The Three Wise Men and the Star of Bethlehem
- + Theophilus
- Dec 17, 2024
- 14 min read
The three wise men, the three kings, the three magi – whichever appellation they are known by – remain a fixture of Christmastime. Yet they are mentioned only once in the Bible, in twelve verses in Matthew, mysteriously appearing to venerate the Christ child before vanishing like the star they followed.
Their brief appearance in the New Testament is Matthew 2: 1-12. They do not feature in any other book. Their number and names are never revealed in the text. Yet tradition has filled in the gaps. They have name and number and, despite no formal canonization of historical note, bear the status of Saints in the Catholic church.
Their triplicate number was probably derived from the number of gifts mentioned (gold, frankincense, and myrrh), the apportionment of which seems symbolically expedient. Three wise men: three ages of man (youth, middle-age, old-age); three continents joined at the Holy Land (Asia, Africa, and Europe, and thus significant of peoples of the ancient world); three parts to man’s being, (mind, body, and soul). They are variously depicted at three distinct ages, and of three distinct races, depending on the tradition at hand. (It should be noted that not all traditions number them thus. In the Syriac Orthodox Church, for example, the tradition is that there were twelve Magi.) Three figures presenting gifts to the Christ child are depicted on a third century sarcophagus in the catacombs of Rome.
The word used to describe them in Greek is μάγοι, “magoi,” variously translated as “wise men,” a distinctly Persian appellation inferring the ancient philosophy of Assyria and Babylon, where even Abraham was said to have been instructed in the knowledge of the stars.[1] That they were astrologers is widely accepted – the word magi itself connoting such, but also the Gospel states they came from the East (ἀνατολῶν “anatolōn,” literally, the dawn, or the rising of the sun) having seen a star rising (ἀνατολῇ “anatolē) in significance of the birth of the Christ child. The word magi shares the etymological root with “imagination” and “magic” in English, and was applied in the Latinate world to mean priests and members of the priest class and followers of Zoroaster. In the Patristic sense, then, the word symbolizes the wisdom of the ages deferring to the new age; the subordination of the old religions in the supremacy of Christ’s birth. In some respects, this is not unlike the symbolism of Exodus 7: 8-12, where Aaron’s rod swallowed up the rods of Pharoh’s magicians: not only did Aaron’s rod turn into a serpent (to match the power of the great magicians), it ate the magicians’ rods, thereby surpassing them and absorbing them until it alone remained.
In the Gospel, the Magi are not expressly kings. However, reading allusively,[2] Isaiah provides pretext, “And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord,”[3] and Psalms the elevation, “May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts. May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.”[4] Thus the three wise men came to represent another triplicity – that of the philosopher, priest, king, the height of all knowledge, temporal and celestial, in all cultures united by Christ’s appearance.
Writing in the thirteenth century, Ludolph of Saxony (1295-1378) wrote in his Vita Christi that, “The three pagan kings were called Magi not because they were magicians but because of the great science of astrology which was theirs. Those whom the Hebrews called scribes and the Greeks, philosophers, and the Latins, wise men, the Persians called Magi. And the reason that they were called kings is that in those days it was the custom for the philosophers and wise men to be rulers.”
Matthew tells us that the wise men came to Jerusalem in search of the “king of the Jews,” whose birth they determined from the appearance of a star which, after their visit with Herod, “went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.” They find the child in a “house” (not a stable or cave) where they worshipped him and gave the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, they return home by a different route, avoiding Herod, whom they had been warned not to trust by agency of a dream.
Herod had “found out from them the exact time the star had appeared” and had ordered his priests and teachers of the law to assist in determining the location of the Christ child. The exact time of the appearance of the star may allude the erection of a horoscope by which Jesus’ birth was forecast. An illustrative example can be drawn from the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C. There is a technique employed by ancient astrologers for forecasting the birth of prophets which is preserved by the famed ninth century astrologer, Abu Ma’shar.[5] It is one of the so-called longer cycles, one culminated when the Great Conjunction switches into zodiacal signs of a different classical element.
