Feeds are abuzz with reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury dismissed the tale of the gifts of the Magi as being mere legend. “Three wise men leading us astray” writes the Australian. Heck, the Telegraph heads the story with “Archbishop says nativity ‘a legend'”—the whole nativity?
Fortunately, the Telegraph also makes available an (edited) transcript of the conversation Williams had with BBC Radio 5’s Simon Mayo. When you read these comments, understand that they are in the context of the Archbishop explaining religious-themed Christmas cards—and indeed, the holiday itself—to people who “don’t know where Bethlehem is … have never heard of Mary and so on.”
Mayo seems to be going through all the characters in the creche, with Williams responding with what he believes about each of those characters, and they get to the three wise men, and the following exchange takes place:
Mayo: And the wise men with the gold, frankincense, and Myrrh – with one of the wise men normally being black and the other two being white, for some reason?
ABC: Well Matthew’s gospel doesn’t tell us that there were three of them, doesn’t tell us they were kings, doesn’t tell us where they came from, it says they’re astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire. That’s all we’re really told so, yes, ‘the three kings with the one from Africa’ – that’s legend; it works quite well as legend.
Not the whole nativity; not even the bit about the wise men—just pointing out that the bible doesn’t say “three kings with the one from Africa.”
You can read the whole (edited) transcript here.