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In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’

‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’

The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.’

‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.

Luke 1:26-38

The History behind an Angel visiting Mary in the Christmas Story

Mary was probably about 14 to 16 years of age when she gave birth to Jesus. This was a very common age for young women to be engaged and marry in biblical times. So the son of God was the son of a teenage mother. Joseph was probably slightly older, around 30.

Joseph and Mary were a very average couple in Israel at that time. They would have probably been quite poor. Joseph was a carpenter and this job was seen by some religious leaders as a religious duty rather than a profession. Both Joseph and Mary were descendants of King David of Israel, but at this time his family was in the poorest state it had ever been. Mary was also related to the traditional Priest families of Israel through her cousin Elizabeth.

Nazareth, the town where they both lived, was a small hill town on a caravan route through the country. It also had a center for the temple priests, in which they could come and pray and fast when they were not on duty at the temple. So a wide range of people would travel and visit a town like Nazareth.

Under Jewish law, an engagement like Joseph and Mary’s was treated almost like a marriage and could only be broken by an official divorce.

The angel Gabriel, who visited Mary, is God’s chief messenger angel and only appears to very important people in the Bible. The first words that Gabriel spoke to Mary ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ are very important words. ‘Highly favoured’ means ‘God’s holy grace is upon you’ and is a divine blessing from God – something that would have never normally been said to a peasant girl like Mary! She would have been very scared by this and that is why Gabriel said ‘Do not be afraid’.

If you’d like to know more about Gabriel, go to the section on whychristmas?com’s sister site whyangels?com about Gabriel.

The name Jesus (or Jeshua as it would have been said then) was a very common name in Israel at that time. If you had gone down a normal street and called ‘JESHUA’ to some children playing, it is more than likely that a couple of them would be called Jeshua! The name Jesus means ‘Saviour’ and has a very important meaning in the story.

Mary would have been very surprised with the Gabriel saying that the Holy Spirit would be in her, because in the old Jewish stories, only very important people had the Holy Spirit come into them. She might not have even believed that it is was going to happen, so she went to see her cousin Elizabeth, who Gabriel said would have a baby, to see if it was really true. She did this even before she told Joseph about Gabriel and Jesus.

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous–to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’

Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.’

The angel answered, ‘I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.’

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realised he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ‘The Lord has done this for me,’ she said. ‘In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.’

Luke 1:5-25

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At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!’

And Mary said: ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me–holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.’

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, ‘No! He is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives who has that name.’ Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John.’

Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, ‘What then is this child going to be?’ For the Lord’s hand was with him.

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us– to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.’

And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Luke 1: 39-80

The History behind an Elizabeth and Zechariah in the Christmas Story

Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin and a descendant of the Priest families of Israel and her father was a temple priest. Zechariah was also a temple priest. This may have been because he was married to the daughter of a priest rather than coming from a family of priests. He was thought of as a very holy and kind man, although because he came from a small village some priests though of him as a bit of a ‘village hick’. Both Zechariah and Elizabeth would have been over 60 when this story took place, because people didn’t think you could have children after the age of 60. Not having any children was a big social problem and sometimes seen as a neglect of a Priest’s religious duty!

Zechariah was not a very important priest in the temple and this was the first time that he had the very important job of sprinkling incense on the altar to burn it. At this place in the Jewish service only Zechariah, as the incense priest, would have been in this part of the temple. His role was to pour the incense onto the golden altar and then bow in worship to God and then leave that part of the temple and say the final prayer of the service. Zechariah poured the incense on to the altar but before he could bow and leave, an angel appeared by the altar. In all the history of the Jewish religion, an angel had never appeared to someone in that part of the temple. The angel was Gabriel, the same angel that had visited Mary. If you’d like to know more about the angel Gabriel and his role as God’s chief messenger, go to the section on whychristmas?com’s sister site whyangels?com about Gabriel.

The name John (Jehochanan or Jochanan) means ‘The Lord is Gracious’. He was to be called this because God had been kind to Elizabeth and Zechariah, giving them a child. Gabriel’s words to Zechariah meant that when John was a man, he would tell the people about Jesus. Zechariah didn’t really believe the angel and asked him to prove this to him, so Gabriel made Zechariah dumb, until he believed what the angel had said to him.

The other priests, waiting outside that part of the temple, would have wondered what was happening because Zechariah had taken much longer than he should have done to pour the incense. When he came out, they knew something had happened because he couldn’t speak the final prayer.

Elizabeth did become pregnant as the angel had told Zechariah. She stayed in hiding for the first five months, because people might not have believed that she could become pregnant.

