Daily Faith with Philip Cameron: Special Guest Mike Coleman
About this episode
Biblical archaeologist Mike Coleman joins Philip Cameron for a deep-dive into the hidden layers of the Christmas story that most believers have never encountered. Coleman reveals that the shepherds outside Bethlehem were not ordinary herdsmen — they were priest-shepherds, trained in animal husbandry by the temple priesthood and assigned specifically to raise sacrificial Passover lambs. "They inspected this lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world," Coleman explains, "and they found him worthy." It is a detail that transforms the nativity from a familiar scene into a profound theological statement. Coleman also unpacks the identity of the Magi, arguing they were likely Jewish descendants of Daniel, fluent in more than 350 Messianic prophecies and driven by science rather than superstition. He notes that the wise men could only follow the star at night — a powerful reminder that "the fruit of God's direction comes at the darkest hours of our life." Perhaps most striking is Coleman's archaeological insight into Roman law: in the decades before Christ's birth, it had become illegal — under penalty of death — for ordinary Jews to possess gold, burn frankincense in their homes, or anoint their dead with myrrh. The wise men's gifts were therefore not ceremonial; they were the provisions God pre-arranged to sustain Mary, Joseph, and Jesus during their flight to Egypt. Learn more about Mike Coleman's ministry at www.realliferealtalk.com
Part of our Jesus collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“I find it so incredible that it's these priest shepherds that were the first to see Jesus after he was born. They inspected this lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And they found him worthy.”
“So often the fruit of revelation, the fruit of God's direction, comes at the darkest hours of our life. When everybody else in your world is sleeping. When they've gone behind the locked doors and they've closed the shutters and tightened things down — that's when the wise men get up. You can only follow a star in the dark.”
“Sometimes what God gives us is not for now. It's for later. And he wants us to learn to be good stewards of that. That's part of the season of preparation of the gifts.”
What's Discussed
Biblical archaeologist Mike Coleman reveals three overlooked dimensions of the Christmas narrative. First, the Bethlehem shepherds were temple-trained priest-shepherds raising sacrificial Passover lambs — making them the theologically perfect first witnesses to Jesus. Second, the Magi were likely Jewish descendants of Daniel, scientists grounded in 350-plus Messianic prophecies, who could only follow the star at night — a metaphor for divine guidance in life's darkest seasons. Third, Coleman presents archaeological evidence that Roman law had made it illegal, under penalty of death, for ordinary Jews to possess gold, burn frankincense, or use myrrh for burial anointing. The wise men's gifts were therefore God's pre-arranged provision for the Holy Family's survival during their exile in Egypt.
- Priest-Shepherds and the Sacrificial Lamb
- Identity of the Magi as Descendants of Daniel
- Science, Prophecy, and the Christmas Star
- Following the Star Only in Darkness
- Roman Law and Illegal Jewish Practices
- Why the Wise Men's Gifts Were Forbidden
- Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh as Divine Provision for Egypt
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith. Today, I'm just looking at this camera and I can see the Christmas tree behind me, and I'm dressed in tartan. I mean, we are into the Christmas swing right here, right now. My wife, Chrissy, is still putting up Christmas lights and stuff. I came in yesterday and she's up a ladder, and I'm thinking, Chrissy, it'll be time to take this down, this stuff down. But it really is. It's her favorite time of the year, and it's our whole family's favorite time of the year. Everything just gets a bit softer and kinder when it comes to Christmas time. And I hope wherever you are that your Christmas preparations are in full swing, and you are getting ready to celebrate.
Philip:The greatest story ever told — that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. What a ridiculous concept that the God who opens his hand, the Bible says, and satisfies the desire of every living thing, who has to stoop to behold the heavens, limited himself into a little wee baby, to be born in a stable in Bethlehem. Angels sang in the heavens, and the whole world changed when this little baby came. And today — this is not, this is not Bible — this is today: the most known person in the world is my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philip:There is no other substitute. And I hope and pray in your Christmas preparations that you make space for the baby of Bethlehem, but also the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who conquered death, hell, and the grave when he died on the cross and rose again on the third day. We are a winning team. I'm reading a book just now that is absolutely mind blowing, by William Manchester. And the name of it just slipped out of my mind.
