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Authors: Thomas Quinn
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church on Christmas now than ever before. Personally, I miss the drunks in the streets.
Wise Men from the East
Okay, a few observations about the Wise Men from the East who came to visit the Christ child. First, Matthew is the only one who mentions them. Second, the Bible doesn’t say how many there were. Some traditions said two. St. Augustine thought there were twelve. It was a 2 nd century pope who started the tradition of three Wise Men, apparently because they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh—the last two items being forms of dried tree sap used in perfumes and incense. What every newborn needs.
The Wise Men are called the Magi, a Persian word for a priest or astrologer from the Zoroastrian religion (the one that likely produced Mithraism). As astrologers, they paid attention to the stars—something Jewish priests didn’t do. This is why three rabbis didn’t show up with a jug of Manischewitz and a mutual funds starter kit. But notice something here:
…wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” [Matt. 2:1–2]
Now, if the Wise Men were from the East and they saw a star in the East, they would have journeyed toward the East, which would have put them in Afghanistan and not Judea. (Unless, of course, they meant they were in the East when they saw the star.) More importantly, who told them the star signified the King of the Jews? The Jews didn’t; they didn’t practice astrology. And why would Persian astrologers want to worship a Jewish king anyway?
As for them being three kings from the Orient, that idea was dreamed up by Tertullian, an early Church father who wanted to tie Jesus to an Old Testament prophecy about “kings bearing gifts.” It was meant to symbolize the submission of the highest earthly authorities to Christ. But Tertullian made it up.
By the 8 th century, the Wise Men had become individual characters: Melchior (an old man), Casper (middle-aged), and Balthazar (a youth, probably from Ethiopia, and therefore black).
The Magi followed the star to Jerusalem, and there they met up with Judea’s King Herod, who felt threatened by the birth of this so-called “king.” He asked the Wise Men to find Jesus and report back so that he could worship the child as well. (Yeah, sure.) The Magi smelled a rat. So, after they swung by Bethlehem to drop off their gifts, they hightailed it back to the East.
While Matthew makes Herod out to be quite the monster, he wasn’t all that bad. He was a competent Jewish king with the thankless role of reigning over Judea under the watchful eye of the Romans. It was a difficult balancing act, and he generally pulled it off. He tried to win the respect of his subjects but, with a kingdom full of zealous priests dreaming of a messiah to replace him, he wasn’t going to win any popularity contests.
The story’s claim that Herod worried about a would-be Jewish king isn’t quite credible because he was old by this time; he’d be unlikely to sweat the prospect of a rival who wouldn’t come of age until he was dead. Furthermore, if he was intent on locating Jesus, he didn’t need the Magi to tell him the infant’s location. His troops could have followed the Wise Men to Bethlehem. Or they might have followed that giant star pointing right at the manger! You know, the one the Magi used? The one they saw from another country?
The Star of Bethlehem
Just what was the Star of Bethlehem? A miracle? A myth? A natural phenomenon? A lot of science-can-explain-the-Bible types have agonized over the Christmas Star, attempting to explain it as a real astronomical event. They calculate the orbits of comets and search the past for supernovas that might have coincided with Jesus’ birth. They speculate that it wasn’t a “Star in the East” but rather a “ sign in the east” that might have been the conjunction
Wise Men from the East
Okay, a few observations about the Wise Men from the East who came to visit the Christ child. First, Matthew is the only one who mentions them. Second, the Bible doesn’t say how many there were. Some traditions said two. St. Augustine thought there were twelve. It was a 2 nd century pope who started the tradition of three Wise Men, apparently because they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh—the last two items being forms of dried tree sap used in perfumes and incense. What every newborn needs.
The Wise Men are called the Magi, a Persian word for a priest or astrologer from the Zoroastrian religion (the one that likely produced Mithraism). As astrologers, they paid attention to the stars—something Jewish priests didn’t do. This is why three rabbis didn’t show up with a jug of Manischewitz and a mutual funds starter kit. But notice something here:
…wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” [Matt. 2:1–2]
Now, if the Wise Men were from the East and they saw a star in the East, they would have journeyed toward the East, which would have put them in Afghanistan and not Judea. (Unless, of course, they meant they were in the East when they saw the star.) More importantly, who told them the star signified the King of the Jews? The Jews didn’t; they didn’t practice astrology. And why would Persian astrologers want to worship a Jewish king anyway?
As for them being three kings from the Orient, that idea was dreamed up by Tertullian, an early Church father who wanted to tie Jesus to an Old Testament prophecy about “kings bearing gifts.” It was meant to symbolize the submission of the highest earthly authorities to Christ. But Tertullian made it up.
By the 8 th century, the Wise Men had become individual characters: Melchior (an old man), Casper (middle-aged), and Balthazar (a youth, probably from Ethiopia, and therefore black).
The Magi followed the star to Jerusalem, and there they met up with Judea’s King Herod, who felt threatened by the birth of this so-called “king.” He asked the Wise Men to find Jesus and report back so that he could worship the child as well. (Yeah, sure.) The Magi smelled a rat. So, after they swung by Bethlehem to drop off their gifts, they hightailed it back to the East.
While Matthew makes Herod out to be quite the monster, he wasn’t all that bad. He was a competent Jewish king with the thankless role of reigning over Judea under the watchful eye of the Romans. It was a difficult balancing act, and he generally pulled it off. He tried to win the respect of his subjects but, with a kingdom full of zealous priests dreaming of a messiah to replace him, he wasn’t going to win any popularity contests.
The story’s claim that Herod worried about a would-be Jewish king isn’t quite credible because he was old by this time; he’d be unlikely to sweat the prospect of a rival who wouldn’t come of age until he was dead. Furthermore, if he was intent on locating Jesus, he didn’t need the Magi to tell him the infant’s location. His troops could have followed the Wise Men to Bethlehem. Or they might have followed that giant star pointing right at the manger! You know, the one the Magi used? The one they saw from another country?
The Star of Bethlehem
Just what was the Star of Bethlehem? A miracle? A myth? A natural phenomenon? A lot of science-can-explain-the-Bible types have agonized over the Christmas Star, attempting to explain it as a real astronomical event. They calculate the orbits of comets and search the past for supernovas that might have coincided with Jesus’ birth. They speculate that it wasn’t a “Star in the East” but rather a “ sign in the east” that might have been the conjunction
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