"I Sent You Wise Men": Jesus's Confession to the Pharisees That Changes Everything
The Most Overlooked Statement in the Gospels In Matthew 23, Jesus delivers his most scathing rebuke of the Pharisees — the famous Seven Woes. Scholars have analyzed every word of this confrontation.
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The Most Overlooked Statement in the Gospels In Matthew 23, Jesus delivers his most scathing rebuke of the Pharisees — the famous Seven Woes. Scholars have analyzed every word of this confrontation. Yet one statement has been consistently overlooked, its implications too destabilizing for traditional Christianity to process: "Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town." — Matthew 23:34 Jesus is not speaking hypothetically. He is not quoting scripture. He is speaking in the first person: "I send you." He is telling the Pharisees — the guardians of Yahweh worship — that HE sent them wise men. Not Yahweh. Not the God of Abraham. Jesus himself. And who were the "wise men" in the biblical narrative? The Magi. Zoroastrian priests. The Context: Jesus vs.