My Little Gnudren,

As we approach the Feast of Ephinoids Old Gnu wants to ask the question, “Just how wise were the Wise Men?” After all they couldn’t have done their research on Herod the Great. Herod is one of Old Gnu’s favourite topics so forgive him if he has blurted some of this out before, but it will lead to something different.

Herod was a cunning and slippery eel, and more murderous than Feathers McGraw. First let us take note of his murderous side.  He murdered his second wife Mariamne and also two of his sons. [His first wife, Doris, scarpered out of his grasp and as far as we know died a natural death. The official line is that he banished her. Very untypical. Murder was his natural reflex. Anyway, whatever … well done Doris!]. And besides that, he murdered pretty much anyone he didn’t like.  Now for his slippery side. He managed to curry favour with Julius Caesar and managed to sweet talk Mark Anthony and Augustus into keeping his post. He liked to be thought of as Jewish. He was in fact an Idumean, but raised as a Jew. The Jews didn’t like him very much. So he married into what was regarded as a very religious Jewish family. Poor girl. But the Jews still didn’t like him very much.  So he considerably improved/rebuilt parts of the Temple in Jerusalem and its precincts. The Jews still didn’t like him very much.

So you see, when these Wise Men [Magi, an order of Soothsayers, astrologers, interpreters of dreams etc etc] from somewhere in Persia turned up, they must have be slightly uninformed to ask, “Where is he that is born King of Jews”.  That, or slightly thick?  Herod’s murderous reputation had spread. The Magi are not a figment of the Gospel writer’s imagination. They turned up in Rome with the King of Gnuland [Armenia] according to Suetonius [Life of Nero 13:1] and in Athens to sacrifice to the memory of Plato according to Seneca [Epistles 58:3, 1]. So it’s quite in keeping with the times that they should take a shine to Bethlehem. On this occasion they remind Old Gnu of Monty Python’s Bishop’s Police Force who in an attempt to promote peace and safety wreak havoc. I wonder if they became aware of what happened 2 years later. Their injudicious inquiry led to the Slaughter of the Innocents. They should have asked at the local hostelry first! They did it in all innocence.

Old Gnu is minded of a number of things he has done or said in all innocence that have led to undesirable consequences. After all that is the job of a vicar.  We have to trust the Almighty who told the Wise Men to give Herod a miss after their visit to Bethlehem. Why didn’t She tell them sooner? Her ways are past finding out according to Isaiah [reading from the inclusive Bible].

Mr. Frederick William Robertson [1816-1853] who could recite the whole New Testament by heart made this comment:“It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is done, but by making the best of what we are. … Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, [yes. Old Gnu’s Mother confessed] and he is not the best Christian nor the best General who makes the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins most the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organise victory out of mistakes.”

Well, thank you Mr. F.W. Robertson. I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. Old Gnu goes into another year with several weights lifted from his mind. Cheers!

Vetus Pater Gnu
Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA

XXXI Mensis Decembris MMXXIV