Who were the Magi?

Magi. Wise Men. Three Kings of Orient. Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar. A Persian scholar, an Indian scholar, and an Arabian scholar.

There are plenty of names and traditions surrounding the men of Matthew 2 who paid baby Jesus a visit early in his life. We usually see them in Nativity scenes with the shepherds, but we don’t celebrate their arrival until Epiphany on January 6. Who are these mysterious men? And what does their visit mean for me? These are the questions we want to answer in this, the first of a two-part series of posts on the magi’s visit.

Extra-Biblical History

According to the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 490-c. 425 BC), the so-called “Father of History,” the Magi made up one of the original six tribes of the Medes, who lived in Media – what is today northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey. Deioces (early 7th century BC) was the first king to unite the Magi and the other five tribes into an empire (Histories, I 101). Because “Magi” was later used to describe the priestly class in the Median and Persian Empires, the relationship of the original Magi to the rest of the Medes may have been similar to the relationship between the Levites and the rest of the Israelites, except that perhaps the original Magi had their own land.

After Deioces, Herodotus describes them in the role most commonly associated with them, that of priestly wise men, first in the Median Empire, then in the Persian Empire (beginning in 549 BC). They interpreted dreams (I 107, under Median king Astyages), abnormal historical events (I 120, under the same), strange phenomena in the sky (VII 37, under Persian king Xerxes), and the like. They also always had to be present at sacrifices to utter the sacred incantation over them (I 132).

Xenophon (c. 430-354 BC), a Greek historian, soldier, and student of the philosopher Socrates, also describes Persian Magi during the time of Cyrus the Great in his Cyropaedia (The Education of Cyrus). Scholars debate the historical reliability of this work; it seems to be the book equivalent of a Hollywood movie “based on true events.” However, his description of the Persian Magi does not contradict anything we know about them from other sources.

Xenophon writes that Cyrus wanted “to set before his subjects a perfect model of virtue in his own person.” So he first  “showed himself more devout in his worship of the gods,” and so instituted “for the first time the college of Magi.” He also “never failed to sing hymns to the gods at daybreak and to sacrifice daily to whatever deities the Magi directed” (VIII 1, 21, 23).

In describing the first time that King Cyrus drove forth in state from his palace, Xenophon says that at the head of the procession, in rows of four, were “some exceptionally handsome bulls for Zeus [that is, Ahura Mazda] and for the other gods as the Magi directed.” He then explains that “the Persians think that they should take those who are versed in religious matters much more seriously than those versed in other areas” (VIII 3, 11).

At some point, the name mage or magus became divorced from its original designation of a member of the tribe of the Magi, and began to be used to refer to any person who performed the activities associated with Median or Persian mage. Thus the Greek verb mageúō came to mean to practice astrology, sorcery, or magic, and the Greek noun mageía, something like mage-ery in English, denoted such practices. (Our English word magic originates with the practices of these ancient Median and Persian Magi.)

Magi in the Old Testament

The Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BC), originating from Babylonia in present-day Iraq, existed alongside the Median and Persian Empires until Cyrus the Great of Persia invaded Babylonia in 539. (This is the same empire that, under Nebuchadnezzar, besieged Jerusalem, burned it, and took Judah into captivity to Babylon in 587.) They had no Magi as such, but they did employ priests and advisers with similar job descriptions as the Median and Persian Magi.

Thus when the Old Testament was translated into Greek by the translators of the Septuagint (begun in the 3rd century BC and probably completed by the turn of the 1st century BC) and by Theodotion (c. 150 AD), they used the word magus to describe some of the employees of the Babylonian government. Most commonly, magus is used as a translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic word ’ashaf, which one Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon defines as conjurer, necromancer, or enchanter. (Septuagint examples: Daniel 2:2,10. Theodotion examples: Daniel 2:2,10,27; 4:7; 5:7,11,15.)

Daniel 5:11 is particularly significant. There the queen or queen-mother tells King Belshazzar that King Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Daniel as “chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners.” As noted above, Theodotion uses the word magi in this verse for the Aramaic word translated as enchanters in the NIV. Recall also that at the end of the account of Daniel in the lions’ den, King Darius of Persia issued a decree “that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel” (6:26).

