Something to think about at Christmas, especially after the upsetting events of last week:

Via Gill Rosenberg

Something to think about at Christmas, especially after the upsetting events of last week:

The Magi were likely the forefathers of today’s Kurds (Medes). 

The word Magi (ancient Greek μάγος, magâunô in the Avesta – the ancient religious literature of Zoroastrianism) has been used since the 4th century BC to denote a follower of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster, which was the religious caste of the Medes who supposedly had the ability to read and manipulate the stars. Eastern tradition sets the number of magi at twelve, instead of the three in Western tradition (which is likely based on the three gifts that were brought). The Syriac Infancy Gospel, a non-canonical New Testament apocryphal writing, cites Zoroaster as the prophetic source that motivated the wise men to seek out baby Jesus.

While there are numerous legends concerning the origins of the Kurds, the most widely accepted one is that the Kurds trace their ancestry back to one of the grandsons of Noah. In the writings of Evliya Çelebi, an Ottoman Turkish traveler who heard the legend from an Armenian historian (Mighdisî), says that after the Flood, the first towns to be built were Judi, followed by fortresses in Sinjar and Mifariqin. The Kurds have been living in the same area for over 5000 years. Their land forms what is known as the Fertile Crescent, on the opposite side of the Euphrates, adjacent to the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants forever.

The first known appearance of the word Magi is in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great, which can be dated to about 520 BC. Darius the Mede, in the book of Daniel, decreed that all of the Medo-Persian Empire would worship Daniel’s God. The prophets (Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah) all gave prophecies against every nation other than the Kurds (Medes). Having much favor with God, they were among the last peoples to have Islam forced on them by sword. Saddam Hussein, in his struggle for Arab nationalism, actually referred to Kurds and Persians as majus, thus implying that they were not true followers of Islam and continued to quietly practice pre-Islamic beliefs. This was part of his justification for the persecution and genocidal mass murder of Kurdish people in the 1980s. ISIS also considers the Kurds to be كَافِرُونَ (unbelievers).

So, as you celebrate Christmas, keep in mind that the first gentiles to worship Jesus were the forefathers of today's Kurds - the same nation America once again betrayed last week.