The words that Elizabeth spoke to Mary when they met, show that Elizabeth knew that Mary had a very important baby growing inside her; and that her baby would also have something to do with Mary’s baby. The words that Mary said in reply are known as the ‘Magnificat’ and are a ‘thank you’ and worship prayer to God. When Mary left Elizabeth and Zechariah and went home to Nazareth, Elizabeth would have been about nine months pregnant and Mary would have been about three months pregnant. Mary may have gone home then because she did not want to get involved with the publicity of John’s birth.

So it would not have been long after this that Elizabeth did give birth to John. When it was time to name the baby, it was natural for the family to think that it would be called Zechariah after his father, as this was normally how baby boys were named. But Elizabeth knew that he had to be called John. The family would have doubted this, so they asked the still dumb Zechariah what he should be called. As soon as he wrote down John, as the angel had said, he could speak again.

The prayer that Zechariah said then was the same one that he should have said when he came out of the temple but was unable to say. Now Zechariah could see what the words really meant. Christians believe these words are about Jesus.

There is an excellent article on the dating of Christmas based on the dates of Zechariah’s experience, on the blog of theologian, Ian Paul.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us.’

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

The History behind an Angel visiting Joseph in the Christmas Story

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:1-7

The History behind the Birth of Jesus in the Christmas Story

The census that was ordered by Caesar Augustus was the first of its kind. It was done because the Roman government wanted to make sure that everyone in the Empire was paying their taxes correctly. The census was carried out all over Empire (most of Europe): but in Palestine, it was carried out in a Jewish way rather than a Roman way. This meant that families had to register in the their historical tribal town rather than where they lived. This also meant that Joseph and the very pregnant Mary would have had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, as this was town that Joseph’s family (the royal family of David) originally came from – a journey of about 70 miles (112 kilometres).

Some people think that Bethlehem could also have been Joseph’s actual home town and he’d traveled to Nazareth to collect Mary once they were betrothed/married to take to his home town to initially live.

The journey would have taken about three days and they might well have arrived in the evening, because if they had arrived earlier in the day, it is more likely that they would have found somewhere to stay.

In those times, there weren’t really such things as motels or inns, you normally would have stayed with some extended family or relations. A more accurate translation of ‘inn’ would be ‘guest room’. You would normally stay with extended family in their ‘guest room’ but as it was a busy time the guest room was already full.

Most houses would have been shared with the animals that the family kept. Houses had two levels, the upper/mezzanine level where people slept and the ground floor where the animals slept at night and the family lived during the day. The animals were a kind of ‘central heating’ at night keeping the house warm! The ‘guest room’ was often an area on the upper/mezzanine level or even a hut put on the flat roof of the house!

As many people would have traveled to Bethlehem for the census, all the houses, or certainly upper levels were full. Many people think that Jesus was probably born in September or October during Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, rather than during December. During the festival, Jews live outside in temporary shelters (the word ‘tabernacle’ come from a latin word meaning ‘booth’ or ‘hut’).

So Joseph and Mary probably had to sleep with the animals on the low level (where it’s common to have a manger cut into a wall where you put the animal food) or possibly (but unlikely) out in a stable, cave or even a covered market stall that sold animals (these stalls could be rented during tabernacles). You can read more about that here in an article on the blog of theologian, Rev Dr Ian Paul.

It was the custom in those times to wrap a new born baby very tightly in long bandages called swaddling clothes. The arms and legs of the baby were also wrapped, so they couldn’t move. This was done because they thought it helped the baby to grow strong, straight limbs! And as no proper crib was available, the new baby boy was placed in a manger, or feeding trough.

There’s a theory that Jesus might have been born a couple of miles outside of Bethlehem where there was a special shepherds’ watch tower called the Migdal Eder. So Jesus might have been born out with the shepherds.

The birth of Jesus probably didn’t happen in the year 0 but slightly earlier, in about 4, 5, 6 or 7 BCE/BC. The dates that we use now were set by Monks and religious leaders in the Middle Ages and before. It’s also quite likely that Jesus was actually born in the autumn (during Tabernacles), not in the winter! It can get very cold in the winter in Israel and it is thought that the census would have most likely taken place during the spring or autumn, at a when many pilgrims, from all over the country, came to visit Jerusalem (which is about six miles from Bethlehem).

There is an excellent article on the dating of Christmas based on the dates of Zechariah’s experience and Temple Service also by Rev Dr Ian Paul.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.’

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Luke 2:8-20

The History behind the Shepherds and Angels in the Christmas Story

At that time, sheep farmers were generally seen as having low or little value by other people.