Philip:But it's an incredible book talking about the middle ages, the dark ages, and these men who lived by fire and candlelight, and just the revelation of God that came when the church was decadent, when the church was corrupt, when you could buy forgiveness from the Popes. Oh, it's just mind blowing. And he deals with Calvin and all these guys, and it's a miracle that the church has survived. But the Bible says I will build my church, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Philip:The name of the book is A World Lit Only by Fire. You need to get that book. And you look at what we have come through as the church, and you'll be astonished. A World Lit Only by Fire, and it's by William Manchester. Any book that he writes is brilliant. He has a trilogy on Winston Churchill that will blow your brains. And also the last day of President John F. Kennedy's life, and the detail that he goes through — he had private access through Jackie Kennedy — and it's just a mind blowing book. Anyway, that's beside the point. We've got a great guest today.
Philip:We've got a biblical archeologist and a dear friend of this ministry. A great man of God who always brings a perspective that I have never seen before, and I'm sure he'll be doing the same thing. Mike Coleman is with me, and I believe it's gonna be important for you to hear, and it's directly tied to this time of the year. You'll love it. Help me if you can — hit your share button and also the bell. You can click on that bell and that will alert you to when Daily Faith comes on the air. We started this program four years ago during the Covid debacle. And pastors were calling me, saying what's happening — as I travel in churches in our ministry, and they wanted to know what else was going on in the church.
Philip:So I was spending hours on the phone talking to these pastors, and my sons said to me, why don't you start a program? Take a pastor on, let him tell what he is going through, and maybe you can help populate, or advise, or whatever, other pastors. And that's how we started. And it's amazing how much we've grown since then. And we've got a whole bunch of TV stations and networks, and we are delighted to have you with us.
Philip:If you are watching us today, you can watch us on CDN stations in Tampa, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, and Tulsa. In Tampa we're on at 6:30 in the evenings. In West Palm Beach we're on on Monday at seven o'clock. In Fort Myers we're on on Wednesday in the afternoon at one o'clock. And in Tulsa, Saturday and Sunday at two o'clock, both days. We're also on a whole bunch of networks — Integrity Network, Journey Network, WGES Network. So we are getting there, and God is helping us by people like you supporting the ministry.
Philip:And I really appreciate you considering helping us if you could. If you're watching this program, we need your support. And by doing so, you can really be a blessing, not just to us to allow us to continue, but to those that need to hear hope. Daily Faith is a program that is there to affirm how people feel in their walk with Jesus. I'm just delighted to have you with us, and I believe today is gonna be a really, really important program for you to hear. God's got a word for you. I'm thrilled you're here. Welcome to Daily Faith.
Philip:Hello, my friend. Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am so happy to have you with us. We've got a great program coming up today. A dear friend of mine, Mike Coleman, is a biblical archeologist, and God uses him around the world to bring insight to the church. Many of us have a very shallow understanding of the scripture, and within the pages of this ridiculous, remarkable book called the Bible, there are miles deep of information and revelation.
Philip:And he slowly goes over and picks it and ties history into it, and before you know it, it creates a whole new picture. And he is with us today. We always love to have him with us. He has a ministry, a podcast called Real Life, Real Talk. And I'll be talking about that later on in the program, but we're just delighted to have you with us right now. For those that know us, we've had missionary work in Eastern Europe for 35 years. 35 years ago, I adopted a little boy in an orphanage in Romania, and God used that experience to break my heart for missions.
Philip:It is my passion. It's what I live for. I love doing Daily Faith. I love preaching, but nothing fills me like taking a life that's been thrown in the garbage heap, told by everybody, you're nothing, you'll always be nothing, you're garbage, and by the grace of God and the love of God, watch a miracle take place in their lives. Today we have hundreds of our kids all over the world. I got a text this morning from Australia — I love you, dad — a young girl that has just been transformed. Her sister also, she talked to me yesterday, just coincidentally. And to watch these lives be transformed.
Philip:Moldova is the poorest country in all of Europe, with a high amount of alcoholics per population. In Ukraine we have a home where we support these young, beautiful young ladies. And you know what's going on in Ukraine — there's a horrendous war going on. Up to a million people have lost their lives in this place. It's unbelievable. Now in America it has been politicized, so the Democrats want to help and the Republicans don't want to help because we're wasting money. That's not a debate I'm involved in. What I'm interested in is rescuing the perishing and caring for the dying.
Philip:And there are young girls that are broken by the orphanage system and by poverty. And in our Moldova houses, we've got a whole village. We've got the most amazing place called Vatra Village. It's a whole village of houses right on the largest lake in Moldova. That's right there — you're watching them right this minute. We built this place, and these kids come from poverty-stricken circumstances or orphanages.