Daniel provides some of the most specific prophecies in the Bible concerning when the Messiah would appear (e.g. 9:24-26). Therefore, if Daniel was in charge of the Babylonian wise men (and possibly also the Persian magi), it stands to reason that he would have instructed them about the Messiah, with regard to both his saving work and when he would appear. Thus the magi from the East would have been looking for a sign in the sky to mark Christ’s birth precisely around the time when Christ was born. (More on this sign in the sky in part 2.)

When all this information is combined with the fact that Isaiah describes King Cyrus of Persia as a man from the east (Isa 41:2; 46:11), just as Matthew describes the magi as being from the east, we can conclude with a fair degree of certainty that “the magi from the East” named by Matthew (Mt 2:1) were the religious descendants of the Babylonian and Persian wise men.

One of the only snags in this theory is that Matthew’s magi headed to Jerusalem and asked where the King of the Jews had been born. The prophet Micah, who foretold that the King of the Jews would be born in Bethlehem, prophesied between 751 and 687 BC (Mic 1:1), a century before the Jews were carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. If Daniel instructed the Babylonian and Persian wise men about the Messiah after the time of Micah, why didn’t he tell them where the Messiah was to be born? Perhaps Daniel only acquainted them with the divine revelations he himself received, or perhaps Micah’s prophecies were not yet as widespread among the Jews and Daniel did not have access to them. Or, perhaps Daniel simply didn’t have time to teach them as much as he wanted and so had to pick and choose what he considered to be essential information.

It should also be noted that the wise men in the East could have received some information about the Messiah as early as the reign of King Solomon (rf. 1 Kings 4:30,34), which those wise men might then have passed down to their successors.

Post-New Testament History

Of further interest is the legend surrounding the story of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. “About 330 A.D., following the first pilgrimage of Helena, the Church of the Nativity was built at what is now the traditional site of the crib and the cave [stable]” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, IX 55).

This first church, dedicated on May 31, 339, had an octagonal floor plan and was placed directly above the cave. … Portions of the floor mosaic survive from this period. … The Constantinian church was destroyed by Justinian in 530 AD, who built the much larger church that remains today. The Persians spared it during their invasion in 614 AD because, according to legend, they were impressed by a representation of the Magi — fellow Persians — that decorated the building. This was quoted at a 9th-century synod in Jerusalem to show the utility [usefulness] of religious images. (Church of the Nativity on Sacred Destinations)

The Magi Stigma in Jewish Culture

Before they entered the Promised Land in 1406 BC, God instructed the Israelites through Moses:

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. (Dt 18:9-12)

Since some of the practices of the Eastern magi corresponded to these forbidden practices, the word magus carried a strong negative connotation among the Jews. This was also one of the reasons that Daniel, as chief of the magi, was careful to distinguish himself from them and their practices (e.g. Dan 2:27,28; 6:10,11). Their association with the Israelites’ captivity in a foreign nation did not help their reputation either.

Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher and contemporary of Jesus, uses magus to describe the following people:

• • The Egyptian sorcerers who by their “secret arts” (Ex 7:11) imitated the first miraculous signs of Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh (Life of Moses, I 92).

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• • Balaam, who, according to Philo, had “an artificial system of divination and cunning” in his soul which had to be first driven out by the divine prophetic spirit before he could prophesy the truth (Num 23-24), “for it was not possible that holy inspiration should dwell in the same abode with magic” (Life of Moses, I 277).

• He uses the word along with pharmakeutées to describe voodoo-like men “of the greatest wickedness…polluted both in hands and mind, who…devot[e] all their leisure and all their solitude to planning seasonable attacks upon others, who invent all kinds of contrivances and devices to bring about calamities on their neighbors” (Special Laws, III 93).

The Evangelist Luke also did not hesitate to use mageúō and mageía in the more general sense of sorcery (Acts 8:9,11), a practice contrary to the Christian faith and from which a person had to be converted.

Nor are magi or mages viewed favorably in the Jewish Talmud. A Babylonian rabbi named Rab, who died around 247 AD, said, “Whoever learns a single word from a mage is worthy of death,” and he called a mage “a blasphemer of God” (Shabbath 75a).

Is it any wonder, then, that Matthew 2 begins, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold! Magi from the East were making their way to Jerusalem…”? One could almost paraphrase Matthew’s “behold!” as: “Can you even believe that magi came to see Jesus?”

An Interesting Exception

In his work Every Good Man Is Free, Philo of Alexandria argues that the virtuous man is free because he does nothing against his will and nothing under compulsion (61). He laments that there are a great number of people who are willing to travel great distances, even over areas that are inaccessible, in their greed for money and costly objects, but that very few are willing to cultivate wisdom and virtue in their speech, actions, and heart, which could not be nearer or more accessible to them (65-68).