The type of sheep the shepherds would have been raising were ‘fat tailed’ (or broad tailed) sheep. They often had lambs in the autumn and winter, rather than in the spring which most sheep in western countries these days.

The shepherds were quietly getting on with their own business when suddenly an angel appeared to them. I’m not surprised they were afraid!

The angel’s words to them told them of Jesus and his amazing birth and how they could recognise him in a very crowded town. The words of the hosts of angels is very similar to the words sung during a sacrifice service in the temple when there were three blasts of the temple trumpets.

This is only the second time in the whole Bible that a group of angels rather than one angel had appeared to people, so this proved that they had a very important message to give to them. We don’t know the names of the angels or how many there were of them, but in the Bible it says that there are millions of angels – so it would have been an amazing experience!

There’s a theory that Jesus might have been born a couple of miles outside of Bethlehem – and was actually born in the company of the shepherds!

A couple of miles outside Bethlehem there was a special watch tower called the Migdal Eder, which means ‘The Tower of the Flock’. It’s thought that sheep born there were used as sacrifice animals in the Jewish Temple in near-by Jerusalem. So they were very special an the shepherds were thought of more highly than normal shepherds.

According to some sources, the lambs at Migdal Eder had their health checked by resting them in a ‘manger’ (or dip in a rock to stop them escaping) and were even wrapped in swaddling clothes to show they were special!

I’m not convinced about Jesus actually ‘being born’ at ‘Migdal Eder’ but having those shepherds being the first to be told about Jesus makes a lot of sense.

Having seen the new baby, the Bible says “…they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

If they were shepherds from Migdal Eder, they could have told the people they saw on the way back to hills, friends and relatives in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the ‘middle class’ people they sold sheep to and also the people and priests in the Jewish Temple when they took their best sheep and lambs to be sold there for sacrifices.

One ancient prophesy from the Bible also said that the Jewish messiah would come to the ‘tower of the flock’.

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.’

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’

The child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Luke 2:21-38

The History behind Jesus going to the Temple, Anna and Simeon in the Christmas Story

Circumcision, as part of the naming ceremony for baby boys, was required by Jewish law and still is today. It is done to remind Jewish people of the agreement that God made with a man called Abraham in the Old Testament of the Bible. It normally takes place on the 8th day after birth and during the ceremony the baby is officially named.

31 days after birth, the time came for Mary and Jesus to be presented at the temple in Jerusalem for the purification service. Jesus had to be presented, like all new babies, to be ‘paid for’. This was a way of recognising that the baby was a gift from God and really belonged to him, so the parents had to symbolically ‘buy back’ the baby from God. The amount that had to be paid for a baby was about 60 grams of silver.

Mary had to go to the temple to be symbolically made clean and pure for the blood that she had lost when she gave birth. To be made pure, a dove or other bird had to be sacrificed; and to be made clean, a lamb to be sacrificed. However, if you were poor, a dove could be sacrificed instead of a lamb. That is why a pair of doves or pigeons were sacrificed.

When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple for the purification service, he was welcomed and nursed by two very old people. Many of the Jews were eagerly awaiting a mighty and magnificent king, who would lead the people to glorious victory against their enemies. But there were others looking for a just and godly Messiah. They were known as the ‘Quiet in the Land’, for they spent their days in prayer and worship of God, waiting patiently for the day when he would send his chosen Saviour to earth. Simeon and Anna were two of the Quiet in the Land. They had waited many years to see God’s promised Messiah. As soon as they saw the baby Jesus they recognised him as God’s Deliverer and knew that their dreams were fulfilled.

The shepherds could well have bought the news of a very special baby to the Temple when they sold their sheep to be used in the daily sacrifices. So Anna and Simeon might have known that they would soon see the promised messiah.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.’

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew 2:1-12

The History behind the Three Kings/Wise Men/Magi in the Christmas Story

After Jesus was born, Wise Men came to look for Him, probably from an area which is now in either Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia the Yemen, or an area in what’s now southern Turkey, northern Syria. Although they are often called the ‘Three Kings’, the Bible does not say how many there were, or that they were kings. One theory is that they might have been Kings of the Yemen, as during this time the Kings of Yemen were Jews. Three is only a guess because they brought with them three gifts: but however many there were of them, they probably would have had many more servants with them.

