I was sitting in Sunday school, paying attention, listening, and with my mind turned on. The teacher was working through the verse below, and made a comment that the husband of Candace was one of the Wisemen who sought out the newborn King of the Jews.
Acts 8:27 (KJV) And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,...At that point, my bologna meter went off, and I almost stood up and said, “No.” We need to be aware that there is a difference between tradition and truth. It is possible that the church in Ethiopia had a tradition that the husband of Candace was one of the Wiseman. I would not quarrel that there is such a tradition. However, tradition is not always based in fact. A little thinking can go along way. I believe that the Gospel account says that the Wisemen came from the east. I don’t know if you are aware of any geography, but Ethiopia is to the south. Unless the husband of Candace was on an extended sabbatical, studying with the astronomers of the east, there is no way that he could have qualified to be one of the wise man at the birth of Jesus. We need to be aware that there is a difference. Tradition is sometimes based in fact, and almost believable. In fact, tradition might even be true, but not necessarily. If we want to be people who have any clout in our world, we need to keep her minds turned on and make a difference between tradition and verifiable facts.
homo unius libri
Amen! God’s Word contains all we need. We can use it to verify fact or fantasy. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThink of the world using the metric system and we are grounded in the old English system. The numbers only make sense when you know what the basics are. As you know, the Bible is our standard.
DeleteGrace and peace