My Response to Elena's Blog #9: Balthazar and the Biblical Magi

I find this connection super interesting! I thought of Belshazzar - a King in the Old Testament when I read the story at first. If you are familiar with Biblical history he was the King who saw the writing on the wall, had Daniel interpret it, and died the next day. I almost find that a closer representation than Balthazar, one of the wise men. Belshazzar is also sometimes called Balthazar. Interestingly though, the number of Wise Men is unknown. People just assume it is three based on the three gifts - one per person, and of course that has been passed down as tradition and depicted in pictures and books, but is not historically correct. There is actually another tradition as well that says there were 15 Wise men that came. Thought I'd pass that knowledge on, seeing as I just found out we don't know for sure how many Magi there were this last Christmas!