Biblical Magi
In Christianity, the Biblical Magi, also known as the Three Wise Men, Three Kings, and Three Magi, are distinguished foreigners who visit Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In Western Christianity, they are commemorated on the feast day of Epiphany—sometimes called "Three Kings Day"—and commonly appear in the nativity celebrations of Christmas; in Eastern Christianity, they are commemorated on Christmas day.
The Magi appear solely in the Gospel of Matthew, which states that they came "from the east" to worship the "one who has been born king of the Jews". Their names, origins, appearances, and exact number are unmentioned and derive from the inferences or traditions of later Christians. In Western and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, they are usually assumed to have been three in number, corresponding with each gift; in Syriac Christianity, they often number twelve. Likewise, the Magi's social status is never stated: although some biblical translations describe them as astrologers, they were increasingly identified as kings by at least the third century, which conformed with Christian interpretations of Old Testament prophecies that the messiah would be worshipped by kings.
The mystery of the Magi's identities and background, combined with their theological significance, has made them prominent figures in the Christian tradition; they are venerated as saints or even martyrs in many Christian communities, and are the subject of numerous artworks, legends, and customs. Both secular and Christian observers have noted that the Magi popularly serve as a means of expressing various ideas, symbols, and themes. Many scholars regard the Magi as legendary rather than historical figures.
Biblical account
Traditional nativity scenes depict three "wise men" visiting the infant Jesus on the night of his birth, in a manger accompanied by the shepherds and angels, but this should be understood as an artistic convention allowing the two separate scenes of the Adoration of the Shepherds on the birth night and the later Adoration of the Magi to be combined for convenience. The single biblical account in simply presents an event at an unspecified point after Jesus's birth in which an unnumbered party of unnamed "wise men" visits him in a house, not a stable. The New Revised Standard Version of Matthew 2:1–12 describes the visit of the Magi in this manner:The text specifies no interval between the birth and the visit, and artistic depictions and the closeness of the traditional dates of December 25 and January 6 encourage the popular assumption that the visit took place the same winter as the birth, but later traditions varied, with the visit taken as occurring up to two winters later. This maximum interval explained Herod's command at Matthew 2:16–18 that the Massacre of the Innocents included boys up to two years old. Some more recent commentators, not tied to the traditional feast days, suggest a variety of intervals.
The wise men are mentioned twice shortly thereafter in verse 16, in reference to their avoidance of Herod after seeing Jesus, and what Herod had learned from their earlier meeting. The star which they followed has traditionally become known as the Star of Bethlehem.
Description
The Magi are popularly referred to as wise men and kings. The word magi is the plural of Latin, borrowed from Greek , as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. The Greek itself is derived from Old Persian maguš, which in turn originated from the Avestan magâunô, referring to the Iranian priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. Within this tradition, priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and astrological abilities caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic.The King James Version translates "magi" as wise men; the same translation is applied to the wise men led by Daniel of earlier Hebrew Scriptures. The same word is given as sorcerer and sorcery when describing "Elymas the sorcerer" in, and Simon Magus, considered a heretic by the early Church, in. Several translations refer to the men outright as astrologers at Matthew Chapter 2, including New English Bible ; The New Testament in Modern English ; Twentieth Century New Testament ; Amplified Bible ; An American Translation ; and The Living Bible.
Although the Magi are commonly referred to as "kings", there is nothing in the Gospel of Matthew that implies they were rulers of any kind. The identification of the Magi as kings is linked to Old Testament prophecies that describe the Messiah being worshipped by kings in Isaiah 60:3, Psalm, and, which reads, "Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations serve him." Early readers reinterpreted Matthew in light of these prophecies and elevated the Magi to kings, which became widely accepted by at least 500 A.D. Later Christian interpretation stressed the adoration of the Magi and shepherds as the first recognition by humans of Christ as the Redeemer. However, the Protestant reformer John Calvin was vehemently opposed to referring to the Magi as kings, writing: "But the most ridiculous contrivance of the Papists on this subject is, that those men were kings... Beyond all doubt, they have been stupefied by a righteous judgment of God, that all might laugh at gross ignorance."
Identities and background
The names and origins of the Magi are never given in scripture, but have been provided by various traditions and legends.Among Western Christians, the earliest and most common names are:
These names first appear in an eighth-century religious chronicle, Excerpta Latina Barbari, which is a Latin translation of a lost Greek manuscript probably composed in Alexandria roughly two centuries earlier. Another eighth century text, Collectanea et Flores, which was likewise a Latin translation from an original Greek account, continues the tradition of three kings and their names and gives additional details.
One candidate for the origin of the name Caspar appears in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, which gives the account of Thomas the Apostle's visit to the Indo-Parthian King Gondophares I, also known as Gudapharasa, from which "Caspar" might derive as corruption of "Gaspar". Gondophares had declared independence from the Arsacids and ruled a kingdom spanning present-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. According to Ernst Herzfeld, his name is perpetuated in the name of the Afghan city Kandahar, which he is said to have founded under the name Gundopharron.
