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I am beginning a series of posts over at my blog Standing on My Head about the Magi. These are to whet you whistle for my new book that comes out in a few weeks\u2019 time. Today\u2019s post asks who are the magi, and explores the commonly held view that they were Persian soothsayers. They were not.<\/p>\n
The magi were an ancient caste of shamans in Persia (present day Iran-Iraq). They eventually rose to become counsellors to the royal court of the Persian kings. The appear, for example, in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Indeed Daniel, as an interpreter of dreams was considered a powerful magus himself. The word \u201cmagi\u201d comes from a Persian word \u201cmagoi\u201d and it is this word that Matthew uses to identify the wise men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Go here<\/a> to read the full post. Learn more:\u00a0The Mystery of the Magi \u2013 The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am beginning a series of posts over at my blog Standing on My Head about the Magi. These are to whet you whistle for my new book that comes out in a few weeks\u2019 time. Today\u2019s post asks who are the magi, and explores the commonly held view that they were Persian soothsayers. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":23063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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