They were certainly men of great learning. The word Magi comes from the greek word ‘magos’ (where the english word ‘magic’ comes from). Magos itself comes from the old persian word ‘Magupati’. This was the title given to priests in a sect of the ancient Persian religions such as Zoroastrianism. Today we’d called them astrologers. Back then astronomy and astrology were part of the same overall studies (and ‘science’) and went hand in hand with each other. The magi would have followed the patterns of the stars religiously. They would have also probably been very rich and held high esteem in their own society and by people who weren’t from their country or religion.

They had seen an unusual new star in the sky, and knew that it told of the birth of a special king in Israel. No one really knows what the new star in the sky was, and there are many theories including comets, supernovas, a conjunctions of planets or something supernatural! Find out more about the star in the Star of Bethlehem page in the Christmas Customs section. The Magi would have known about the prophecies of a special Jewish Savior (also known as the Messiah) from when the Jews had been held captive in ancient Babylon several hundred years before.

Legends are told about them and they have been given names. This is how they are often described:

• Gaspar (or Caspar), who has brown hair and a brown beard (or no beard!) and wears a green cloak and a gold crown with green jewels on it. He is the King of Sheba. Gaspar represents the Frankincense brought to Jesus.
• Melchior, who has long white hair and a white beard and wears a gold cloak. He is the King of Arabia. Melchior represents the Gold brought to Jesus.
• Balthazar, who has black skin and a black beard (or no beard!) and wears a purple cloak. He is the King of Tarse and Egypt. Balthazar represents the gift of Myrrh that was brought to Jesus.

Herod asked the Wise Men to find Jesus and tell him where he was, not so he could go and worship him as he said, but so he could kill him! He thought that Jesus sounded like a new King that could come and take his power away.

When the Wise Men found Jesus and Mary, they would have been living in a normal house, probably in Bethlehem or Jerusalem, because by this time Jesus would have been aged between one and two. Then they gave their gifts to him. The gifts seem quite strange to give to a baby, but Christians believe that they had the following meanings:

• Gold: is associated with Kings and Christians believe that Jesus is the King of Kings.
• Frankincense: is sometimes used in worship in Churches and showed that people would worship Jesus.
• Myrrh: is a perfume that is put on dead bodies to make them smell nice; Christian believe that it showed that Jesus would suffer and die.

The gifts are also all things that come from east of Israel in Arabia.

When the wise men were about to go to tell Herod where Jesus was, they were warned in a dream not to, so Herod could not carry out his horrible plan.

When they [the wise men] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’

When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’

Matthew 2:13-18

The History behind Joseph, Mary and Jesus Escaping to Egypt in the Christmas Story

Although Herod was the ‘King of the Jews’, he wasn’t actually a Jew! He was a Nabatean and was really a ‘puppet king’ for the Romans. Herod was hated by most Jews and he didn’t like them either! So when the Magi said there was a new ‘King of the Jews’ – who was actually Jewish – Herod was very angry and scared that the new King could come and take his power away.

Because Herod was unable to find out where Jesus was from the wise men, he thought the only way of making sure Jesus was killed, was to kill every baby boy under two years old in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. Probably only about 20 babies would have been killed, but even that fact is really horrible. So his cruelty would had brought terror and grief to many homes. But Jesus was kept safe as Joseph took him and Mary to Egypt just in time. This was not the first time that Herod had killed people to keep them quiet – he even had killed people in his own family in the past!

The killing of the boys is mentioned in a Roman book in the 5th century, called “The Saturnalia of Macrobius” where it also claims that even one of Herod’s son’s was killed. It quotes the Roman Emperor Augustus as saying: “It is better to be Herod’s pig than a son.” It’s also described in “The Infancy Gospel of James”, although later scholars have cast doubt over both of these works.

However, the very respected Roman historian Josephus records many terrible acts in the life of Herod including the execution of his wife, son and brother-in-law! Josephus also records Herod’s death as taking place in 4 BCE/BC, so Jesus being born about 5-7 BCE/BC makes even more sense.

Jesus becoming a refugee and going to Egypt fulfilled some very old prophecies in the Old Testament of the Bible. The family probably didn’t have to spend too long in Egypt as Herod died soon after this.

The gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, which were brought by the wise men to Jesus, when he and his family were living in Bethlehem, could well have been used as ‘currency’ during the families’ escape and life in Egypt.

Frankincense and Myrrh are resins which come from trees. They have medicinal uses and were (and still are) used in many religions. They were also (and still are!) very valuable; at the time of Jesus they were worth MUCH more than the gold!