He then goes on to say that even though such wise, just, and virtuous men are very few, they do exist (72), and he cites examples from various other cultures in proof. After mentioning “the seven wise men” of Greece, he continues (74):

And in the land of the barbarians, in which the same men are authorities both as to words and actions, very numerous companies of virtuous and honorable men are celebrated. Among the Persians there is the body of the Magi, who, investigating the works of nature for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the truth, do at their leisure become initiated themselves and initiate others in the divine virtues by very clear explanations.

Some have used this quote to prove that the Jews singled out a certain “Eastern school” of magi as good magi, as compared to the generally despised magi at large. Those who do so connect this Eastern school to the magi who visited Jesus.

Philo’s description of the magi here is certainly interesting. It strengthens our theory that the magi who visited Jesus came from the land of Persia. It also is more generalized than the descriptions above; Philo seems to suggest that the Persian magi did not concern themselves with the heavenly bodies alone, but also with life in general and that they did so in order to learn and teach morality and virtue. We might call them moral biologists.

However, we should also note that scholars have debated the genuineness of Every Good Man Is Free because, for example, Philo’s description of the Essenes in this work differs from his description of them elsewhere. (We could also cite the differences between his descriptions of the magi.) Even among those who agree that Philo wrote it, many suppose that it was one of his earliest works, written before he had become more or personally acquainted with many of his subjects. Whatever the case, we must note that his description of the magi here is an exception to the rule, and it seems as though Philo’s feelings about the magi eventually fell in line with mainstream Jewish sentiment. (Rf. the first paragraph at Early Jewish Writings.)

What Does This Mean for Me?

Regardless of precisely who Matthew’s magi were and where they were from, the effect of his words and the point of his account is clear. If they had been around during Jesus’ ministry, they certainly would have fallen into the Jewish leaders’ classification of “sinners,” both on account of their work and on account of the fact that they were Gentiles.

Yet just as the apostle Paul was shown mercy “so that in [him], the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1Ti 1:16), so also these magi were led by God to his Son, the Savior of the world, and led to believe in him and live for him as an example of God’s mercy to the Gentiles. God’s grace, his undeserved love, extended even to these foreigners associated with enchanting, astrology, and the occult. And so God’s grace extends also to us non-Jews who deserve his grace no more than these magi did. It extends also to us who are lost in sin, no matter how great the sin.

In fact, compare these “Gentile sinners” with those residents of Jerusalem “who are Jews by birth” (Gal 2:15), living just a few miles north of Bethlehem. The Jews are not ready for the Messiah’s birth; they have not paid attention to God’s revelation and cannot readily answer the magi’s inquiry, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Mt 2:2). But these Gentile magi, upon seeing a star that they interpret as marking the Messiah’s birth, set out on a long journey to worship him at once. (How many of us sometimes find it difficult to travel even a few miles to church on Sunday to worship Jesus?)

The Jews are disturbed by the news that the Messiah has been born because they fear Herod more than God (Mt 2:3). But these Gentile magi are overjoyed that the Messiah has been born (Mt 2:10), and put their trust fully in God when he warns them not to return to Herod (Mt 2:12). Had they been found out, they probably would have been killed. But they do not fear death anymore, having seen him who will conquer death. They obey God rather than men, unafraid of what mortal Herod may do to them.

The Jews are concerned about their own status quo, their health and possessions – let no one touch these! But these Gentile magi relentlessly spend their time and energy in pursuit of Jesus, and they willingly present the newborn Messiah their richest treasures (Mt 2:11).

Why? Because the magi were paying attention to God’s word. God’s word led them to acknowledge the universal truth that they as humans were sinful and deserving of God’s wrath and punishment. It also led them to trust in God’s universal mercy and to look forward eagerly to God’s atonement for their sin in the life and death of the Christ. So often Jesus had to tell his own people to listen. But these Gentiles were already listening before Jesus was born.

Thus, from the first moments of Jesus’ life on earth, God reveals the mystery which Paul describes in Ephesians, “that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:6). Jesus accepts also the magi’s worship and he accepts also the magi’s gifts, and so he also certainly accepts yours and mine. Let us then hasten with the magi to worship Jesus as our Savior and thank him with our gifts.

Be sure to check out part 2, on the magi’s star.

