One of the most popular Christmas stories is that of the wise men from the East, who are reported to have seen a strange star and followed it until it led them to the baby Jesus. It happens to be one of the stories with yawning gaps and, therefore, one of the most interpolated ones.
The story of the wise men has permeated the Christian tradition so much that it is hard to imagine a celebration of Christmas that is devoid of them. In the era of printed Christmas cards, it was not unusual to see depictions of men on camel back following a star. The star has, in fact, become one of the most enduring Christmas symbols.
Only Matthew, among the four Gospel writers, records this story. The author of the book does not identify himself but early scholars attributed it to the apostle Matthew, a proposition which modern scholars reject. They believe, instead, that the author was an anonymous male Jew, who drew on the earlier work of Mark. He added a few bits not found in Mark. One of those bits is the nativity story in which the story of the wise men is embedded.
Matthew leaves a few gaps in his narration of the wise men episode. He says they came from the East but does not mention which country or countries they originated from. East of Israel could be Jordan or Syria, it could be Iraq or Iran, Pakistan, India, Burma (Myanmar), China or the Philippines. Matthew does not say how many of them were in the team that visited Jerusalem nor does he state how long after the birth of Jesus the men visited.
Over the ages people have taken it upon themselves to fill some of these gaps. Millions of people, for example, have heard of three wise men and have without further questioning accepted that figure to be the number of wise men that came to Jerusalem. Christmas cards have shown three wise men; Christmas songs have had lyrics indicating that there were three wise men. A song I learnt as a boy went like “We three kings of orient are…..”
It is not Matthew the Gospel writer who told us that three wise men came to Jerusalem from the East. All he did was to tell us that three types of gifts were given – gold, frankincense and myrrh. People have assumed that each visitor gave one of the gifts. Since there were three gifts, it follows that there were three givers. The assumption, of course, is that each wise man presented one gift and that each of the materials presented was one gift – that gold was one gift, frankincense a second gift and myrrh the third one. There could have been several parcels of gold, several of frankincense or indeed several of myrrh. Three has been accepted globally almost as Gospel truth. Some people may actually be shocked to hear somebody challenge the figure of three.
The wise men are sometimes called the magi (pronounced mei-dꙀai or ma-gee). The word magi is plural for magus. The magi tradition can be traced back in Scripture to the Babylonian times. They included enchanters, sorcerers, magicians and astrologers. Their origin was in the land of the Medes. They were a priestly caste in that land. When the Media-Persians conquered Babylon, they brought that tradition to Babylon. Daniel and his associates, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, belonged to this elite group of men. Jewish philosopher called Philo, who lived during the time of Jesus and the Apostles confirms that there was in existence at that time a school of the Magi in Babylon, known as the Eastern School. This should not be taken as fact, but it is possible that the wise men were scholars at this School.
Some enthusiasts have gone so far as to identify the “three” wise men by name and country of origin. They are identified as Melchior of Persia, Gaspar (also known as Caspar or Jaspar) from India and Balthazar from Arabia.
We probably will never know how many men paid homage to the infant Jesus, where they came from or what their names were. That should not detract us from the celebration of Christmas. What is important is that during Christmas, we remember real events that happened on this planet. Only hard core skeptics doubt the historicity of Christmas. Kristin Romey, writing for the National Geographic, quotes Professor Eric Meyers as saying, “I don’t know any mainstream scholar who doubts the historicity of Jesus. The details have been debated for centuries but no one who is serious doubts that he’s a historical figure.”