Philip:And every girl you're looking at right now — if a trafficker were to get them, and hundreds of thousands of Moldovan girls have been sold into the trafficking, sex trafficking business — every girl you're looking at would make their trafficker, that would catch them, offer them a bogus job, $300,000 a year into their pocket, every one of them. And we have taken them in. We tell them, you're not a mistake. God has a plan for your life. We put them back in school.
Philip:We support them through their school. Some of them have been with us for six years to become doctors. One of our girls who's now a doctor — her mom was bedridden, and we fed her mom for six years as well as supported her in the university. Amazing stories, amazing stories. But the greatest thing that I can testify to is they come to us as orphans and we turn them into sons and daughters, and then we turn them into missionaries. And they are out right now, in the cold days of wintertime, having camps and having special events for young kids to hear the gospel.
Philip:I got this video this morning. You're watching it along with me for the very first time. Watch this.
Philip:In the poorest, coldest, darkest place — villages that no one knows about, poverty beyond your understanding. Wintertime. I can't begin to explain the desperation of wintertime. Broken homes, widows with no one. Our kids in our village in Vatra — each of the homes adopts a village for a whole year. They visit the village regularly, every week, every couple of weeks. They have youth camps, summer camps, winter camps, all kinds of camps. They find every widow in the village and they chop her wood in the wintertime. They dig a garden in the spring, they plant vegetables in the garden.
Philip:And by giving themselves — the quickest way I found to break the poverty spirit in an orphan is to have them give something away. And these kids, the first few days they are with us, we go out and we start giving out stuff. And orphans that have spent their whole life in quiet desperation, hoping that someone comes and gives them anything, suddenly give away more stuff than they've ever imagined existed in the world. So we are helping those that we are reaching. The reason why we're called the Orphan's Hands is because it's the hands of the orphan that are reaching out to those in desperate need.
Philip:And that team you're looking at just now — that just happened in the last couple of days. We don't have a big production company that goes over and videos all these programs and makes special programs. Our own kids have video cameras, and they video that camera and edit that thing, put it all together, and send it to me as you are watching it. And other ministries — that would cost thousands and thousands of dollars to fly over there — we are doing it every day. Every day something's taking place through our kids at Vatra Village. And we sure need your help to keep that going.
Philip:We have two new homes we're about to start talking about, which are just amazing — wait till you hear what God's doing. But right now we have a real crisis on our hands, and that is that in those broken villages that our kids help, the greatest need they have is wood for their fires. Wood. They have no indoor plumbing, they have no toilets in their houses. There's no sidewalks, there's no street lamps. They live in the age — it's like Africa with minus 30 degrees weather. That's how bad it is.
Philip:And our kids, apart from going out and giving Christmas presents and helping families like we do this year, we are trying to give out wood to keep a family alive. And we found a place in Moldova that we can buy gigantic industrial-sized bags of wood. They are amazing. Look at them. And we have ordered a hundred of those right now, and we are looking for a hundred people watching this program to sponsor one of those bags of wood.
Philip:It costs us $65 per bag. A pastor said in America this would cost between $130 to $150 for that amount of wood. Our kids take this in our vans and deliver them and then stack it for these widows. So a widow — she just can't chop the wood. These are handicapped, old people that don't have the strength. And our kids bring this to them, bring them clothes, bring them food, and transform a desperate, desperate life-and-death situation into one of peace.
Philip:And I'm asking you today, if you could help us, if you could open your heart please, and allow us to go and give one house one month — $65 — to take the fear of freezing to death away from them. You can do that right now. I know you can. I know that our business folk that are watching, you can buy 10 bags. Some of you can buy a hundred bags — a $6,500 gift — and you can give a hundred families. As much money as comes in on this appeal, we'll buy bags and give them away.
Philip:So I'm asking you right now to help us. We have a hundred that we've already pre-ordered and we're saying we're gonna come, we're gonna start giving them out. And we're just waiting for the Lord to talk to your heart to help us. You can give really simply — just make a check out to the Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. That address will be up during the program so you can get it down, so don't be in a panic. We'll leave the address up long enough.