Addendum (1/7/15)

I would like to acknowledge and thank Rev. Johann Caauwe for directing me to The Harmony of the Four Evangelists by Martin Chemnitz in a couple of his comments on part 2 of this series. As a result of reading Chemnitz, I located a number of additional sources dealing with the magi that the interested reader will find helpful. I will post them in chronological order. All of the emphases are mine.

Not long after Socrates’ death in 399 BC, Plato composed his dialogue Alcibiades I, one of his earliest works. Plato has Socrates addressing Alcibiades about the eldest sons of Persian kings:

And when the boy reaches fourteen years he is taken over by the royal tutors, as they call them there. These tutors are four men chosen as the most highly esteemed among the Persians of mature age, namely, the wisest one, the justest one, the most temperate one, and the bravest one. The first of these teaches him the mage-ery of Zoroaster, son of Horomazes; and that is the worship of the gods. He also teaches him what pertains to being a king. (122; trans. W. R. M. Lamb, alt.)

The Roman orator Cicero (106-43 BC) composed his book On Divination in 44 BC. In this work, Cicero’s brother Quintus is talking to him first about the interpretation of dreams, and then about divination in general:

Why need I bring forth from Dinon’s Persian annals the dreams of that famous prince, Cyrus, and their interpretations by the Magi? But take this instance: Once upon a time Cyrus dreamed that the sun was at his feet. Three times, so Dinon writes, he vainly tried to grasp it and each time it turned away, escaped him, and finally disappeared. He was told by the Magi, who are classed as wise and learned men among the Persians, that his grasping for the sun three times portended that he would reign for thirty years. And thus it happened; for he lived to his seventieth year, having begun to reign at forty. … Nor is the practice of divination disregarded even among uncivilized tribes… Among the Persians the augurs and diviners are the Magi, who assemble regularly in a sacred place for practice and consultation, just as formerly you augurs used to do on the Nones [eight days before the Ides of the month, falling on the fifth or seventh day of each month]. Indeed, no one can become king of the Persians until he has learned the theory and the practice of the Magi. (46, 90; trans. W. A. Falconer)

Ovid (43 BC-17/18 AD) completed his famous Metamorphoses by 8 AD. Jason (of Jason and the Argonauts fame) has demanded the Golden Fleece from King Aeëtes of Colchis, but the king will give it to him only if he completes certain feats. His daughter Medea, knowing her father and the dangers that await Jason, is torn. She knows she should be loyal to her father, but she cannot deny the passion she feels for Jason. Jason promises to marry her in exchange for her help, so…

When the moon shone at her fullest and looked down upon the earth with unbroken shape, Medea went forth from her house clad in flowing robes, barefoot, her hair unadorned and streaming down her shoulders; and all alone she wandered out into the deep stillness of midnight. Men, birds, and beasts were sunk in profound repose; there was no sound in the hedgerow; the leaves hung mute and motionless; the dewy air was still. Only the stars twinkled. Stretching up her arms to these, she turned around three times, three times sprinkled water caught up from a flowing stream upon her head and three times gave tongue in wailing cries. Then she kneeled down upon the hard earth and prayed: “O Night, faithful preserver of mysteries, and you bright stars, whose golden beams with the moon succeed the fires of the day; O three-formed Hecate [a goddess of dark places in Greek mythology, often associated with ghosts and sorcery], who knows our undertakings and comes to the aid of the spells and arts of the Magi [or of magicians]; and you, O Earth, who does provide the Magi [or the magicians] with your potent herbs; you breezes and winds, you mountains and streams and pools; all you gods of the groves, all you gods of the night: be with me now.” (VII, 180-198; trans. by Frank Justus Miller, alt.)

Strabo (64/63 BC-c. 24 AD) completed his Geography not long before his death. All of the following quotes were translated (with minor tweaks here and there) by Horace Leonard Jones.

