NT Characters: The Magi ("Wise Men")

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/magimp3/">website</a>.</p><p><strong>Introduction</strong><br /> </p><p> </p><ul><li>The word <i>magi</i><ul><li>Latin for Greek <i>magos</i> (plural <i>magoi</i>)</li><li>From it we get the word magician</li><li>Persian, members of the priestly Zoroastrian religion, and almost certainly practitioners of astrology.</li><li>Most scholars equate them with the sorcerers (Chaldeans) who served at the Babylonian court, as in Daniel 2. They are their spiritual descendants.</li></ul></li><li>Wise? Yes.</li><li>Kings? No, despite the popular song: "We Three Kings" (here are the <a href="http://www.carols.org.uk/we_three_kings_of_orient_are.htm">lyrics</a>....)<ul><li>Conflation of Matthew 2 (Jesus an infant [born in Matthew 1], the family now living in a house) and Luke 2 (Jesus' birth).</li><li>Tradition: 3 in the West, 12 in the East.</li><li>Best known trio:<ul><li>Melchior - Persian scholar</li><li>Caspar - Indian scholar</li><li>Balthazar - Arabian scholar</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>Various legends</strong></p><ul><li>About the gift:<ul><li>Judas helped himself to the gold, which had been entrusted to him.</li><li>Gold stolen by the thieves who were crucified with Jesus.</li><li>Joseph used it to move his family to Egypt (when Herod tried to kill the newborn Messiah).</li><li>Further legends involving the the frankincense and the myrrh.</li></ul></li><li>Commemorating the magi<ul><li>Martyred.</li><li>Marco Polo saw their tombs in Tehran (1270s).</li><li>Their bones lie in Cologne Cathedral.</li><li>Commemorated at the Feast of Epiphany (6 January).</li><li>Visit all the children of the world -- on camels, not reindeer.</li></ul></li><li>But most of these legends are from 6th- 9th centuries. Too late to be of historical value.</li></ul><p><br /><strong>Theology of the gifts</strong></p><ul><li>Gold shows Christ's regal status, myrrh his mortality, incense his divinity, corresponding to his virtue, prayer, and