Philip:You can also go to DailyFaith.tv — very simple, DailyFaith.tv. There's a giving page. You can go on that giving page and give your money there. If you want, you can also call our phone number: 1-833-Daily Faith. So dial 1-833, and then write out on your keypad Daily Faith. And a real live, honest-to-goodness person will pick up the phone and listen and take your gift. This is the greatest time of the year. This is the time of the greatest gift of all time. And we are asking if you could help us please.
Philip:And let me suggest something also for you. Go to orphanshands.org — orphanshands.org. There are dozens of videos that will help you see what we do constantly. I promise you, it will bless your soul to watch these kids that everybody wrote off, everybody wrote off, transforming people's lives as their own life is transformed. It's a brand new website. If you've been there before, it's a brand new website with so much more to see. And by doing so, you can make a miracle happen in the lives of these kids. Thank you so much.
Philip:I'm delighted to have with me a friend, a real friend of this ministry. Mike and his wife Patty have been part of our ministry since almost the beginning. And he always brings a revelation word to us. And we are just so happy. Mike, thank you for joining with us today. How are you doing, my brother?
Mike Coleman:Oh, doing great. Doing great. It's a joy to be with you again, my friend. Thank you so much, especially at this time of the year.
Priest-Shepherds and the Sacrificial Lamb
Philip:It's my favorite time of the year.
Mike Coleman:Yeah, I love it for so many different reasons, but it's such a season of hope. And I sense that on a spiritual level, that hope just permeates and percolates and brushes — it even brushes against people that have no idea what's going on. When I used to watch all these big shows they put on with big stars singing Christmas songs and stuff, I was mad at first. And then I realized he's making the wrath of man praise him. And these guys that live like devils all year long suddenly become saints and sing Silent Night and all these things. But they're acknowledging, they're acknowledging that Jesus was born.
Philip:And I stopped being mad at them and thought, well, hey, go ahead and sing. I understand that emotion of looking at them and going, you know, how dare they. But then wait a minute — the truth is getting out. The word is getting out. And if God's word can come through the mouth and off the lips of a donkey, then why not these people, right?
Mike Coleman:Absolutely. And you know, I'll never get used to it. You were on the program a couple of years ago, maybe three or four years ago, when you talked about the animals — the shepherds out in the fields watching after their flocks. Those weren't just sheep, they were the sacrificial lambs.
Philip:Yes. Yes. Tell us about that.
Mike Coleman:A great part of the priesthood that ministered at the temple were trained in animal husbandry. And they in turn were assigned to Bethlehem, where they raised sheep that were going to be set aside for temple sacrifice — for Passover lambs. And these lambs, they would be born, and these priest shepherds would catch them, and the first thing they would do is inspect them and look at them to make certain that they're worthy to be set aside for sacrifice later. And I find it so incredible that it's these priest shepherds that were the first to see Jesus after he was born. They inspected this lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And they found him worthy.
Philip:Oh my gosh. And you also share — I think it's amazing — and we think of the three wise men. It didn't say there were three. There were these wise men from the east. They're called kings. But tell us, it's more than we just see on the surface of the story. Like most of the Bible, there's always another dimension.
Identity of the Magi as Descendants of Daniel
Mike Coleman:There's always a backstory. And the word of God is multidimensional. It really is. And the word of God is eternal. And that doesn't mean from point one to point infinity. The best way — the biblical description of eternity is not a straight line, Philip. It's a circle. It's a circle. It's never ending. That's eternity. And that's the word of God. It's never ending. It continues to circle back around with a new truth into our life. And the story of the wise men is no different.
Mike Coleman:No doubt they were — and I believe they were descendants of Daniel, that they were residents of Babylon. And they were men of science. That's why they are called wise men, or the Magi. Sometimes they're called kings, which was simply a title given to those who were in the academic fields. These people sometimes were almost worshiped because they were so far beyond the understanding of most people. They were not driven by superstition, but rather driven by the science that they pursued. And so these wise men no doubt were these kinds of men.
Mike Coleman:I believe they were Jews. I believe they were descendants of Daniel. I believe they were familiar with the 350-plus prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming Messiah. And I believe that their knowledge of these prophecies was the foundation for when this revelation of this star — we have seen his star in the east, we have come to worship. Now, how did they know it was his star?
Philip:Yeah. How did they know it was his star?
Mike Coleman:Because no doubt they had studied it. And the extra-biblical prophecies that were so rampant — we still have many of those, by the way, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, they have come back to light. They're not in the Bible. We don't hold them as sacred scripture, but they are accurate history of things that have happened and transpired. And so that was the foundation for what then had to be revelation, that by the inside work of God said, this is his star. This is his star. And they came and they worshiped him. And it was amazing.
