Christmas Nativity Scenes and the Infancy Narratives

Painting: The Adoration of the Magi (Matthias Stom) - 1630s, National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden

Did the Magi come on the same night as the Shepherds?

A typical Nativity scene usually includes Mary and Joseph looking at the baby Jesus lying on a manger surrounded by some animals. There may be some shepherds adoring the baby Jesus as well as the three magi with their three gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. This may give us the impression that the three magi came to adore the baby Jesus on the Christmas night itself around the same time as the shepherds. But if we read the Gospels carefully, we will find that is not the case.

When did the Shepherds come?

First is the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem: Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:1-7). Immediately Luke tells us about shepherds in the field with their flock and an angel of the Lord appearing to them and describing a sign that a Savior has been born for all people: “a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). This is followed by the appearance of a multitude of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14), a song of praise which the Church sings in every liturgical feast and solemnity.

From this, we know that shepherds and angels belong to the Christmas night itself. Now what about the magi or wise men? They are only mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, so let’s put them aside first. What happens next? “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21). The passage ending with this verse is the Gospel of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on 1 January, which is the 8th day (octave) of Christmas.

After the circumcision of Jesus, Mary had to wait for thirty-three days (Leviticus 12:3-4). “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (Luke 2:22). This event is liturgically commemorated in the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (2 February). [In the Temple, Mary offered “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24; cf. Leviticus 12:8 LXX), which implies that Joseph could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:8).]

The presentation of Jesus in the Temple concludes the infancy narrative in the Gospel of Luke: “And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:39-40). This is followed by the passage of the finding of Jesus in the Temple when he was 12 years old, which is introduced this way: “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover” (Luke 2:41) and it is reasonable that on those occasions, they would stay in Bethlehem (about 10km away) where Joseph’s relatives lived, instead of in Jerusalem.

When did the Magi come?

Now we need to read the Gospel of Matthew to find out about the magi, who came “from the east to Jerusalem”(Matthew 2:1), apparently asking King Herod about the newborn “king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2).

The magi (plural of magus) were wise men, often thought to be astrologers, priests, or scholars from the East, likely from Persia, Babylonia, or Arabia. They are best known from the Gospel of Matthew as the visitors who followed a star to Bethlehem to honor the newborn Jesus. In Christian tradition, they are often referred to as the “Wise Men” or “Three Kings,” though the Bible does not specify their number or that they were kings.

Herod summoned the chief priests and the scribes, who informed him that the Christ would be born in “Bethlehem of Judea” (Matthew 2:5). “Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared” (Matthew 2:7). As the star first appeared to the magi before they undertook the journey “from the east to Jerusalem,” their meetings with King Herod would have taken place some time after the birth of Jesus.

How much time? Read on...

Matthew then tells us that after the last meeting, the magi went to Bethlehem and “the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was” (Matthew 2:9). But instead of going to the animal-feeding place where the manger was to be found, they went “into the house” (Matthew 2:11). I used to dismiss the word “house” here as a typo error or a theological word and to assume that the magi found the child Jesus still lying in the manger on Christmas night. But that cannot be, because “when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him’” (Matthew 2:13). Once the magi came to adore the child Jesus, there was no more time for circumcision and presentation in the Temple!

Yet, the strongest clue comes from the criterion of children that King Herod killed in order to get rid of the rival king of the Jews: “Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men” (Matthew 2:16). That means about two years had passed since the star appeared to the magi indicating the birth of Jesus until the adoration by the magi.

Does it mean that the Nativity scenes are wrong?

No, because they are not photographs, but icons. They are not a snapshot of a particular moment of Christmas night, but a visual representation of the Nativity story from the birth of Jesus until the adoration by the magi, which corresponds to the major liturgical time from Christmas night until the Epiphany.