Notably, the Great Conjunctions repeat in roughly twenty-year increments twelve or thirteen times in signs that are 120º apart, signs that comprise a so-called “trigon” (being one-third of the zodiac) and having a common elemental rulership assigned. After approximately 250 years or so, the Great Conjunction occurs in a new trigon – switching from the fire trigon, say, to the water trigon. According to the technique communicated by Abu Ma’Shar, when the Great Conjunction switches trigons, the birth of a prophet may be signified.
The Great Conjunction in 7 B.C. occurred on Friday, May 29, in Pisces, of the water trigon. The previous Great Conjunction (in 26 B.C.) occurred in Leo, of the fire Trigon. Thus, the Great Conjunction of 7 B.C. switched trigons, from fire to water.[6] According to Abu Ma'sar, a prophet is signified!
Abu Ma’shar tells us that the place where the prophet is born is the place where the Great Conjunction perfects in the ninth house (that is, the physical location where the stars would be seen to conjunct in the sky at about the position the Sun occupies around approximately 2 p.m., or between 1 and 30º West of the meridian). Interestingly, the Great Conjunction of 7 B.C. perfected in the morning on May 29 in the ninth house, as seen in Jerusalem. Thus, were the Magi to set a chart for the Great Conjunction, they would view Judea as the country wherein the birth of the prophet was signified.
Should the Magi have employed this or a similar technique, their visiting the capital to inquire about the birth seems reasonable since they would not have the exact location. The prophecy transmitted by Micah, that Bethlehem would yield a ruler of Israel, was made known to them by the priests at Herod’s palace, thus directing their inquires further. (How the star reappeared to lead them to the exact location of Christ’s birth remains a mystery; perhaps another chart was erected or perhaps they were guided by an angel through some other divinatory or supernatural means?)
Abu Ma’shar next says that the time of the birth is determined by taking the longitude of the Great Conjunction from the ascendant (or the position of the sunrise) and turning the arc into years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Had the Magi performed this calculation, they would have surmised that the degree of the conjunction was approximately 218º45’ from the ascendant, thus signifying a birth in 7 years, 106 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 54 seconds – or around September 12, 1 A.D. at 10:44 p.m. local time.[7] Intriguingly, this is the right time, in the night, around Rosh Hashanah in the ancient Jewish calendar. Remarkably, all this aligns with the story of Christ’s birth where Mary and Joseph were forced to take shelter in a cave because there was no room in the Inn. This also would give the Magi sufficient time to plan for and undertake their journey to Israel.
Further, the fact that Herod extracted the “exact time the star appeared” from the Magi makes sense were he interested in erecting a chart by which his own priests might draw inference. But Herod was not able to find the location with precision and the Magi’s decision not to report back to him left him darkened. Fearing for his throne, and ashamed of prophecy, Herod’s recourse was to murder all male children under two years old in and around Bethlehem, a margin of error that would encompass variations as may arise in application of this ancient mathematical technique and ensure his rival, as “king of the Jews,” would be annihilated. The killing spree became known as the Massacre of the Innocents. Jesus escaped the carnage because Joseph and Mary escaped to Egypt, again following oneiric intervention of an angel.
The Magi have various names, but the most popular in the West were probably derived from a sixth century Greek manuscript, translated into Latin as the Excerpta Latina Barbari in Alexandria, Egypt, which listed them as Bithisarea, Belichior, and Gathaspa. The names seem to have stuck by the eighth century. We find in Excerpta et Collectanea, by the Venerable Bede, the names Melchior, Balthazar, and Caspar (sometimes, Gasper):
The magi were the ones who gave gifts to the Lord. The first is said to have been Melchior, an old man with white hair and a long beard . . . who offered gold to the Lord as to a king. The second, Caspar by name, young and beardless and ruddy complexioned . . . honored Him as God by his gift of incense, an oblation worthy of divinity. The third, black-skinned and heavily bearded, named Balthasar . . . by his gift of myrrh testified to the Son of Man who was to die.
These names are by no means exclusive, however. In Syria, they are known as Larvandad, Hormisdas, Gushnasaph; in Ethiopia, Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater; in Armenia, Kagpha, Badadakharida, and Badalilma. Of course, there are others.