Science, Prophecy, and the Christmas Star
Philip:I just think when I read this story — and I love the story of the wise men — because to me it marries science with scripture. These guys, you're saying these were no fools. One of them — I don't think they all saw it at one time. One of them was out looking at the stars one night. I mean, for them, even in those days, to know all the different constellations, et cetera — and they knew them in those days, it's in the scripture. But for one of them to identify out of the billions and trillions of stars one unique star that was moving contrary to what the universe was doing in its normal activity.
Philip:And this guy starts looking, and then he finds other men and he says, come and watch this with me. And they make a decision. The most crazy thing is that these guys end up risking everything they possess to go and find this king.
Mike Coleman:Absolutely. And you know, every star has an orbit. And the orbit of this star was over Bethlehem. And the Son of God lay there. And they saw this, and they saw the glory of what was happening. And Philip, I love something that you referred to in our pre-show discussion, when you talked about how they could only follow the star at night.
Following the Star Only in Darkness
Philip:Well, that just made such an impact on me when you shared that.
Mike Coleman:And it caused me to realize, and to remember, that so often the fruit of revelation, the fruit of God's direction, comes at the darkest hours of our life. When everybody else in your world is sleeping. When they've gone behind the locked doors and they've closed the shutters and tightened things down — that's when the wise men get up. You can only follow a star in the dark.
Mike Coleman:And these men risked their lives, risked their fortune to walk through the night. And I'm not talking on sidewalks and paved roads. They walked across a horrendous terrain to get to Bethlehem, at nighttime. They did all of what you hear during the night.
Philip:Yes, yes. The most dangerous time for travel, surely, in biblical times was at night, because that's when pilgrims and travelers would be seized upon by thieves and robbers.
Mike Coleman:Absolutely. And there was a lot of political unrest during that time. So on so many levels they would have been vulnerable. They would no doubt have been uncertain. But those — you know, and it's the same thing in our life. Sometimes we'll say, God, it doesn't make sense why you are leading me the way you're leading me. The timing of your will for my life, I don't understand it. But we have to look no further than the wise men to be reminded that God's ways are not our ways.
Philip:Absolutely.
Mike Coleman:And his timing is not our timing. And if God calls us to walk in the midst of the darkness, there's a reason. There's a reason for it.
Philip:So tell us — the gifts. I mean, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I know what gold is. What are these three gifts? You know, the priest, prophet, and king — they were the gifts of priest, prophet, and king. But it really goes much deeper than that.
Roman Law and Illegal Jewish Practices
Mike Coleman:And I want to take you to the law — the law that was layered over Israel at the time that Jesus was born. There is a reason that God chose that time to send his son. Not only were the Jews under Jewish law that had become so restrictive — 300-plus manmade laws that were forced upon them — but they were also under Roman law, Philip.
Mike Coleman:So these layers and layers of religious law, traditional law, Roman law — law was imposed upon these people. Now, one of the brilliant strategies of the Romans is they understood, okay, you give the conquered people a little bit of their religion back, but you also have to control this. And how they controlled it with the Jews was this way: they gave only to the royalty — that royalty being Roman royalty, that royalty being any Jews that had been assigned to the court of Rome, or to the scribes or the Pharisees, and these were all political appointments — to keep favor with the Romans, you give them endowments, you give them gifts.
Mike Coleman:And one of the privileges given to the ruling class was the ability to possess gold. Now, every Jewish home had an altar. Every father would lead his family in prayer, the lighting of incense. They took that away as an act of further control, and they said, now you have to go to the temple. You have to present yourself to these priests that, again, were corrupted by Rome. And you have to pay an offering, which stimulated the economy — and the Romans got a kickback — and you have to burn their incense that you buy from them. No longer can you do it in your home. Frankincense — it's an incense, it was burnt in prayer. And so that became illegal.
Mike Coleman:And the third thing was one of the greatest acts of a family was to go and anoint the body of your dead loved one or relative. And that was taken away. Why? Because even the prophets — those that were assigned to anoint the bodies of the dead — they were corrupted, because Rome only wanted them to say good things. The prophets to say good things about Rome. And the scribes and the Pharisees and the Judean leadership, they only wanted the prophets to say good things.