Some state it thus: that [Calanus] went along as a eulogist of the king, going outside the boundaries of India, contrary to the common custom of the philosophers there, for the philosophers attend the kings in India only, guiding them in their relations with the gods, as the Magi attend the Persian kings… (15, 1, 68)

The tribes which inhabit the country [of Persis or Persia] are the Pateischoreis, as they are called, and the Achaemedidae and the Magi. Now the Magi strive after a certain august lifestyle, whereas the Cyrtii and the Mardi are brigands and others are farmers. (15, 3, 1)

Strabo says that the Magi are in charge of Persian sacrifices (15, 3, 13). Even when there were so-called magi in other countries besides Persia, they were still associated with the Persian gods:

In Cappadocia [directly north of Judea in modern day Turkey] (for there the sect of the Magi, who are also called Pyraethi, is large, and in that country are also many temples of the Persian gods), the people do not sacrifice victims with a sword either, but with a kind of tree-trunk, beating them to death as with a cudgel. (15, 3, 15)

Ever wondered why the Magi are consistently portrayed wearing turbans? Elaborating on the training that the sons of the Persian kings received:

They serve in the army and hold commands from twenty to fifty years of age, both as foot soldiers and as horsemen… [The commanders’] turbans are similar to those of the Magi… (15, 3, 19)

Strabo also talks about the origin of the Jews (16, 2, 34ff) and of Jerusalem as their holy city, which was respected even after Moses’ successors became superstitious and tyrannical people. He says it is natural to have a devout respect like this because there are two kinds of mandates men live by in order to get along – divine and human. And the ancients held the divine mandates in greater honor, and so they also held those who revealed divine will in great honor. Moses was such a man for the Jews, as the Gymnosophists are such for the Indians, and “the Magi and the necromancers, as also the dish-diviners and water-diviners” are for the Persians (16, 2, 38).

Pliny the Elder’s (23-79 AD) renowned Natural History was completed for the most part by 77 AD. All of the following quotes, except for the last one, were translated by W. H. S. Jones (with minor tweaks here and there).

In the previous part of my work I have often indeed refuted the fraudulent lies of the Magi, whenever the subject and the occasion required it, and I shall continue to expose them. … Nobody should be surprised at the greatness of its [mage-ery’s] influence, since alone of the arts it has embraced three others that hold supreme dominion over the human mind, and made them subject to itself alone. Nobody will doubt that it first arose from medicine, and that professing to promote health it insidiously advanced under the disguise of a higher and holier system; that to the most seductive and welcome promises it added the powers of religion, about which even today the human race is quite in the dark; that again meeting with success it made a further addition of astrology, because there is nobody who is not eager to learn his destiny, or who does not believe that the truest account of it is that gained by watching the skies. Accordingly, holding men’s emotions in a three-fold bond, it [namely, mage-ery] rose to such a height that even today it has sway over a great part of mankind, and in the East commands the kings of kings. Without doubt it [mage-ery] arose in Persia with Zoroaster. On this our authorities are agreed… (XXX, 1-3)

The first man, so far as I can discover, to write a still extant treatise on magic was Osthanes, who accompanied the Persian King Xerxes in his invasion of Greece, and sowed what I may call the seeds of this monstrous craft, infecting the whole world by the way at every stage of their travels. (XXX, 8)

There are also other magics, derived from Moses, Jannes [actually the Egyptian magician who opposed Moses; see 2 Timothy 3:8], Lotapes [should read Iotape = Iota Pe (He) = Yahweh?], and the Jews, but living many thousand years after Zoroaster. (XXX, 11)

Even today Britain practices it [mage-ery] in awe, with such grand ritual that it might seem that she gave it to the Persians. So universal is agreement in that subject throughout the world, even though its nations disagree or are unknown to each other. (XXX, 13)

As Osthanes said, there are several forms of it [mage-ery]; he professes to divine from water, globes, air, stars, lamps, basins and axes, and by many other methods, and besides to converse with ghosts and those in the underworld. All of these in our generation the Emperor Nero discovered to be lies and frauds. In fact his passion for the lyre and tragic song was no greater than his passion for it [mage-ery]… That the craft is a fraud there could be no greater or more indisputable proof than that Nero abandoned it… (XXX, 14-15)

Therefore let us be convinced by this that it [mage-ery] is detestable, vain, and idle, even if it has certain shadows of truth. Yet in these poisonous arts are at work, not magical ones. (XXX, 17)

About all this further evidence we may note at least three things:

1. Although the Magi’s influence was widespread by Jesus’ time, they are consistently associated with Persia.
2. While there is a certain thread of unity that runs through the practices described here and in the main article above, there is also a lot of diversity. This easily allows for the possibility that there were a minority of Magi in Persia who employed, for example, the medicinal and astrological knowledge of the Magi without absorbing the religious, or rather superstitious and Satanic, elements detestable to the Lord.
3. We see especially from Pliny that the negative stigma about the Magi prevailed not only in the Jewish culture but also among many Gentiles.