The gifts they bear symbolize the majesty, divinity, and sacrifice (or restoration and transcendence) of the Christ – gold, the symbol of kingship and temporal dominion; frankincense, the holy incense said to be among the only substances able to reach the heavens; and myrrh, a balm symbolic of peace, healing, preservation, and restoration. The ninth century Muslim scholar al-Tabari, citing a seventh century source by Wahb ibn Munabbih, described the symbolism of the gifts.
What is the meaning of the gold, the myrrh and the frankincense, which you are offering in preference to all other gifts? And they said: These are symbolic of Him, for gold, is the lord of the material world, and this prophet is the lord of the people of his time; and myrrh is used to heal wounds and sores and thus God through this prophet will heal the crippled and the sick; and the smoke of incense reaches heaven as does no other smoke, and thus this prophet will be raised to God in heaven as no other prophet of his time shall be.
The three Magi were early depicted at the three ages of man, youth, middle-age, and old-age. A sixth century mural in the Basilica of Saint Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, depicts the three kings of different ages.
Traditionally, the three kings became depicted as from three different races, from three different continents of the ancient world. Casper is typically depicted as the youngest, traditionally from India, bearing frankincense; Balthazar is depicted as middle-aged, black, from Arabia; and Melchior is depicted Caucasian, in old age, from Persia, bearing gold.
According to legend, upon their return to their respective countries, the three kings abdicated and gave their wealth to the poor and took up lives of contemplation committed to prayer, vigil, and the commission of good deeds. Saint Thomas the Apostle is said to have baptized Caspar in India around 40 A.D. The Calendar of Saints (the Martyrology) held in Cologne Cathedral records the deaths of the Magi:
Having undergone many trials and fatigues for the Gospel, the three wise men met at Sewa [in present day Armenia] in A.D. 54 to celebrate the feast of Christmas. Thereupon, after the celebration of mass, they died: St. Melchior on January 1, aged 116; St. Balthasar on January 6, aged 112; and St. Gaspar on January 11, aged 109.
The famed Venetian explorer, Marco Polo visted the tomb of the Magi in the city of Saveh, in modern-day Iran and recorded a remarkable preservation of the bodies, that their bodies were endowed with “hair and beard remaining.”
In Persia is the city called Saveh, from which the three Magi set out when they came to worship Jesus Christ. Here, too, they lie buried in three sepulchres of great size and beauty. Above each sepulchre is a square building with a domed roof of very fine workmanship. The one is just beside the other. Their bodies are still whole, and they have hair and beards. One was named Beltasar, the second Gaspar, and the third Melchior.
Messer Marco asked several of the inhabitants who these Magi were; but no one could tell him anything except that they were three kings who were buried there in days gone by. But at last he learnt what I will tell you.
Three days farther on, he found a town called Kala Atashparastan, that is to say Town of the Fire-worshippers. And that is no more than the truth; for the men of this town do worship fire. And I will tell you why they worship it. The inhabitants declare that in days gone by three kings of this country went to worship a new-born prophet and took with them three offerings – gold, frankincense, and myrrh – so as to discover whether this prophet was a god, or an earthly king or a healer. For they said : ‘If he takes gold, he is an earthly king; if frankincense, a god; if myrrh, a healer.’
When they had come to the place where the prophet was born, the youngest of the three kings went in all alone to see the child. He found that he was like himself, for he seemed to be of his own age and appearance. And he came out, full of wonder. Then in went the second, who was a man of middle age. And to him also the child seemed, as it had seemed to the other, to be of his own age and appearance. And he came out quite dumbfounded. Then in went the third, who was of riper years; and to him also it happened as it had to the other two. And he came out deep in thought. When the three kings were all together, each told the others what he had seen. And they were much amazed and resolved that they would all go in together.
So, in they went, all three together, and came before the child and saw him in his real likeness and of his real age; for he was only thirteen days old. Then they worshipped him and offered him the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh. The child took all three offerings and then gave them a closed casket. And the three kings set out to return to their own country.
