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Magi
(Plural of Latin magus; Greek magoi).
The wise men from the East
who came to adore Jesus in Bethlehem (Matthew 2).
Rationalists regard the Gospel account as fiction; Catholics insist that it
is a narrative of fact, supporting their interpretation with the evidence of all
manuscripts and versions, and patristic citations. All this evidence
rationalists pronounce irrelevant; they class the story of the Magi with the
so-called legends of the childhood of Jesus
, later apocryphal additions to the
Gospels. Admitting only internal evidence, they say, this evidence does not
stand the test of criticism.
- John and Mark are silent. This is because they begin their Gospels with the public life of Jesus. That John knew the story of the Magi may be gathered from the fact that Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., III, ix, 2) is witness to it; for Irenaeus gives us the Johannine tradition.
- Luke is silent. Naturally, as the fact is told well enough by the other synoptics. Luke tells the Annunciation, details of the Nativity, the Circumcision, and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, facts of the childhood of Jesus which the silence of the other three Evangelists does not render legendary.
- Luke contradicts Matthew and returns the Child Jesus to Nazereth immediately after the Presentation (Luke 2:39). This return to Nazareth may have been either before the Magi came to Bethlehem or after the exile in Egypt. No contradiction is involved.
The subject will be treated in this article under the two divisions:
I. Who the Magi were;
II. The Time and Circumstances of their Visit.
I. WHO THE MAGI WERE
A. Non-Biblical Evidence
We may form a conjecture by non-Biblical evidence of a probable meaning to
the word magoi. Herodotus (I, ci) is our authority for supposing that the Magi
were the sacred caste of the Medes. They provided priests for Persia, and,
regardless of dynastic vicissitudes, ever kept up their dominating religious
influence. To the head of this caste, Nergal Sharezar, Jeremias gives the title
Rab-Mag, Chief Magus
(Jeremias 39:3, 39:13, in Hebrew original - Septuagint
and Vulgate translations are erroneous here). After the downfall of Assyrian and
Babylonian power, the religion of the Magi held sway in Persia. Cyrus completely
conquered the sacred caste; his son Cambyses severely repressed it. The Magians
revolted and set up Gaumata, their chief, as King of Persia under the name of
Smerdis. He was, however, murdered (521 B.C.), and Darius became king. This
downfall of the Magi was celebrated by a national Persian holiday called
magophonia (Her., III, lxiii, lxxiii, lxxix). Still the religious influence of
this priestly caste continued throughout the rule of the Achaemenian dynasty in
Persia (Ctesias, Persica
, X-XV); and is not unlikely that at the time of the
birth of Christ it was still flourishing under the Parthian dominion. Strabo (XI,
ix, 3) says that the Magian priests formed one of the two councils of the
Parthian Empire.
B. Biblical Evidence
The word magoi often has the meaning of magician
, in both Old and New
Testaments (see Acts 8:9; 13:6, 8; also the Septuagint of Daniel 1:20; 2:2, 2:10,
2:27; 4:4; 5:7, 5:11, 5:15). St. Justin (Tryph., lxxviii), Origen (Cels., I, lx),
St. Augustine (Serm. xx, De epiphania) and St. Jerome (In Isa., xix, 1) find the
same meaning in the second chapter of Matthew, though this is not the common
interpretation.
C. Patristic Evidence
No Father of the Church holds the Magi to have been kings. Tertullian (Adv.
Marcion.
, III, xiii) says that they were wellnigh kings (fere reges), and so
agrees with what we have concluded from non-Biblical evidence. The Church,
indeed, in her liturgy, applies to the Magi the words: The kings of Tharsis and
the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall
bring him gifts: and all the kings of the earth shall adore him
(Psalm 71:10).
But this use of the text in reference to them no more proves that they were
kings than it traces their journey from Tharsis, Arabia, and Saba. As sometimes
happens, a liturgical accommodation of a text has in time come to be looked upon
by some as an authentic interpretation thereof. Neither were they magicians: the
good meaning of magoi, though found nowhere else in the Bible, is demanded by
the context of the second chapter of St. Matthew. These Magians can have been
none other than members of the priestly caste already referred to. The religion
of the Magi was fundamentally that of Zoroaster and forbade sorcery; their
astrology and skill in interpreting dreams were occasions of their finding
Christ. (See THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE AVESTA.)
The Gospel narrative omits to mention the number of the Magi, and there is no certain tradition in this matter. Some Fathers speak of three Magi; they are very likely influenced by the number of gifts. In the Orient, tradition favours twelve. Early Christian art is no consistent witness:
- a painting in the cemetery of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus shows two;
- one in the Lateran Museum, three;
- one in the cemetery of Domitilla, four;
- a vase in the Kircher Museum, eight (Marucchi,
Eléments d'archéologie chrétienne
, Paris, 1899, I 197).
