{"id":68190,"date":"2018-12-10T19:16:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T02:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=68190"},"modified":"2018-12-10T19:16:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T02:16:39","slug":"question-who-were-the-wise-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/12\/question-who-were-the-wise-men.html","title":{"rendered":"Question: “Who were the ‘wise men’?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
\u201cThe Adoration of the Magi\u201d (tapestry, 1894), by Edward Burne-Jones, with William Morris and John Henry Dearle \u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bill Hamblin and I published the following column in the Deseret News<\/em> on 13 December 2014:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The search for wise men and women is a perpetual quest in every age \u2014 alas, often with dubious results. The search for the wise men in the Christmas narratives in the New Testament is, unfortunately, equally difficult. All Christians are familiar with the story of the three magi from the east bringing gifts to the infant Jesus, a tale that provided the prototype for giving Christmas gifts in less crassly materialistic times.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we dig a bit deeper into the biblical Christmas narratives in search of the wise men, a number of questions arise. First, only two of the four Gospels \u2014 Matthew and Luke \u2014 contain Nativity narratives. John and Mark begin their Gospels at Jesus\u2019 baptism and the beginning of his public ministry. Many scholars believe that Matthew\u2019s Gospel tells the Nativity story (Matthew\u00a01:18-<\/a>2:18<\/a>) from the perspective of Joseph, whose dreams are recounted in detail. Luke (2:1-20<\/a>), on the other hand, presents recollections of Mary, including her vision of the Annunciation (1:26-56<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Only Matthew tells the story of the visit of the wise men (2:1-12<\/a>). Although in traditional Nativity scenes we usually find the wise men and the shepherds adoring the infant Jesus together, Matthew tells us that the wise men arrived only after Jesus had been born (Matthew 2:1), not on the actual night of his birth. In other words, the visitation of the angels and shepherds seems to have occurred on the night of Jesus\u2019 birth (Luke 2:7-8, 12), while the wise men must have arrived some days \u2014 or even months \u2014 later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who were these \u201cwise men\u201d? Unfortunately, the New Testament is rather vague \u2014 although this has not prevented later legends and traditions from filling the gaps in Matthew\u2019s account.<\/span><\/p>\n

The King James Bible calls the visitors \u201cwise men,\u201d which translates the Greek term \u201cmagos\u201d (plural \u201cmagoi\u201d). The Latin Bible transliterates this term into the Latin plural \u201cmagi,\u201d by which they are also frequently known in English. The Greek word \u201cmagos\u201d\/\u201cmagoi\u201d is an interesting one. Linguistically, it is a transliteration of the Persian term \u201cmagush,\u201d referring to the ancient Zoroastrian priestly caste. In Greek, the term \u201cmagos\u201d had become a much broader word for a person learned in arcane lore \u2014 hence \u201cwise men.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the New Testament, \u201cmagos\u201d is also used to describe the sorcerers Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-13<\/a>) and Elymas (Acts 13:6-11<\/a>). Our modern term \u201cmagician\u201d is simply an anglicization of the Latin \u201cmagus\u201d\/\u201cmagi.\u201d The fact that they learned of the birth of Christ by observation of the stars has led many to assume they were astrologers (Matthew 2:2<\/a>, 9).<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that the magi were \u201cthree kings,\u201d as the traditional hymn declares, derives from later Christian tradition. The three famous gifts of the magi \u2014 gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11<\/a>) \u2014 may imply there were three givers, though there could have been many more. Their alleged royalty is nowhere implied in the New Testament, although the fact that Herod and the priests of Jerusalem were willing to meet with them, along with the great value of their gifts, certainly implies some sort of wealthy and aristocratic status.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ethnicity of the wise men is also uncertain, a fact that has only served to fuel speculation. Matthew merely states they are from the \u201ceast\u201d (2:1). A literal reading of the Persian title of \u201cmagos\u201d\/\u201cmagush\u201d might imply that they were Zoroastrian priests, who (according to Zoroastrian scripture) were awaiting the coming of a messiah they called the \u201csaoshyant.\u201d Zoroastrian scripture prophesied that he would bring about the triumph of righteousness and the resurrection. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the magi were Jews living in Babylon \u2014 then a province of Persia \u2014 where many Jews were residing at the time of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Bill Hamblin and I published the following column in the Deseret News on 13 December 2014: \u00a0 The search for wise men and women is a perpetual quest in every age \u2014 alas, often with dubious results. The search for the wise men in the Christmas narratives in the New Testament is, unfortunately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nQuestion: "Who were the 'wise men'?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Bill Hamblin and I published the following column in the Deseret News on 13 December 2014:   The search for wise men and women is a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/12\/question-who-were-the-wise-men.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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