The text of the Gospel, indeed, does not state that there were exactly three wise men. Only the three gifts that they brought to the Infant Jesus indirectly testify in favor of such an assumption...
The text of the Gospel, indeed, does not state that there were exactly three wise men. Only the three gifts that they brought to the Infant Jesus indirectly testify in favor of such an assumption. Therefore, this fact belongs to what is called the "Tradition of the Church," meaning that the majority of Christians have held this opinion for a long time. In writing, this opinion was recorded quite late, and precisely as a component of tradition.
Christian traditions, which record secondary information of no essential significance, are partially confirmed and partially refuted by historical data. Frequently, we can trace the time a tradition emerged and link it to specific religious, psychological, and historical reasons. In other cases, traditions go back to written extra-Gospel sources of great antiquity. Christians attach varying degrees of significance to these diverse sources. Some report facts that the majority consider reliable, while others are the sheer fabrication of an idle mind. The fact is that in the early Middle Ages (and later), an entire folklore existed among us, responding to people's interest in details of Gospel history that are non-essential from a religious point of view.
The accounts of tradition can be accepted or not accepted—faith undergoes no changes because of this. You will agree that how many wise men there were is completely unimportant. It must be said, by the way, that while the New Testament is very precise in details (where it records them), in most cases it passes over such non-decisive details in silence, since its authors did not have the task of describing everyday life. But if extra-biblical details do not seem entirely implausible, then there are no serious grounds to reject them. Well, practically everyone has always thought there were three wise men... Well, let it be three: when we die, we will know for certain.
As for the supposition that there were about fifty of them—this seems highly improbable: Herod, who was perpetually fearful of a conspiracy, would not have conversed with such a large group of foreigners...