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’

So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’

Matthew 2:19-23

The History behind Joseph, Mary and Jesus returning from Egypt in the Christmas Story

Herod was very old and very ill at the time that ordered all the baby boys to be killed, sending the holy family into exile in Egypt. He was suffering from a very extreme case of delusional paranoia and killed anyone who posed even the slightest threat! He changed his will several times over the last few months of his life, as some of his sons were killed. He even ordered some of his sons to be killed, if he thought that were becoming too powerful!

Shortly before he died, Herod ordered all of Israel’s rich and powerful people to be shut in the great hall of Jerusalem. He then gave orders to his sister to have all of the rich people killed after he died, so they could not become king after him!

Five days before Herod died, he killed the eldest of his remaining sons (who should have become king after him) and named his son Archelaus as the next King. When Herod died, he was buried in the Garden of Herodium near Bethlehem and Archelaus became King.

If you thought Herod was a bad King, Archelaus was far worse! That is why, when the holy family returned to Judea, they went back to their old town of Nazareth rather than returning to Bethlehem. Nazareth had a different ruler to Bethlehem because it was in the kingdom of Galilee not Judea.

Archelaus persecuted more people than Herod and spent all the people’s tax money on things for himself rather than the kingdom. In the year 6 he was banished by the Romans to Gaul (a part of the Roman Empire that’s now France) as a punishment!

Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived in Nazareth until Jesus started his teachings. This fulfilled another prophesy in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Better Way: Delete your WhatsApp and Change to Telegram

WhatsApp : Illegal Effect : Hacking is growing at High Risk in future

(1) WhatsApp does not store messages on its servers, so if cybercriminals were to hack into the platform, they would not be able to decrypt any of the messages.

Telegram is a cloud service. We store messages, photos, videos and documents from your cloud chats on our servers so that you can access your data from any of your devices anytime without having to rely on third-party backups. This way local engineers or physical intruders cannot get access to user data.

(2) (a) Additionally, WhatsApp does not have the key to see encrypted messages. By default, WhatsApp stores messages in a way that allows them to be backed up to the cloud by iOS or Android. WhatsApp store in phone storage device occupies more space.

(2) (b) WhatsApp files (photos, audios, videos, documents) and texts occupying too much phone storage device. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/whatsapp-files-occupying-too-much-phone-storage-heres-what-you-can-do-279321-2020-11-21 to view webpage with the browser.

Telegram provides unlimited cloud storage. This means all your text messages, images media files & documents will be saved on their cloud without losing any data, you don’t need to worry about backup & restore.

(3) WhatsApp: Uncrackable problem of end-to-end encryption: Lack of Security

Telegram Secret Chats are one-on-one chats wherein messages are encrypted with a key held only by the chat’s participants. Note that the schema for these end-to-end encrypted Secret Chats is different from what is used for cloud chats.

(4) WhatsApp Draining Your Phone’s Battery Too? This Could Be The Reason. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.republicworld.com/technology-news/apps/whatsapp-draining-your-phones-battery-too-this-could-be-the-reason.html to view webpage with the browser.

(5) WhatsApp warning: How a single phone call hacked phones worldwide. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/1276195/WhatsApp-hack-how-single-call-compromised-phones to view webpage with the browser.

(6) WhatsApp virus is a term used for a variety of malware and scams directed towards this popular communications app. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.2-spyware.com/remove-whatsapp-virus.html#qm-h2-1 to view webpage with the browser.

(7) New Warning for WhatsApp Users Over Account Suspension ‘Hack’. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/04/10/shock-new-warning-for-millions-of-whatsapp-users-on-apple-iphone-and-google-android-phones/?sh=2b33ce0d7585 to view webpage with the browser.

Telegram Privacy Policy: Read more: https://telegram.org/privacy

(8) This dangerous WhatsApp scam can access your personal and financial details. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/this-dangerous-whatsapp-scam-can-access-your-personal-and-financial-details/articleshow/88519735.cms to view webpage with the browser.

(9) Your WhatsApp, Facebook data isn’t safe! Malicious apps that steal data found on Play Store. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.businesstoday.in/buzztop/buzztop-technology/your-whatsapp-facebook-data-isnt-safe-malicious-apps-that-steal-data-found-on-play-store/story/307472.html to view webpage with the browser.

(10) Dangerous new spyware can steal your WhatsApp messages and take photos using your smartphone camera without your permission and admit it’s been around for FIVE YEARS already. Read more…Click here to open link.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/5359250/what-is-skygofree-spyware-how-to-stay-safe-whatsapp/ to view webpage with the browser.

(11) One of the most-advanced Android malware discovered; can even ‘steal’ your WhatsApp messages. Read more…Click here to open link.

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