Exclusive– Raymond Arroyo: ‘The Wise Men Who Found Christmas’ a ‘High-Stakes Adventure’ for the ‘Whole Family’

Raymond Arroyo, managing editor of EWTN’s The World Over and Fox News contributor, said on Tuesday’s edition of the Breitbart News Daily podcast with host Alex Marlow that his latest illustrated children’s book, The Wise Men Who Found Christmas, chronicles the “high-stakes adventure” of the three wise men who traveled to meet the newborn baby Jesus as part of the Christmas story.

Arroyo said he spent months researching varying sources of information regarding the three wise men’s travels to visit the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem. He said he discovered that most popular beliefs regarding the three wise men are incorrect.

“I started this looking for a legend about the wise men that I could tell, kind of a fantastical fun tale for the family,” he stated. That’s what I was looking for. Well, as I went out, I discovered everything you and myself and most of your listeners probably know of the wise men turns out to be legendary and false.”

He continued, “There were probably more than three of them. The Gospel only talks about three gifts, not three wise men. The Coptic Church says there might have been 60 wise men. The Syrians and Armenians say there were 12 in first- and second-century documents. We just don’t know. But there were more than three.”

“They weren’t kings,” he added. “That was a creation in the sixth century that came up with the kings and gave them these names. They weren’t from the Far East. Justin Martyr [and] the Clement of Rome — 1st-century sources — say the wise men came from Arabia.”

He went on, “I started digging, and what I discovered was a story far more fascinating. Certainly, the stakes are a lot higher for these wise men — this was not some royal gift drop-off. This was a high-stakes adventure with a group of men who felt drawn to something larger than themselves and were willing to risk their lives and endure the murderous threats of King Herod to get to this light, to get to this child and this Messiah, whom they believed was on the other side of the Dead Sea.” 

The wise men’s assumption of great risk to visit baby Jesus must have been motivated by religious conviction, Arroyo held.

“There is a cost for being called to the truth,” he remarked, “but you have to get on your horse and you have to run toward it. … These wise men kept their eyes ever upward. They were looking to God and to truth and for something larger than themselves, and it seems to me that’s what we have to cast our eyes upon, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year. It’s the best posture for all of us.”