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Who Were
The Wise Men?
by
John A. Tvedtnes
Among the more
intriguing figures in the scriptures are the wise men who visited
the infant Jesus. The story of their journey to Bethlehem is found
in the Gospel of Matthew, where we learn that they came “from
the east” (Matthew 2:1-2) when Jesus was apparently two years
old (Matthew 2:1-2, 7, 16). By that time, Mary and Joseph were no
longer in the place where the shepherds had found them (Luke 2:7),
but in a house (Matthew 2:11).
A common assumption
is that the wise men followed the star from the east to Bethlehem.
However, Matthew does not say they followed a star at that point
in their journey, only that they had “seen his star in the
east” and “came . . . from the east to Jerusalem”
(Matthew 2:1-2). Seeking him who was “born King of the Jews,”
the wise men inquired at king Herod's palace, where one might expect
a prince to be born (Matthew 2:3). Herod, after consulting with
his wise men, “sent them to Bethlehem,” a few miles
south of Jerusalem (Matthew 2:4-8). It was at this point that “the
star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came
and stood over where the young child was” (Matthew 2:9). The
star that had appeared two years earlier had also been seen in the
New World, suggesting that it could not have led the wise men to
Christ (Helaman 14:5; 3 Nephi 1:21). What, then, did the wise men
follow from Jerusalem to Bethlehem? We cannot know for certain,
but it is interesting that an early Christian document indicates
that it was an angel in the guise of a star (1 Infancy Gospel
3:3).
Perhaps because
so little is told to us in the scriptures about the wise men, numerous
traditions have arisen about them, and some of these traditions
are quite speculative. That later Christians would go to great lengths
to try to understand these mysterious men indicates how significant
their visit was regarded.
Some early
traditions indicate that there were twelve wise men. The most prevalent
tradition says they were three kings, their number derived from
the three gifts they brought: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew
2:11). Psalm 72:10-15 is cited as evidence that the three “kings”
bearing presents, gifts, and gold were from Tarshish, Sheba, and
Seba, identified by medieval Christians with Spain, Ethiopia, and
Arabia, making the wise men a European, an African, and a Semite).
Other Old Testament passages sometimes used to support the kingship
of the wise men are Isaiah 49:7 and 60:3-7, which Christians have
usually read as prophecies of the Messiah.
The Greek word
behind the words “wise men” in Matthew 2:1, 7, 16, is
magoi, sometimes rendered “Magi” in English.
The word is Persian in origin and refers to priests in the Zoroastrian
religion of ancient Persia. It is the origin of our English word
“magic.” Zoroaster was accepted in ancient Persia, as
among the modern Parsis (meaning “Persians”) of India,
as a prophet, and is usually thought to have lived around 600 B.C.
One early Christian tradition associates the coming of the Magi
with a prophecy attributed to Zoroaster:
“And
it came to pass, when the Lord Jesus was born at Bethlehem, a city
of Judea, in the time of Herod the King, the wise men came from
the East to Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Zoradasht”
(1 Infancy Gospel 3:1; the balance of the chapter, mentioning
the sacred fire, confirms the Zoroastrian origin).
The thirteenth-century
traveler Marco Polo reported that the three Magi had set out from
Saba in Persia, where their tombs were still shown in his day. Local
tradition named three kings, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, names
given the wise men in documents as early as the eighth century.
The same names are used in Christian tradition today, though associated
with non-Persian wise men. Chapter 9 of the Armenian Gospel
of the Infancy names the Magi as Melkon, King of Persia, Gaspar
of India, and Balthazar of Arabia. The names, however, appear to
be Akkadian, the language used in ancient Babylon, whence names
like these spread through other parts of the Persian Empire from
the fifth century B.C. (When Daniel was taken captive to Babylon,
the Babylonians renamed him Belteshazzar; see Daniel 1:7.)
The “fire
worshipers” (Zoroastrians) of the village of Cala Ataperistan,
three days from Saba, told Marco Polo of three local kings from
the towns of Saba, Ava, and Cala Ataperistan who long ago went away
to worship a newborn prophet. They brought to him gold (symbolic
of his kingship), frankincense (symbolic of his divinity) and myrrh
(symbolic of his healing abilities). Christian tradition refers
to these three gifts as symbolic, respectively, of Jesus' kingship,
divinity, and passion.
There are even
traditions that the gifts the Magi gave came originally from Adam.
Several early Christian pseudepigraphic books indicate that the
presents the wise men gave the infant Jesus had been brought by
Adam from the garden of Eden. Noah subsequently took them aboard
the ark, Shem concealed them after the flood, and the wise men later
uncovered them (see Testament of Adam 3:6; Book of the Rolls
folios 102b, 106b, 109b, 110b, 115a-b; Conflict of Adam and
Eve with Satan I, 31:9-10; II, 21:7-11; III, 5:9-10; 6.3-5;
7.14-17; Cave of Treasures 15b-17a, 20b-21a). In some accounts,
the wise men also found the Testament of Adam buried with
the relics and read Adam’s prophecy of the coming of Christ.
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