The names of the Magi are as uncertain as is their number. Among the Latins,
from the seventh century, we find slight variants of the names, Gaspar, Melchior,
and Balthasar; the Martyrology mentions St. Gaspar, on the first, St. Melchior,
on the sixth, and St. Balthasar, on the eleventh of January (Acta SS., I, 8, 323,
664). The Syrians have Larvandad, Hormisdas, Gushnasaph, etc.; the Armenians,
Kagba, Badadilma, etc. (Cf. Acta Sanctorum, May, I, 1780). Passing over the
purely legendary notion that they represented the three families which are
decended from Noah, it appears they all came from the east
(Matt., ii, 1, 2,
9). East of Palestine, only ancient Media, Persia, Assyria, and Babylonia had a
Magian priesthood at the time of the birth of Christ. From some such part of the
Parthian Empire the Magi came. They probably crossed the Syrian Desert, lying
between the Euphrates and Syria, reached either Haleb (Aleppo) or Tudmor
(Palmyra), and journeyed on to Damascus and southward, by what is now the great
Mecca route (darb elhaj, the pilgrim's way
), keeping the Sea of Galilee and
the Jordan to their west till they crossed the ford near Jericho. We have no
tradition of the precise land meant by the east
. It is Babylon, according to
St. Maximus (Homil. xviii in Epiphan.); and Theodotus of Ancyra (Homil. de
Nativitate, I, x); Persia, according to Clement of Alexandria (Strom., I xv) and
St. Cyril of Alexandria (In Is., xlix, 12); Aribia, according to St. Justin
(Cont. Tryphon., lxxvii), Tertullian (Adv. Jud., ix), and St. Epiphanius (Expos.
fidei, viii).
II. TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THEIR VISIT
The visit of the Magi took place after the Presentation of the Child in the
Temple (Luke 2:38). No sooner were the Magi departed than the angel bade Joseph
take the Child and its Mother into Egypt (Matthew 2:13). Once Herod was wroth at
the failure of the Magi to return, it was out of all question that the
presentation should take place. Now a new difficulty occurs: after the
presentation, the Holy Family returned into Galilee (Luke 2:39). Some think that
this return was not immediate. Luke omits the incidents of the Magi, flight into
Egypt, massacare of the Innocents, and return from Egypt, and takes up the story
with the return of the Holy Family into Galilee. We prefer to interpret Luke's
words as indicating a return to Galilee immediately after the presentation. The
stay at Nazareth was very brief. Thereafter the Holy Family probably returned to
abide in Bethlehem. Then the Magi came. It was in the days of King Herod
(Matthew 2:1), i.e. before the year 4 B.C. (A.U.C. 750), the probable date of
Herod's death at Jericho. For we know that Archelaus, Herod's son, succeeded as
ethnarch to a part of his father's realm, and was deposed either in his ninth
(Josephus, Bel. Jud., II, vii, 3) or tenth (Josephus, Antiq., XVII, xviii, 2)
year of office during the consulship of Lepidus and Arruntius (Dion Cassis, lv,
27), i.e., A.D. 6. Moreover, the Magi came while King Herod was in Jerusalem (vv.
3, 7), not in Jericho, i.e., either the beginning of 4 B.C. or the end of 5 B.C.
Lastly, it was probably a year, or a little more than a year, after the birth of
Christ. Herod had found out from the Magi the time of the star's appearance.
Taking this for the time of the Child's birth, he slew the male children of two
years old and under in Bethlehem and its borders (v. 16). Some of the Fathers
conclude from this ruthless slaughter that the Magi reached Jerusalem two years
after the Nativity (St. Epiphanius, Haer.
, LI, 9; Juvencus, Hist. Evang.
, I,
259). Their conclusion has some degree of probability; yet the slaying of
children two years old may possibly have been due to some other reason - for
instance, a fear on Herod's part that the Magi had deceived him in the matter of
the star's appearance or that the Magi had been deceived as to the conjunction
of that appearance with the birth of the Child. Art and archeaology favour our
view. Only one early monument represents the Child in the crib while the Magi
adore; in others Jesus rests upon Mary's knees and is at times fairly well grown
(see Cornely, Introd. Special. in N.T.
, p.203).
From Persia, whence the Magi are supposed to have come, to Jerusalem was a journey of between 1000 and 1200 miles. Such a distance may have taken any time between three and twelve months by camel. Besides the time of travel, there were probably many weeks of preparation. The Magi could scarcely have reached Jerusalem till a year or more had elapsed from the time of the apperance of the star. St. Augustine (De Consensu Evang., II, v, 17) thought the date of the Epiphany, the sixth of January, proved that the Magi reached Bethlehem thriteen days ofter the Nativity, i.e., after the twenty-fifth of December. His argument from liturgical dates was incorrect. Neither liturgical date is certainly the historical date. (For an explanation of the chronological difficulties, see Chronology, Biblical, Date of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.) In the fourth century the Churches of the Orient celebrated the sixth of January as the feast of Christ's Birth, the Adoration by the Magi, and Christ's Baptism, whereas, in the Occident, the Birth of Chirst was celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December. This latter date of the Nativity was introduced into the Church of Antioch during St. Chrysostom's time (P.G., XLIX, 351), and still later into the Churches of Jerusalem and Alexandria.
