A. K. Chidgzey

The story of the magi, the wise men from the east who followed the star to Bethlehem to kneel before Jesus and present him with valuable gifts that predicted Jesus’ ministry, is such an iconic piece of the Christmas story. All those nativity scenes at churches, shopping centres, and in people’s homes would look very odd without these enigmatic characters standing over baby Jesus in a manager, and, despite apparently being wealthy kings, didn’t offer to pay for a room upgrade for Mary and Joseph.

Traditionally they’ve been known as either kings or wise men, but the text simply says magi. That’s not a word most of us would be familiar with. And yes, etymologically it is related to the word magic. In some early translations and commentaries, they were simply called magicians. I wonder which one was Slytherin. Probably the one who gave myrrh.

There is so much symbolism in the story of the nativity. It’s ladened with theology and Messianism and a whole bunch of stuff. The magi have always been a curiosity, at least for me. So you’ll probably here the story many, many times in the lead up to Christmas, but let’s have a read of the relevant passage from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter two:

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may kill hi…I mean…also go and pay him homage. Yes…pay him…homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of nappies, onesies, and baby wipes. Nope, it was gold, frankincense, and myrrh, to which Mary gave the first historical instance of the awkward pretending-to-be-grateful thankyou – “Aww, thanks guys, that’s so…nice of you. You shouldn’t have. You really are wise men.” She then secretly handed the gold to one of her friends who rushed off to the shops to buy something useful.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. And even though Bethlehem is a short walk from Jerusalem, Herod didn’t care enough to go check himself.

So who were they? And what is a magi? Technically, magi is the plural of magus, so the question should be: what is a magus?

The word magi is actually an old Persian word referring to priests of the religion Zoroastrianism. The oldest known appearance of the word is on an inscription on the side of a cliff in modern day Iran, dating to the 5^th century BCE. The word itself stems from an old Persian word meaning to have power, which is fitting because the magi had considerable influence in the Persian court.

Now, Zoroastrianism is a topic I would love to do an episode on one day, because it did actually have quite a lot of influence on Jewish and later Christian thought. When the Israelites were taken into exile by the Babylonians in the 6^th century BCE, they would have been exposed to Zoroastrianism, or a form of it, as it was practiced in Babylon.

Basically, Zoroastrianism was started by a prophet named Zarathustra, or Zoroaster as the Greek’s pronounced it. He lived in the 6^th century BCE, but the religion has roots that go way back, possibly all the way to the 15^th century BCE and there’s evidence that some of the key practices and beliefs of Zoroastrianism go back quite a way. But Zarathustra reformed it and turned it into a bit more of a codified religion.

It was monotheistic, meaning there was only one god, who was called Ahura Mazda, meaning Lord of Wisdom, not in any way related to the car company. It was big on good and evil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, light and dark, judgment, and post-mortem existence. It insisted on caring for creation, being charitable and altruistic, and generally living a good and ethical life, to think good thoughts, say good words, and do good deeds. The elements of water and fire are particularly significant, representing purity and life. So their temples are called fire temples, which sounds pretty epic, and within these temples stand a commemorative eternal fire that they never extinguish.

The magi were the priests of this religion, who stoked the fire, guided the emperor, and were the general authorities of all things religious. They interpreted omens and dreams, a practice common amongst most of the ancient religions, including some strands of Judaism and Christianity, and they were sages who educated the royal children. You might say that they were wise men.

Another major practice of Zoroastrianism was astronomy. Looking at, and interpreting, the stars was a big deal for the people of the region where Zoroastrianism developed, as was the case among pretty much all ancient people groups. Dividing the heavens into twelve major star signs that coincide with particular times of the year was a practice that emerged from ancient Sumer, so it’s not surprising that these Magi would be concerned with unusual astral movements.

The practice of the magi was called, in Greek, magic, which did not originally mean anything supernatural. But when that word magic developed over time, the Romans came to believe that Zarathustra was the original magician, the OG wizard, the one who invented magic and the one responsible for introducing those dark arts into the world. It’s likely that the practice of interpreting the stars to predict future events influenced the development of the word magic into how we understand it today.

Magi make an appearance in Daniel ch.2, as advisers to the Babylonian king, where they are commanded to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. So they were widely known as court officials and diviners.

