Killjoy said:
All I'm seeing is that the story includes a bunch of yokels who were supposed to serve as mouthpieces. Could the passage in question not perhaps refer simply to a practice of guarding against predatory animals ? Jackals or something.
If you're looking for astronomers/astrologers, what about the magi/wise men "from the East" ? Again... Mithraism... a religion with origins in Persia ("the east"), and which involved observation of constellations in order to monitor the transitions of the world through various "ages" dictated by solar & stellar positions.
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M*W: The "Magi" from the East weren't kings or Persians, even though there are numerous theories on who they were and where they came from -- even serious documentaries have been done by biblical scholars about this. The "Magi" are the three stars in Orion's Belt.
Jesus (another name for the Sun) was born in Bethlehem (meaning "house of bread") in the Sign of Virgo. Yeast makes bread rise. The son-sun also rises. When the sun moved out of Virgo during the time of King Herod (not a real person; means "the nighttime), Magi from the East (meaning "three stars in Orion's Belt which rise in the East came to Jerusalem (indicated by the starry night sky) and asked, "Where is he (the sun) who has been born the King of the Jews? His star (the sun is Venus which is always seen near the Sun) when it rose in the east (the sun always 'rises' in the East), we have come to worship him." Jesus is a personification of the Sun. This shows the whole religion was originally about Sun worship.
When King Herod (nighttime) heard this he was disturbed, (night is worried there is a Sun that will rise (be born) and conquer him (nighttime). When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where Jesus (Sun) was born. Then Herod (nighttime) called the Magi (astronomers) and secretly found out from them the exact time the star (Venus) had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem (the house of bread in the Sign of Virgo)(Virgo is shown holding sheaths of wheat, i.e. bread). Herod told the astronomers, "Go and make a careful search for the child (look for the Sun in Virgo). As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
After they heard Herod, they went on their journey. The star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was (Sun rises in the east and sets in the west). On coming to the house/stable (Sign of Virgo), they saw the child (the Sun) with his mother (Virgo), and they bowed down and worshiped him (the Sun). Then they presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Gold is bright and shiny like the Sun. Frankincense was considered by the ancients to be godly essence). The Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they went 'back' to their country by 'another route.' The three stars Orion's belt return to their starting point by setting in the west, going under the earth back to their starting point, thus returning by another route).
