[Granville-Hough] 10 Dec 2009 - The Magi etc

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:13:38 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: The Magi, etc, 10 Dec 2009

Today was bright and cold, reminding me of Thule December days, which 
were always dark and cold, but some nights the sky would be brighter 
with stars than anything you could ever see in the United States.  I 
have been asked how you could get to Thule, Greenland.  The answer is 
simple.  Look at the North Star and the Big Dipper which circles it.  
Start walking toward the North Star.  Keep walking until the North Star 
is straight up and the Big Dipper is up there going round and round it 
(or rather, the earth is turning so it looks as if the Big Dipper is 
moving).  You would be at the latitude of Thule.  You are close enough 
to the North Pole that you must look straight up to see the North Star. 
   Which brings me to the story of the Magi and the overhead star.  It 
is an interesting story in Mathew, chapter 2, setting the stage for 
Joseph's flight to Egypt and King Herod's massacre of the boys of 
Bethlehem who were under two years old.  I do not know that any of these 
events actually happened.  Consider the Magi.  We have always called the 
Magi the "Three Wise Men," and we have even given them names, but there 
is no such information in my bibles.  They are simply referred to as 
"they," which could mean two, ten, or twenty.  Perhaps the "three" came 
from the fact that their collective gifts included gold, incense, and 
myrrh.  But, if there were twenty of them, the combinations of who gave 
what might still came up to three categories.  No one brought 
watermelons, collard greens, or toys.  Perhaps the gifts were to finance 
the supposed flight to Egypt.  One does not learn how they were used.
   I used to tell an anecdote about the school board meeting in a 
country school in Arkansas.  One parent spoke to the question of wasting 
time on foreign languages.  He declared with great feeling: "I want my 
children taught the English language, jess lack Jesus Christ spoke it!"  
On more than one occasion, I told my anecdote, and there would be dead 
silence.  Then someone would ask: "What is wrong with that?"  Then I 
would have to explain that Jesus lived 2000 years ago and spoke Aramaic, 
and that English is less than 800 years old.  To which the reply was: 
"Oh, I forgot that."  So it is with the Wise Men, however many there 
were.  How far away would they have been to see the star in the western 
sky, then to travel toward it until it was overhead?  Several thousand 
miles would be a good answer for sure, if the Thule example holds up.  
Persia (Iran) where the Magi were supposed to live, would not give any 
noticeable difference as to the height of the star.  So much for 
inerrancy, the belief that every word in the bible is true and 
infallible and was spoken in King James English.   
    Lloyd Hough clears up the nature of two articles of arctic gear.  
"The cap was a pile cap with ear flaps.  It looked like a Russian cap.  
I do remember the heavy rubber Mickey Mouse boots.  To me they must have 
weighed a ton."    The boots could have been called arctic overshoes, 
but I only recalled a much more practical Eskimo overshoe called the 
mukluk, which we did not have.
   There is only one more Thule story I want to relate in this series, 
and it is a sad one.  I included it in one of the Sullivan volumes, just 
as a page filler; but I will retrieve it.  With love to all, Grampa.
---------------------------
  Muhammad Ali was not always a bad role model, and he is quoted as 
giving this advice to young people: "Don't count the days, make the days 
count."