Christmas today is a winter festival and religious celebration widely spread throughout the world. Its basic elements, with the birth of Jesus, “the anointed of the Lord,” or Khrystos (Christ) as he is titled, at the centre, and with motifs like “no room at the inn,” the manger, the angels, shepherds, Christmas Star, and the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, are widely recognized and commemorated. The Three Wise Men from the East or “Magi,” who come to do homage to the newborn king, is one of these motifs. Most people, both Christians and others, think of this as a single harmonious story that is firmly grounded in Holy Scripture, especially the Gospels of the two Evangelists, Mathew and Luke. But the origins of the Christmas story as a whole are much more complicated than that…