“Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.” (Isaiah 49:12) Other translations of Sinim holds the meaning of Aswan (20th Century), the south country (16th Century), Sinites (Jewish Orthodox), etc. Modern commentaries (Dr. John Walvood of the Dallas Theological Seminary and others) are stating this is possibly the Orient meaning China or what is classified as the great nations east of the Euphrates that have slumbered for centuries.
“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judae in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east of Jerusalem, saying 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.” (Matthew 2:1-2) These visitors were referred to as Magi. Were these men from Ancient Persia (like Clement of Alexandria, Diodorus of Tarsus, Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria) or from China? (Dr. John Walvood.)
If we consider Clement of Alexandria then the Scholars have gotten the birth of Jesus wrong. Clement of Alexandria lived about 150-215 A.D. “Who is the rich man that shall be saved?”….“…because of the neglecting to praise and glorify God…they invest with divine honors men wallowing in an execrable and abominable life, and what is the principle thing, liable on this account to the judgment of God; and treacherous, because, although wealth is of itself sufficient to puff up and corrupt the souls of its possessors…by inflating the minds of the rich with the pleasures of extravagant praises, and by making them utterly despise all things except wealth, on account of which they are admired…” (Estimated date 182-202 A.D edited by James E Kiefer “Biographical Sketches of memorable Christians of the past”)
Diodorus of Tarsus, Chrysostom (died about 390 A D) could not have been one of the wise men because his time period doesn’t coincide with the birth of Christ as listed. Many scholars classify him as the father of Biblical translation—the monk from Antioch. Some contend he never really existed. Of his writings, apologetics, controversial, doctrinal, and exegetical, which he composed against the pagan, Jews and the prevailing heresies of the age, only fragments have reached modern man. One passage reads: “How then is man God’s image? By way of dominion in virtue of authority.” Scholars believe while “the right to exercise this power of domination is spiritual, it is an extrinsic power give to men as such, enabling them to act in an authoritative way as God’s steward or representative.” (Tiley and Ross “Broken and Whole: Essays on religion and the body.” Pp 33) Unfortunately there is just not enough information on his writing available to determine exactly what his thoughts were and anything on it is purely conjecture.
Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) could not have been present at the birth of Christ. He was a bishop and doctor of the church. According to James E Kiefer “Biographical Sketches of memorable Christians of the past”: “He was a man of fiery temperament, and ruthless and violent in the pursuit of what he conceived to be his duty. Having obtained the consent of government, he destroyed pagan temples, and the monasteries of monks whose views differed from his own. He is on the Egyptian (Coptic) and the Syrian calendars, but not on most eastern of western ones. Summary: unpleasant but orthodox (right but repulsive).” Cyril wrote: “Let us now say that the writings of the unholy heretics may be considered as cities, and fortified, haply not without skill, by the wisdom of the world, and the intricate deceits of their cogitations. There comes to storm them, and in some sort environs and sits round them taking the shield of the faith and the sword of the Spirit,which is the word of God, everyone who agonizes for the holy dogmas of the Church, and sets himself in array with all his strength against their false-speaking, studying to cast down imaginations, as Paul saith, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ ”. (Translation of Cyril of Alexandria by Roger Pearse, UK 2005.”Early Church Fathers”)
Then that proves the three men mentioned in Dr. Walvood’s commentary were not at the birth of Jesus unless scholars, scientist, theologians, philosophers want to rethink the time period.
Last thought (my thought): did it ever occur to these great thinkers that the answer is in the Bible? God’s time is not our time and there is no humanly possible way of knowing. Even though there are historical accounts based on science and history give us a time that we know; the truth—we weren’t living then and we cannot say with 100% that the time we are living now is the same as the biblically or historically or even scientific time.Everything is strictly conjecture by modern man unless he is still living and over 2,000 years old. Does modern man have to have an analytical or reasonable answer for everything?
Who were the wise men? We don’t know! Only God has that answer.
