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Remember, Herod was King of the Jews, based on Roman Power NOT any other right. In fact his family was not of the Jewish blood lines (But a related tribe, that the Jews incorporated into the Jewish people during Herod's father's time period).
Thus Herod's hold on Power in Judea was weak. He had lost it at least twice before and feared losing it again. The main opposition was the Pharisees, who were openly allied with the Persians of his time period (One group of Historians believe the term "Phasisees" is a divination of Persia or Parthian, the Parthens ruled Persia at that time, through others says it is from a Jewish root word, the strange fact is BOTH may be right). Another group were the High Priest of the Temple. Herod could be King, but he could NOT be High Priest, and as such always had to watch who the High Priest was. Who could be High Priest was restricted to people with certain blood lines, but that did NOT stop High Priests from also being King. While the Priest Class was NOT tied in with Persia, it was more then willing to support a revolt that gave them more power. Internal Politics, even at that time, could be nasty.
While the Jews did not watch the Stars the Persians did. The mere fact that the Wise men showed up would have been a warning to Herod that trouble was afoot. One set of Bible Scholars like to point out, that not only was Mary of the Right Family for the Messiah to be born into, so was Joseph. There may have been more to the story of Jesus's birth then the New Testament relate, but it was enough for someone like Herod to take action.
As to the Persians, the Zoroaster religion of that time period was big into signs of the heavens, including signs for various nations. One story of the "star" of Bethlehem was it appeared in the West, then later re-appeared in the East. A conjunction of the Planets occurred at that time period, once in the Western Sky, then within a year in the Western Sky. That conjunction of planets, not a super nova, could be the "Star" reported in the Bible (The term "Star" at that time period was broader then it is today, including ANYTHING seen in the Sky, including Conjunctions of Planets and stars). Thus the "Star" may have meant nothing to the Jews till these Wise Men appeared. Given previous support for Jewish Revolts by the Persians against Rome, Herod could have viewed it as another Persian plot to take over Judea. Politics existed even at the time of Christ, including foreign intrigue.
As to Joseph's use to the Gold, Silver and Frankincense to pay for his stay in Egypt, those gifts probably also paid for the 2-3 years Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt till AFTER Herod was dead AND it was clear who was going to rule what part of Judea. It then paid for the family to move to Galilee and settle down.
Please note, Galilee was in open revolt about 14 AD, and Rome put it down with typical Roman brutality, Most of the full grown males disappeared from Galilee at that time period (Roman brutality would explain the disappearance of Joseph from the biblical record after Jesus entered adolescents and that Jesus is not reported to have a wife, something a father of a child would arrange when his son hit about 14 years of age. Joseph being killed in that revolt would also explain the disappearance the last of the "gifts", Romans were both bloody and greedy, but always place greed over being bloody most of the time, thus the last of the money may have been paid to spare Mary's and Jesus's life). This is all speculation, the gifts may have been long gone by the time the family returned to Galilee. These wise men were NOT merchants or Government officials but scholars and thus may have very little Gold, Silver and Frankincense to give. The wisemen may have given Gold, Silver and Frankincense, but no mention of how much of each. An once of each would have been a ransom at that time period, but barely enough to live on for 2-4 years.
An ounce of Gold today is $1500, how long could you live on that much money? Food and Rent has to come out of it, $1500 sounds like a lot, but it is only 10 months of Welfare payments in my home county, the Federal Government says it cost you $674 a month to survive, that that is not even three months cost of living for ONE person. If the Silver and Frankincense was of similar size, you are looking at barely enough to live off for a year. Most scholars view Joseph as what we could call a "Rough Carpenter" i.e. someone who work with wood to build homes and make rough wooden items. "Smooth Carpenter" is the name for carpenters who do furniture, and are viewed as Skilled workers. Rough Carpenters are viewed as semi-skilled or unskilled workers. Thus Joseph had some marketable skills but none in demand in lower Egypt at that time period, thus Joseph and his family had to live off something and that is probably where most, if not all, of the gifts went.
We know Joseph was poor, for a week after Jesus was born, Mary presented Jesus at the Temple (as was required by Jewish law at that time) and made an offered of two doves. Two Doves were offered by people to poor to buy any other offering. This is reflected in the Church Calendar. In the Church Calendar, Christmas is followed by the Presentation of Christ at the temple on New Years day, Jewish new borns were presented on the seventh day after birth. Epiphany, or Twelfth night, occurs five days later and by tradition the day the Three Wise men arrived. Thus Joseph clearly had almost no funds before the Wise men Arrived, but had enough to get to Egypt and live they for a few years AFTER the Wise men arrived.
To truly understand what the authors of the New Testament were writing of, you must understand not only the internal politics of Jesus's time but how those internal politics reflected with international politics. Rome did NOT view Judea as a Provence where Rome could profit, but as something Rome had to hold to protect Egypt from any Persian Invasion. It was also a lousy base to launch any attack on Persia, Syria and Asia Minor are better attack points. Thus Rome did NOT have any Roman Legions in Judea till after the 70 AD Jewish revolt. Till that time it was up to the Client Kings (such as Herod) or Roman Procurators (Roman Governors, but without Roman Troops, but such Equistatian class people could and did use Foreign Mercenaries, in the Case of Pilate, the Roman Procurator that ended up ruling Judea at the time of Jesus's death, he probably only had Greek and Jewish troops under his command). This politics is the background of Christ's story and the story of the New Testament, and politics that were still hot issues when the New Testament was written 80 AD onward (The 70 AD Jewish Revolt made these politics even more a factor, Rome even started to keep a Legion in Judea after the 70 AD Jewish Revolt).
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