Zoroastrianism is still practiced today, practiced mainly among the Parsi community and mostly in India. One of their fire temples in Iran houses a fire that has been burning for over 1,500 years. The most famous Zoroastrian is Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen.

In the Bible, the word magi is normally translated as magician, in the sense of a user of the dark arts, except for this narrative of the magi visiting little baby Jesus, where it’s either left as Magi or rendered “Wise Men”. But we know that it was these Zoroastrian priests, wealthy and important people from the east, from the Persian court, who were astronomers who studied the stars and predicted the future, who came to visit Jesus, probably when Jesus was a toddler rather than a newborn.

There was a Jewish population in Persia, a diaspora, those who stayed in Babylon after the exile. So it’s not impossible that these magi might have taken some interest in the Jewish scriptures and prophecy. Hence how they knew to tell Herod that a child had been born who was to become the king of the Jews. And then when Herod asked his chief priests about where the Messiah was to be born, they quoted a section from Micah ch.5, which in Jewish tradition had become a Messianic prophecy.

You’ll also notice that the narrative doesn’t actually say how many there were. Tradition has posited three magi to correspond to the three gifts but we don’t actually know. The word magi is plural, so there were at least two, but there could have been five – who knows? We don’t know. In some traditions, there were twelve magi. Also, if they were so wealthy and important, they probably had a bit of a retinue, at least a handful of servants.

Legends have developed around these magi and traditions vary, but often the three magi were named Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar. Melchior was the eldest of the three with a long, white beard, and was the king of Persia. He was the one who gifted the gold. He lived to the ripe age of 116. Caspar was not a ghost, but he was friendly, bringing the gift of frankincense. He also might have been called Jasper or Gasper instead. He had a red beard and was the king of India, where there are some inscriptions that may or may not mention the magi. Caspar made it to 109 before he took on his more ethereal form and started haunting mansions. Balthazar was the king of Arabia who brought the gift of myrrh. He was a black man with a thick beard and lived to the age of 112. Though early tradition described Balthazar as black, it wasn’t until the Renaissance in the 15^th century when art began to depict him as such, which caused quite a stir at the time, because…you know…white people.

Now there is virtually no historical evidence to support any of these traditions but they are actually quite nice. Yes, having these foreign kings come and bow down to your king might be a little bit racist, even imperialist, but there is a real internationalism here and a reminder that the message of Christ is one that breaks down barriers. Nevertheless, these traditions are completely made up.

There is also a tradition that they became martyrs for Christianity when they went back east, though there is also a tradition that the three met up again in Armenia to celebrate Christmas, but again there is absolutely no evidence to support either of these.

Supposedly their bodies lie as relics in the Cologne Cathedral, which I’ve visited and is a beautiful building, and there’s this big, golden shrine where the bones apparently are kept. But I don’t find that especially likely. If they existed, the Magi went back home after their visit to Jesus and when they died it’s possible they received a traditional Zoroastrian sky burial, being laid to rest in a dakhma, a tower of silence, a raised, open burial pit with other corpses which were then all collected and thrown into a communal grave, though there wasn’t much left, even bones break down or are eaten by animals. This practice was seen as a clean burial because the bodies avoided corruption from the earth. So I find it very unlikely that their bodies were discovered and venerated.

The gifts they bring might seem a bit weird to a modern audience, and quite possibly to ancient audiences too. But, as with everything in this little narrative, the gifts are highly symbolic. The gold is pretty self-explanatory and represented Jesus as king. Frankincense comes from a French word meaning high quality incense. It was called libanos in Greek, and was burnt in the Jewish temple and so represents Jesus as priest. Myrrh was a perfume that was used in the preparation of a dead body for burial and used at funerals. I think it had other uses, but kind of a depressing gift to give a new mother. But because of that it generally represents Jesus’ mortal humanity, or Jesus as prophet. So Jesus is king, priest, and prophet – his threefold office.

According to the text, they spotted a star in the east and being magi, they knew that this was a special star. Being the experts in all things religion they knew that it signified the arrival of the king of the Jews…somehow they pieced that together. But they followed the star to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem.