Within Eastern Christianity, the Magi have varied names. Among Syrian Christians, they are Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas, which are approximations of typical Zoroastrian names, in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, they are Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater, while Armenian Catholics have Kagpha, Badadakharida and Badadilma.
The list given by Michael the Syrian in his chronicle has these eleven names:
- Dahdnadur, son of Artaban
- Waštaph, son of Gudpir
- Aršak, son of Mahduq
- Zerwand, son of Warudud
- Ariwah, son of Khosrow
- Arṭaḥšišt, son of Ḥōlīṭ
- Eštanbuzan, son of Šišrawan
- Mahduq, son of Hawahm
- Aḥšireš, son of Ṣaḥban
- Ṣardanaḥ, son of Baladan
- Marduk, son of Bīl
Many Chinese Christians believe that one of the magi came from China.
Country of origin and journey
The phrase "from the east", more literally "from the rising ", is the only information Matthew provides about the region from which they came. The Parthian Empire, centered in Iran, stretched from eastern Syria to the fringes of India. Though the empire was tolerant of other religions, its dominant religion was Zoroastrianism, with its priestly magos class.Although Matthew's account does not explicitly cite the motivation for their journey, the apocryphal Syriac Infancy Gospel states in its third chapter that they were pursuing a prophecy from their prophet, Zoradascht.
In 1995, Cambridge University professor Colin Humphreys published a study based on comet records from the Book of Han. According to this hypothesis, the Star of Bethlehem was a comet that appeared in 5 BC, the only astronomical object that would explain the three characteristics described by Matthew: a new star that moved slowly across the sky and stopped over Bethlehem with an almost vertical tail. The Magi would have first seen it in the morning sky in the east, traveled from Iraq, Iran, or Saudi Arabia for one or two months to Jerusalem, and, as they headed for Bethlehem, the comet was already in the south, seeming to guide them and stop over the place. Chinese records would confirm its visibility for more than 70 days. Previously, the triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces would have announced, in the context of the time, a divine king in Israel, the grouping of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter his power, and the comet in Capricornus the imminence of the birth.
According to NASA scientist Mark Matney, this comet would have guided the magi from Jerusalem to Bethlehem one morning in early June of that year, when it would have passed closest to Earth in a “temporary geosynchronous” motion, creating the illusion of “stopping” for several hours over the city where Jesus is believed to have been born.
There is an Armenian tradition identifying the "Magi of Bethlehem" as Balthasar of Arabia, Melchior of Persia, and Caspar of India. Historian John of Hildesheim relates a tradition in the ancient Silk Road city of Taxila that one of the Magi passed through the city on the way to Bethlehem.
Sebastian Brock, a historian of Christianity, has said: "It was no doubt among converts from Zoroastrianism that... certain legends were developed around the Magi of the Gospels." And Anders Hultgård concluded that the Gospel story of the Magi was influenced by an Iranian legend concerning magi and a star, which was connected with Persian beliefs in the rise of a star predicting the birth of a ruler and with myths describing the manifestation of a divine figure in fire and light.
File:Three kings.tif|thumb|The Three Wise Kings, Catalan Atlas, 1375, fol. V: "This province is called Tarshish, from which came the Three Wise Kings, and they came to Bethlehem in Judaea with their gifts and worshipped Jesus Christ, and they are entombed in the city of Cologne two days journey from Bruges."
A model for the homage of the Magi might have been provided, it has been suggested, by the journey to Rome of King Tiridates I of Armenia, with his magi, to pay homage to the Emperor Nero, which took place in AD 66, a few years before the date assigned to the composition of the Gospel of Matthew.
There was a tradition that the Central Asian Naimans and their Christian relatives, the Keraites, were descended from the biblical Magi. This heritage passed to the Mongol dynasty of Genghis Khan when Sorghaghtani, niece of the Keraite ruler Toghrul, married Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis, and became the mother of Möngke Khan and his younger brother and successor, Kublai Khan. Toghrul became identified with the legendary Central Asian Christian king Prester John, whose Mongol descendants were sought as allies against the Muslims by contemporary European monarchs and popes. Sempad the Constable, elder brother of King Hetoum I of Cilician Armenia, visited the Mongol court in Karakorum in 1247–1250 and in 1254. He wrote a letter to Henry I King of Cyprus and Queen Stephanie from Samarkand in 1243, in which he said: "Tanchat , which is the land from whence came the Three Kings to Bethlehem to worship the Lord Jesus which was born. And know that the power of Christ has been, and is, so great, that the people of that land are Christians; and the whole land of Chata believes those Three Kings. I have myself been in their churches and have seen pictures of Jesus Christ and the Three Kings, one offering gold, the second frankincense, and the third myrrh. And it is through those Three Kings that they believe in Christ, and that the Chan and his people have now become Christians." The legendary Christian ruler of Central Asia Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Magi.
In her four volumes of visions of the life of Christ, Anne Catherine Emmerich says that the Magi came from the border between Chaldea and Elam, mentioning Ur, "Mozian", "Sikdor", and a "city, whose name sounded to me something like Acajaja", as well as other cities farther east.