That the Magi thought a star led them on, is clear from the words (eidomen gar autou ton astera) which Matthew uses in 2:2. Was it really a star? Rationalists and rationalistic Protestants, in their efforts to escape the supernatural, have elaborated a number of hypotheses:
- The word aster may mean a comet; the star of the Magi was a comet. But we have no record of any such comet.
- The star may have been a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (7 B.C.), or of Jupiter and Venus (6 B.C.).
- The Magi may have seen a stella nova, a star which suddenly increases in magnitude and brilliancy and then fades away.
These theories all fail to explain how the star which they had seen in the
east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was
(Matthew 2:9). The position of a fixed star in the heavens varies at most one
degree each day. No fixed star could have so moved before the Magi as to lead
them to Bethlehem; neither fixed star nor comet could have disappeared, and
reappeared, and stood still. Only a miraculous phenomenon could have been the
Star of Bethlehem. it was like the miraculous pillar of fire which stood in the
camp by night during Israel's Exodus (Exodus 13:21), or to the brightness of
God
which shone round about the shepherds (Luke 2:9), or to the light from
heaven
which shone around about the stricken Saul (Acts 9:3).
The philosophy of the Magi, erroneous though it was, led them to the journey
by which they were to find Christ. Magian astrology postulated a heavenly
counterpart to complement man's earthly self and make up the complete human
personality. His double
(the fravashi of the Parsi) developed together with
every good man until death united the two. The sudden appearance of a new and
brilliant star suggested to the Magi the birth of an important person. They came
to adore him - i.e., to acknowledge the Divinity of this newborn King (vv. 2, 8,
11). Some of the Fathers (St. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer.
, III, ix, 2; Progem. in
Num.
, homil. xiii, 7) think the Magi saw in his star
a fulfilment of the
prophesy of Balaam: A star shall rise out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring
up from Israel
(Numbers 24:17). But from the parallelism of the prophesy, the
Star
of Balaam is a great prince, not a heavenly body; it is not likely that,
in virtue of this Messianic prophesy, the Magi would look forward to a very
special star of the firmament as a sign of the Messias. It is likely, however,
that the Magi were familiar with the great Messianic prophesies. Many Jews did
not return from exile with Nehemias. When Christ was born, there was undoubtedly
a Hebrew population in Babylon, and probably one in Persia. At any rate, the
Hebrew tradition survived in Persia. Moreover, Virgil, Horace, Tacitus (Hist.,
V, xiii), and Suetonius (Vespas., iv) bear witness that, at the time of the
birth of Christ, there was throughout the Roman Empire a general unrest and
expectation of a Golden Age and a great deliverer. We may readily admit that the
Magi were led by such hebraistic and gentile influences to look forward to a
Messias who should soon come. But there must have been some special Divine
revelation whereby they knew that his star
meant the birth of a king, that
this new-born king was very God, and that they should be led by his star
to
the place of the God-King's birth (St. Leo, Serm. xxxiv, In Epiphan.
IV, 3).
The advent of the Magi caused a great stir in Jerusalem; everybody, even King
Herod, heard their quest (v. 3). Herod and his priests should have been
gladdened at the news; they were saddened. It is a striking fact that the
priests showed the Magi the way, but would not go that way themselves. The Magi
now followed the star some six miles southward to Bethlehem, and entering into
the house [eis ten oikian], they found the child
(v. 11). There is no reason to
suppose, with some of the Fathers (St. Aug., Serm. cc, In Epiphan.
, I, 2),
that the Child was still in the stable. The Magi adored (prosekynesan) the Child
as God, and offered Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The giving of gifts was
in keeping with Oriental custom. The purpose of the gold is clear; the Child was
poor. We do not know the purpose of the other gifts. The Magi probably meant no
symbolism. The Fathers have found manifold and multiform symbolic meanings in
the three gifts; it is not clear that any of these meanings are inspired (cf.
Knabenbauer, in Matth.
, 1892).
We are certain that the Magi were told in sleep not to return to Herod and
that they went back another way into their country
(v. 12). This other way may
have been a way to the Jordan such as to avoid Jerusalem and Jericho; or a
roundabout way south through Beersheba, then east to the great highway (now the
Mecca route) in the land of Moab and beyond the Dead Sea. It is said that after
their return home, the Magi were baptized by St. Thomas and wrought much for the
spread of the Faith in Christ. The story is traceable to an Arian writer of not
earlier than the sixth century, whose work is printed, as Opus imperfectum in
Matthæum
among the writings of St. Chrysostom (P.G., LVI, 644). This author
admits that he is drawing upon the apocryphal Book of Seth, and writes much
about the Magi that is clearly legendary. The cathedral of Cologne contains what
are claimed to be the remains of the Magi; these, it is said, were discovered in
Persia, brought to Constantinople by St. Helena, transferred to Milan in the
fifth century and to Cologne in 1163 (Acta SS., I, 323).
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