Description

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

Introduction
 

• The word magi
  • Latin for Greek magos (plural magoi)
  • From it we get the word magician
  • Persian, members of the priestly Zoroastrian religion, and almost certainly practitioners of astrology.
  • Most scholars equate them with the sorcerers (Chaldeans) who served at the Babylonian court, as in Daniel 2. They are their spiritual descendants.
• Wise? Yes.
• Kings? No, despite the popular song: "We Three Kings" (here are the lyrics....)
  • Conflation of Matthew 2 (Jesus an infant [born in Matthew 1], the family now living in a house) and Luke 2 (Jesus' birth).
  • Tradition: 3 in the West, 12 in the East.
  • Best known trio:
    • Melchior - Persian scholar
    • Caspar - Indian scholar
    • Balthazar - Arabian scholar

Various legends

• About the gift:
  • Judas helped himself to the gold, which had been entrusted to him.
  • Gold stolen by the thieves who were crucified with Jesus.
  • Joseph used it to move his family to Egypt (when Herod tried to kill the newborn Messiah).
  • Further legends involving the the frankincense and the myrrh.
• Commemorating the magi
  • Martyred.
  • Marco Polo saw their tombs in Tehran (1270s).
  • Their bones lie in Cologne Cathedral.
  • Commemorated at the Feast of Epiphany (6 January).
  • Visit all the children of the world -- on camels, not reindeer.
• But most of these legends are from 6th- 9th centuries. Too late to be of historical value.

Theology of the gifts

• Gold shows Christ's regal status, myrrh his mortality, incense his divinity, corresponding to his virtue, prayer, and suffering (so Origen, c.200 AD).
• 243 BC: A Syrian king (in Miletus) offers gold to the sun-god Apollo. Christ the true King -- Psalm 68:28, 72:11, Isaiah 60:3-6. Recall also the gold annual tribute to Solomon (1 Kings 10:14).
• In the light of such verses, the magi in time were elevated to kings.

Biblical text

• Our story is featured in only one passage.
  • Matthew 2:1-12.
  • Again, the Luke 2 birth account is earlier.
  • Note: "When it rose" (NIV) may be "in the east."
• Prophecy
  • Micah 5:2 - fairly easy to understand. Though note that Matthew is quoting from a different version of Micah than the one that has come to be part of our Old Testament (translated from the Hebrew Masoretic text).
  • Hosea 11:1 -- more difficult. Matthew is showing that in Jesus are recapitulated events surrounding his people Israel.
  • Jeremiah 31:15 -- the prophet views the discouragement and hopelessness of the exile as grief / loss of Rachel (Jacob/Israel's wife) for her children. Matthew finds a deeper significance in the Massacre of the Innocents. Note that Rachel's tomb is just outside Bethlehem.

Historical concerns

• Astronomy?
  • Conjunction of planets?
  • Comet?
  • Caution about explaining such biblical events.
  • Star appears at birth of ruler -- deeply meaningful in ancient culture.
• Herod the Great (74-4 BC)
  • Illegitimacy as king of the Jews.
    • Half Jewish, half Idumean (Edomite).
    • Not a true son of David.
    • Secures his kingship by traveling to Rome and making a deal with Augustus Caesar (nephew of Julius Caesar).
  • Murderous nature
    • Killed family members.
    • Ordered the deaths of others he perceived as threats to his reign.
  • Date of death
    • Based on the testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus.
    • Jesus was apparently born around 2 years before Herod died.
• Zoroastrian religion (the faith of the magoi).
  • Whereas the sorcerers of Babylon (in the book of Daniel) were polytheists, the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire had undergone a conversion to Zoroastrianism (6th century BC), a quasi-monotheistic (though dualistic) religion. Note: modern Iran (Persia) is predominantly Muslim (since the 7th century AD).
  • Listen to the podcast on Zoroastrianism if you want to learn more about this religion.
• More on the prophecy of Micah 5
  • 8th century BC.
  • Rachel died near, and king David and Jesus were both born in, (southern) Bethlehem Ephrata (Ruth 4:13-22; 1 Samuel 16:1). This is to be distinguished between another (northern) Bethlehem (Judges 12:8).
  • Anticipated a divine Davidic king.
• "The Slaughter of the Innocents"
  • No historical proof, but realistic all the same; fits perfectly with what we know of Herod the Great.
  • Number of dead baby boys: perhaps 20?
  • Several famous paintings, e.g. one by Giacomo Paracca)
• Death and burial of Rachel (Genesis 35:19), just outside Bethlehem.

Application

• "Wise men seek him still." Of course this is true. But is it the point?
• Look inward: The magi help us to contemplate the biblical significance of Jesus' royal divine birth.
• Look outward: The magi (as Gentiles) point to Jesus' universal, cosmic significance.
  • This ties in much better with Matthew's Gentile theme (e.g. Matthew 1 [women in genealogy], 28 [make disciples of all peoples]).
  • A common biblical theme: the outsiders "get it" before the insiders. This is (and should be) humbling.