure on them. Why would they go to the lengths that they go through if they didn\u2019t believe something extraordinary was there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want families and young people \u2014 all of them to go on a journey together,\u201d Arroyo said of the new book. \u201cAll of my books are written for a family audience. \u2026 I do try to weave things in that only adults will understand, and then there are things that only children can grasp. And so when they read them together, the experience is richer, they can share their takeaways and their impressions of the story. But most of all, I want families to find Christmas the way these wise men found \u2014 in a fresh way, in a new way with an urgency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Struck by new historical context, journalist Raymond Arroyo is sharing the real story about the three wise men who traveled to visit Jesus Christ after his birth \u2014 the most ubiquitous Christmas story on the planet. \u201cEverything I thought I knew about them ended up not being true,\u201d the EWTN host told The Daily Wire. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":1747154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1747151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1747151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1747154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1747151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1747151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1747151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}