XPost: alt.bible, alt.religion.christian.biblestudy, alt.religion.christianity   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic   
      
   Friend james needs our help again, he is confused about the wise men as   
   they.would be seen in 1st century palistine.  They weer not pagans, that   
   term came into christian/church use in later centuries.  A search of the NT   
   finds no use of it.   
      
   Gentile is the word to mean non-jewish and is the distinction used in the   
   NT.  It was most often used to mean those many cultures surrounding   
   palistine who had many gods originally based on nature, such as the greeks   
   and romans.  That is polytheism.   
      
   In the strict definition, the jw vatican is polytheism,ie. they have God   
   the father and the son Christ said to be "a god".   
      
   So who are the wise men, they were zoroastrians and not polytheism as   
   above.  The wise men were observers of night sky events said to be   
   prophetical.  That is why they were looking for a star to signal the coming   
   messiah, Christ in other words.  They were persians the area into which the   
   "lost 10 tribes" were first taken.  Those hebrews would know of the that   
   predicted messiah.   
      
   Btw, 1st century jews included some who searched the night sky as a sign of   
   future events, thus the star was taken as a sign that was included in NT   
   accounts of the birth of Christ the expected messiah.  As said to Mary,   
   "unto you a child will be born etc.".   
      
   Friend james should feel free to ask any related questions about the 1st   
   century middle east and the cultures there.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)