In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the third lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (January 9-15) covers Matthew 2 and Luke 2 - and is titled "We Have Come To Worship Him."

Resources:

Pastor Brendon's recent sermon on Matthew 2: The Wise Will Worship

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek

American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time by Joshua Mitchell

The Person of Jesus by J. Gresham Machen

Podcasts: The Visit of the Magi, and The Exodus of the Son of God

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey (also: here, here, here, and here)

Sermons: Simeon's Gift and Hopes and Fears

Documentary: Fragments of Truth

For a visual presentation of an example of the trustworthiness of a key part of Isaiah, see 22:07-25:14 of this. (Jason Wallace)

A few good articles here, here, and here.

Scribes and Scripture by John Meade and Peter Gurry

Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, edited by Elijah Hixson and Peter Gurry

Contrary to some voices out there, Matthew is (itself) a historical source of the killing of the innocents in Bethlehem. Even within his own family, King Herod killed his own brother-in-law, mother-in-law, his "favorite" wife and three of his own sons based on (real or imagined) threats to his own power. This reportedly became even a joke in Rome when Augustus quipped that he would rather be Herod's pig than his son. Quoting scholar R.T. France - these events do, in fact, "fit in general terms into our knowledge of the history of the period...[T]he nature of the events (Herod's ruthless and paranoid defense of his throne and the attraction of Egypt as a place of political asylum) fits well with what we know of the period."