The mysteriously wealthy and distinguished wise men from the East, foreigners referred to as “Magi”, appear only in Matthew 2: 1-12. Yet they capture our imaginations, and give rise to more questions than answers.
When you read this passage from Matthew, how do you picture the Magi – their dress, their number, their nationality, their method of travel, their gifts, the time of day or night, and the weather? Do you also picture the star that they are following?
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all of the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you will come a ruler who will be the
Shepherd of my people Israel.”
(Isaiah 7:14)
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with the mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
This event is the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles and is commemorated in the Western church by the observance of Epiphany, January 6, and in the Eastern Orthodox religion on December 25.
The star which they followed has traditionally become known as the Star of Bethlehem.
The “Adoration of the Magi” was one of the earliest biblical subjects portrayed on sarcophagi in the Roman world, more frequently than scenes of the Nativity and Annunciation. As you would hypothesize, the Roman executioners could not martyr an already deceased Christian who, although perhaps silent in life, professed his faith visually in his death.
Mostly scholars assume that there were three Magi, because of the naming of the three gifts: Gold, incense (frankincense) and myrrh.
In Eastern Christianity, however, the Magi number is often 12, referencing a caravan and linking the Magi to the kings of Psalms 72:11: “May all kings fall down before him”.
As you view this painting, think about the long caravan, the desert, the slow pace, the burdens of the entourage, the quiet – and the belief and faith that fueled this mission. We know from Matthew that the Magi met with Herod before traveling, probably in Jerusalem. This scene could be the Kidron Valley of Jerusalem, a four to five day journey to Bethlehem.
Notice the beautiful woolen saffron robes, and the light and the dryness of the region. Tissot, although not a religious person, made numerous trips to the Holy Land in his late career.
The earliest versions of the “revelations” of the Magi date from the mid-2nd c., less than 100 years after Matthew’s gospel, and the religious scholar who translated one of the manuscript claims that it was written by a Magi, in first person, recounting the miraculous encounter with the star and the journey to worship the Christ child. The writer describes the return home to preach the Christian faith, ultimately being baptized by the apostle Thomas.
At some point, in early theological manuscripts, the names of the Magi were discovered and by the 6th century they were recorded in mosaic art. This is the earliest know visual example of their “naming”.
This scene of the traveling Magi is almost frantic. They are portrayed in a lush environment of palms, cumquats, lilies and berries. They are dressed in exquisite Persian garments and Phrygian caps, red shoes and sandals. Their dress reinforces the earlier beliefs that the church fathers interpreted the Magi as Persians. They, unlike Tissot’s entourage, show no signs of weariness or fatigue.
(Mosaic art is the application of tiny tesserae into plaster or cement. The tesserae pieces are glazed clay, precious and semiprecious stones, and colored glass. Gold leafed pieces were inserted to reflect the light from the candles in this basilica.)
Tradition holds that Melchior was a Persian scholar. Caspar was an Indian scholar and Balthazar was an Arabian scholar. They are also addressed as kings of Persia, India and Arabia. The names are believed to have first appeared in a Greek manuscript composed in Alexandria around 500 that has been translated into Latin. There is also an Armenian tradition identifying the “Magi of Bethlehem” as Balthasar of Arabia, Melchior of Persia and Gaspar of India. These countries, long before the birth of Christ, had trade relations with the Middle East, commerce flowing from the Orient to the Mediterranean area including Jerusalem.
Caspar is usually portrayed as an older man with a white beard and he presents gold. Some sources recognize him as the King of Tarsus, an important city on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. He is usually the first in line and the first to kneel before Christ, as Bartolome’ Estaban Murillo depicts him, paying homage with respect and prayer. Melchior is middle-aged, giving frankincense from his native Arabia, and Balthazar is a young man, often black-skinned, and brings myrrh from Yemen or Ethiopia.
Gold is a symbol of kingship on earth, a deity, or a sign of wealth.
Frankincense is a perfume, and myrrh is commonly used as an anointing oil until the 15th c., and is a symbol of death.
Jews traditionally offered sheep and calves to God (Yahweh) so these expensive gifts indicate that the Magi believed that they were worshiping Jesus as God and King.
These gifts are sometimes described as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer and myrrh symbolizing suffering.
Matthew does not specify a specific date that the visit took place but one assumption is that it was in the same winter as the birth and before Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem. Another possibility is that the visit took place 1-2 years after Jesus was born, this date based on Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents in Matthew 2: 16-18.
The return of the Magi “by another way” to their home countries also has several versions, but Christian scripture records nothing.
In two separate traditions, the Magi were so moved by their witness of Jesus that they became Christians on their way back to their home countries, each to preach the Christian faith, ultimately being baptized by the apostle Thomas, and eventually martyred. Another tradition records that the remains of the three were found by St. Helena and brought to Constantinople, then transferred to Milan in 344, eventually finding their way to Germany during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I in 1164 CE. Their relics are now in the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral.
An older source defines the Magi not as astrologers or sages but as those who pray in silence, monk-like mystics. They are thought to be descendants of Seth, the righteous and obedient third son of Adam, brother of Cain and Abel. Another scholar translates “magi” as plural Latin for magus-magos in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew, derived from the old Persian “magus” – “having to do with a priestly cast who paid particular attention to stars and astrology.”
Who are the Magi that visited and worshiped Christ?
As you observe Epiphany, ponder these early worshipers.
And we remember and celebrate with the hymn, “We Three Kings of Orient Are…bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.…” by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., 1857.