Mike Coleman:So again, there was such corruption. And it boiled down to this: over a period of about 40 years prior to the birth of Jesus, it became illegal for the average Jew to possess gold. It became illegal for them to have prayers in their own home or to burn incense. And it became illegal for them to anoint the bodies of their own dead. Wow. Under penalty of death, Philip. Under penalty of death.
Why the Wise Men's Gifts Were Forbidden
Mike Coleman:So here are these guys, these wise men. They come and they give Mary and Joseph gifts that, when they look at them, are illegal. We're not supposed to have this gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And here's the gist of the story — it's simply this. These were gifts, yes. They were gifts that no doubt the Holy Spirit imposed upon the hearts of these wise men, the gifts they were supposed to be given. But it wasn't for then. It was for later.
Mike Coleman:And what is the later? When the wise men depart, what do we see happening? The angel of the Lord came to Joseph and said, take Mary and the Christ child and go to Egypt. Jews were allowed to be in Egypt because Egypt hated Rome also. But they were required to work, but they weren't able to make money. So the gold, frankincense, and myrrh is what sustained Mary and Joseph and the Christ child when they were in Egypt.
Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh as Divine Provision for Egypt
Mike Coleman:So see, the gifts that the wise men gave them were not for them. It was for later. And sometimes what God gives us is not for now. It's for later. And he wants us to learn to be good stewards of that. That's part of the season of preparation of the gifts.
Philip:So the wise men's gifts were illegal because everything — it sounds like our government today.
Mike Coleman:Yes. Sadly to say.
Philip:Wow, that's amazing. But yet God has a way. He knew that Jesus was gonna go to Egypt, and he brought these guys all the way from the east to bring the miracles and the needs that be met. Wow. As always, you blow my mind. Thank you so much.
Philip:I want you to get in contact with Mike. This is important. He has a ministry — Real Life, Real Talk. RealLifeRealTalk.com. If you want to learn about him, do so. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova, from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons.
They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness, now no longer orphans. They want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking.
Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 1-833-Daily Faith. You can also give by going online to www.DailyFaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
Why does Mike Coleman think the shepherds at the nativity were actually priest shepherds?
Mike explains that a significant part of the priesthood was trained in animal husbandry and assigned to Bethlehem specifically to raise sheep set aside for temple sacrifice — Passover lambs. These priest shepherds would inspect each newborn lamb for worthiness. He finds it deeply significant that it was these same men who were the first to see Jesus after his birth, effectively inspecting the Lamb who was, as scripture says, slain before the foundation of the world.
Who does Mike Coleman think the wise men actually were, and how did they know the star was Jesus's star?
Mike believes the wise men were Jewish descendants of Daniel living in Babylon — men of science and academic learning, not superstition. He thinks their deep familiarity with the 350-plus Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah gave them the foundation to recognize the star, and that a direct inside work of God then confirmed it as his star. Their title of 'kings' was simply an honorific given to scholars of their era.
What does Mike Coleman mean when he says 'you can only follow a star in the dark'?
Mike points out that the wise men could only follow the star at nighttime — the most dangerous time to travel in the ancient world, full of thieves and political unrest. He uses this as a spiritual parallel: God's clearest direction and the fruit of revelation often come during the darkest, most uncertain seasons of our lives, when everyone else has locked their doors and gone to sleep. The wise men's willingness to walk through that darkness is a model for trusting God's timing even when it doesn't make sense.
Why were the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh actually illegal for ordinary Jews at the time of Jesus's birth?
Mike explains that over roughly 40 years before Jesus's birth, Roman law — enforced through corrupted Jewish religious leadership — had made it illegal for average Jews to possess gold (a privilege reserved for Roman-aligned ruling classes), to burn incense in their own homes (they had to buy it at the temple), and to anoint the bodies of their own dead. All three were punishable by death. So when the wise men handed Mary and Joseph those gifts, they were handing them contraband.
What were the gifts of the wise men actually used for, according to Mike Coleman?
Mike argues the gifts weren't meant for the moment they were given — they were provision for later. Immediately after the wise men left, the angel told Joseph to flee to Egypt with Mary and the Christ child. Jews could live in Egypt but weren't permitted to earn money there, so the gold, frankincense, and myrrh became the financial lifeline that sustained the holy family during their time in Egypt. Mike uses this as a broader lesson that what God gives us is sometimes not for now, but for a future need we can't yet see.
Topics
mike colemanbiblical archaeologynativity storymagichristmas starroman law biblepriest shepherds