After they had ridden for some days, they resolved to see what the child had given them. They opened the casket and found inside it a stone. They wondered greatly what this could be. The child had given it to them to signify that they should be firm as stone in the faith that they had adopted. For, when the three kings saw that the child had taken all three offerings, they concluded that he was at once a god, and an earthly king, and a healer. And, since the child knew that the three kings believed this, he gave them the stone to signify that they should be firm and constant in their belief.
The three kings, not knowing why the stone had been given to them, took it and threw it into a well. No sooner had it fallen in than there descended from heaven a burning fire, which came straight to the well into which it had been thrown. When the three kings saw this miracle, they were taken aback and repented of their throwing away the stone; for they saw clearly that its significance was great and good. They immediately took some of this fire and carried it to their country and put it in one of their churches, a very fine and splendid building.
They keep it perpetually burning and worship it as a god. And every sacrifice and burnt offering which they make is roasted with this fire. If it ever happens that the fire goes out, they go round to others who hold the same faith and worship fire also and are given some of the fire that burns in their church. This they bring back to rekindle their own fire. They never rekindle it except with this fire of which I have spoken. To procure this fire, they often make a journey of ten days.
That is how it comes about that the people of this country are fire worshippers. And I assure you that they are very numerous. All this was related to Messer Marco Polo by the inhabitants of this town; and it is all perfectly true. Let me tell you finally that one of the three Magi came from Saveh, one from Hawah, and the third from Kashan.[8]
Relics of the Magi were originally acquired by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine in A.D. 325. They were interred in the Hagia Sophia. But around 350 A.D., Eustorgio, the Bishop of Milan, procured them for his diocese. Legend holds that the oxcart bringing them to Italy got stuck in the mud near the Porta Ticinese gate, which the Bishop interpreted as a sign and commenced construction of the church around the place the oxcart had sunk. This Basilica of Saint Eustorgio became an important stopover for pilgrims during the Crusades.
The relics were moved from Milan in or around 1163 by Fredrich I (known also as Barbarossa, or Red Beard), the Holy Roman Emperor, to Cologne. The textile used to wrap the bones has been dated to the second or third centuries. The dye is believed to be Phoenician and the weave of Syrian origin. The relics remain in the cathedral to this day, interred in a golden shrine built by the goldsmith Nikolaus von Verdan. The shrine took fifty years to complete, from 1180 to 1230. The cathedral itself was not completed until 1874 (from architectural drawings made around 1300), a total of 632 years after its construction was commenced. Today it is the largest gothic church in Northern Europe. Its twin towers are 515 meters tall. A central spire is topped, not by a crucifix, but by a star.
[1] Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 16b, “Eliezer the Modiite said that Abraham possessed a power of reading the stars for which he was much sought after by the potentates of East and West.”
[2] A “remis” reading under the levels of Biblical exegesis, signified Kabbalistically by the acronym PRDS (“Pardes,” or “orchard,” the root of the word paradise, anglicized here as Pshat (literal), Remis (allusive), Drush (homiletic), and Sod (secret)).
[3] Isaiah 60: 6 (NIV).
[4] Psalm 72: 10-11
[5] Abu Ma’shar Ja’far ibn Muhummad ibn ‘Umar al-Balkh, On Historical Astrology, the Book of Religions and Dynasties. For a more detailed account of this technique, see Knight Templar, Winter, 2023.
[6] It should be of interest that the Great Conjunction occurred in Pisces, as its movement to this sign may signify the onset of the Age of Pisces, in which Christ’s appearance as a “fisher of men” became demarked by the symbol of the fish. This may be contrasted with the bull in the Age of Taurus (whence it is alleged cows remain holy in eastern religion), which Mithra came to slay, and the ram Abraham sacrificed in lieu of Isaac on Mount Moriah as significant perhaps of the onset of the Age of Aries. Interestingly, the Great Conjunction of 21 Dec 2020 occurred in Aquarius, having changed elemental rulership from Taurus (that is, from earth to air) and is thus, under this philosophy, significant of the onset of the Age of Aquarius.
[7] Note that, due to an error by the Scythian mathematician, Dionysius Exiguus, there was no year zero in the Christian calendar, so Christ would be born in the year 1 A.D. under the current calendar.
[8] Polo, Marco. The Travels. Translated by Ronald Latham. 1958. Penguin Classics. 58-60.
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