But how does one follow a star? Was it a little ball of light that hovered ahead of them, like Tinkerbell or a tracking beacon on a computer game? If so, they would’ve known it wasn’t actually a star. But if it was a real star, was it up there permanently, even in the daylight? Did it move, was it a shooting star? And how on earth could a star function like Google Maps and point to a specific spot?

It’s probable that the magi visited Jesus when he was a toddler, and it’s not impossible or unheard of for an astrological phenomenon to hang around in the sky for months at a time, such as a comet or supernova, or even a conjunction of Jupiter, which in Jewish tradition was connected to righteousness…somehow, and another planet. There are a few possibilities: there was an eclipse of Jupiter by the moon in 6 BCE which could be seen in the east, there was a conjunction between Jupiter and the star Regulus, known as the King Star, in 3 BCE, followed by a conjunction nine months later between Jupiter and Venus, which apparently had connections to fertility, in 2 BCE. Jupiter then reached it’s furthest point and so appeared to slow or even stop toward the end of the year. Halley’s comet was visible in 12 BCE. Some Chinese astronomers spotted a “broom star” in the sky in 5 BCE which hung around, not moving, for a couple of months. There was a supernova in 4 BCE, recorded in various locations around the world at the time.

However, sorry to disappoint, but all of these possibilities have been rejected by astronomers, archaeologists, and historians. No natural, astronomical event that behaves exactly as it is described in Matthew ever actually happened.

So it’s more symbolic than an actual, real star.

Some have suggested that this star…or whatever it was…fulfilled what is written in Numbers 24 – “A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel…One out of Jacob shall rule.” Though this passage is almost certainly referring to something that did happen several hundred years BCE, some Jewish literature written roughly around the time of Jesus, give or take a century or two, applied this verse to the promised Messiah. So it’s not impossible that the author of Matthew is doing something similar.

Matthew makes lots of allusions to the Hebrew Bible, so the author could be alluding to Numbers 24, but personally I tend to think it’s not much more than a literary device to draw these foreign astronomers to Bethlehem. The star is part of a broader narrative that the author invented to emphasize Jesus as Messiah.

The tale of the nativity has been a favourite of Christians for millennia and the star and the magi, as well as the shepherds and the angels have captured imaginations and inspired art and music and all sorts of stuff. It is a wonderful, beautiful story, poignant and profound, but it is just that: a story. I don’t think it actually happened – at least not exactly as it is narrated. Matthew is narrativizing prophecy, taking abstract and obscure theology and turning it into a story.

The story probably has some historical impetus and is building on early tradition, such as concerning the parentage of Jesus, but I don’t think the visit of the Magi actually happened historically.

But just because it isn’t historical doesn’t mean it’s not truthful. I would say there is considerable beauty and profound truth to this story.

So then, why are the magi in this story? What is the purpose of these characters in this narrative?

Sometimes they are identified with Old Testament prophecies declaring that the Messiah would be worshipped by all the kings of the world. Hence why they are sometimes called kings. This is based on passages such as Isaiah 60, where it says, “Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together; they come to you…They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.” But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here with the magi, because the author would have just called them kings, not magi. The magi bringing gold and frankincense might well be an allusion to Isaiah 60, but also those were significant luxuries in their own right, the sort of thing a king would in fact give another king.

Sometimes it’s used as an analogy for how the Gentiles took to Jesus much faster than the Jews, because the Jews were overly religious and legalistic. They didn’t understand their own Scriptures, but the foreign magi did. This is seen in the way that the chief priests and scribes told Herod that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but then no one went searching. Whereas the Magi from the east understood the prophecies better and were able to find Jesus. But I think this is reading way too far into the text, even reading a bit of 16^th century Protestant bias into the narrative, because the reality was that the first Christians were in fact Jews. The first Christians were not Christians, they were Jewish who believed their Messiah had arrived. The Jews did understand their scriptures, it’s just that some of them interpreted those scriptures differently, in light of Jesus.

I think the point that the author of Matthew is making with the inclusion of the magi is simply that Jesus would be the saviour of all humanity, not just Israel. God, through Christ, embraces the entirety of creation.

There might be a critique of xenophobia and a challenge to welcome people who are not like us, who do not see the world like us, who do not practice religion like us, and to listen to their perspective, because perhaps we’ve missed something or they could offer something.

The message of Jesus breaks down walls and crosses barriers.