Douglas Jacoby Podcast

NT Characters: The Magi ("Wise Men")

Episode Summary

Douglas continues his series on New Testament Characters today looking at the Magi ("Wise Men"). Douglas shares what we learn from their lives and their stories.

Episode Notes

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

Introduction
 

• The word magi
  • Latin for Greek magos (plural magoi)
  • From it we get the word magician
  • Persian, members of the priestly Zoroastrian religion, and almost certainly practitioners of astrology.
  • Most scholars equate them with the sorcerers (Chaldeans) who served at the Babylonian court, as in Daniel 2. They are their spiritual descendants.
• Wise? Yes.
• Kings? No, despite the popular song: "We Three Kings" (here are the lyrics....)
  • Conflation of Matthew 2 (Jesus an infant [born in Matthew 1], the family now living in a house) and Luke 2 (Jesus' birth).
  • Tradition: 3 in the West, 12 in the East.
  • Best known trio:
    • Melchior - Persian scholar
    • Caspar - Indian scholar
    • Balthazar - Arabian scholar

Various legends

• About the gift:
  • Judas helped himself to the gold, which had been entrusted to him.
  • Gold stolen by the thieves who were crucified with Jesus.
  • Joseph used it to move his family to Egypt (when Herod tried to kill the newborn Messiah).
  • Further legends involving the the frankincense and the myrrh.
• Commemorating the magi
  • Martyred.
  • Marco Polo saw their tombs in Tehran (1270s).
  • Their bones lie in Cologne Cathedral.
  • Commemorated at the Feast of Epiphany (6 January).
  • Visit all the children of the world -- on camels, not reindeer.
• But most of these legends are from 6th- 9th centuries. Too late to be of historical value.

Theology of the gifts

• Gold shows Christ's regal status, myrrh his mortality, incense his divinity, corresponding to his virtue, prayer, and suffering (so Origen, c.200 AD).
• 243 BC: A Syrian king (in Miletus) offers gold to the sun-god Apollo. Christ the true King -- Psalm 68:28, 72:11, Isaiah 60:3-6. Recall also the gold annual tribute to Solomon (1 Kings 10:14).
• In the light of such verses, the magi in time were elevated to kings.

Biblical text

• Our story is featured in only one passage.
  • Matthew 2:1-12.
  • Again, the Luke 2 birth account is earlier.
  • Note: "When it rose" (NIV) may be "in the east."
• Prophecy
  • Micah 5:2 - fairly easy to understand. Though note that Matthew is quoting from a different version of Micah than the one that has come to be part of our Old Testament (translated from the Hebrew Masoretic text).
  • Hosea 11:1 -- more difficult. Matthew is showing that in Jesus are recapitulated events surrounding his people Israel.
  • Jeremiah 31:15 -- the prophet views the discouragement and hopelessness of the exile as grief / loss of Rachel (Jacob/Israel's wife) for her children. Matthew finds a deeper significance in the Massacre of the Innocents. Note that Rachel's tomb is just outside Bethlehem.

Historical concerns

• Astronomy?
  • Conjunction of planets?
  • Comet?
  • Caution about explaining such biblical events.
  • Star appears at birth of ruler -- deeply meaningful in ancient culture.
• Herod the Great (74-4 BC)
  • Illegitimacy as king of the Jews.
    • Half Jewish, half Idumean (Edomite).
    • Not a true son of David.
    • Secures his kingship by traveling to Rome and making a deal with Augustus Caesar (nephew of Julius Caesar).
  • Murderous nature
    • Killed family members.
    • Ordered the deaths of others he perceived as threats to his reign.
  • Date of death
    • Based on the testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus.
    • Jesus was apparently born around 2 years before Herod died.
• Zoroastrian religion (the faith of the magoi).
  • Whereas the sorcerers of Babylon (in the book of Daniel) were polytheists, the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire had undergone a conversion to Zoroastrianism (6th century BC), a quasi-monotheistic (though dualistic) religion. Note: modern Iran (Persia) is predominantly Muslim (since the 7th century AD).
  • Listen to the podcast on Zoroastrianism if you want to learn more about this religion.
• More on the prophecy of Micah 5
  • 8th century BC.
  • Rachel died near, and king David and Jesus were both born in, (southern) Bethlehem Ephrata (Ruth 4:13-22; 1 Samuel 16:1). This is to be distinguished between another (northern) Bethlehem (Judges 12:8).
  • Anticipated a divine Davidic king.
• "The Slaughter of the Innocents"
  • No historical proof, but realistic all the same; fits perfectly with what we know of Herod the Great.
  • Number of dead baby boys: perhaps 20?
  • Several famous paintings, e.g. one by Giacomo Paracca)
• Death and burial of Rachel (Genesis 35:19), just outside Bethlehem.

Application

• "Wise men seek him still." Of course this is true. But is it the point?
• Look inward: The magi help us to contemplate the biblical significance of Jesus' royal divine birth.
• Look outward: The magi (as Gentiles) point to Jesus' universal, cosmic significance.
  • This ties in much better with Matthew's Gentile theme (e.g. Matthew 1 [women in genealogy], 28 [make disciples of all peoples]).
  • A common biblical theme: the outsiders "get it" before the insiders. This is (and should be) humbling.