The Three Kings are characters that are inseparably connected with Christmas. We all know that they have come to worship and give gifts to the Baby Jesus. It would seem that we know everything about them! But are you sure?
5. They were most likely Persians
It is extremely difficult to establish who the Magi were. The only mention of their origin narrows the reader's search to an undefined East. However, if we analyze all the hypotheses, the most real seems to be the one that places their homeland in Persia.
The first evidence of this is found in Clement of Alexandria, but such references also appear in Origen, John Chrysostom, Diodorus of Tarsus, and many others. This theory also seems to be confirmed by iconographic representations. The oldest paintings in the Roman catacombs show the figures of the Magi in characteristic Persian costumes.
photo:Cornelis de Vos / public domain Who were the Magi?
4. They could have belonged to a sect
And even up to a few! There are at least two hypotheses that suggest that the Magi were members of a sect. One of them assumes that it was the Sabian sect of Harran. It was supposed to be related to celebrating the stars and conducting astrological analyzes.
Another theory suggests that the sect to which the Kings were to belong was founded on the basis of Zoroastrianism. This interpretation connects them with the Essen priests. The Essenes community was to form under the influence of Persian culture on the Jewish tradition and to crystallize during the Babylonian captivity. Thus, this hypothesis connects the figures of the Magi with priests who professed a certain type of Judaism mixed with Zoroastrianism.
3. Their names had the power to heal
It has been known for a long time that the body parts of saints and famous people were very often attributed saving powers. The cult of the relic is connected primarily with the belief that by praying over the holy "fragment" we can receive spiritual and temporal help. The same happened with the Three Kings.
There was a widespread superstition in the late Middle Ages that the names of the Magi alone were a remedy for the disease. But only for one specific! It was about epilepsy. It is very possible that it was associated with the Kings through the Gospel of Matthew in which we read that the Kings "fell on their faces". And this is easily linked to a condition we call epilepsy.
How could a sick person be cured? The answer is quoted by Roman Zając in his book “Three Kings. The secret of the wise men from the East. " We can find it in the 16th-century work by Reginald Scot "Discovery of Witchcraft". We can read the following formula there:
Kasper carries myrrh, Melchior is incense, Balthazar is gold, so the one who carries these three Kings Names within him will be delivered from epilepsy by the grace of Jesus Christ.
2. They were magicians
Our consciousness has become firmly convinced that the Baby Jesus was visited by monarchs. If you look at the original text of the Gospel of Matthew, you will notice that the Magi did not come to King Herod. Not even the Magi came there, but the "Magicians from the East." So how did it happen that today we don't even think of calling them that?
Well, the Bible unequivocally condemns all magic and astrology. No wonder then that the translations of the Scriptures assumed at one point that you should not enumerate Magicians who worshiped Jesus. Thus, over time, the Magi came to be called the Magi, and later, to raise their rank, the Kings.
Over time, they also became an element of propaganda. The rulers were very eager to portray themselves in the paintings in the form of them, and this also had a huge impact on the binding of Mages with crowned heads. Such performances raised not only the importance of the pilgrims who worshiped the Child, but also the monarchs who identified with them.
photo:José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC BY-SA 4.0 Byzantine mosaic showing three magicians
1. Most likely they didn't exist
We can read about the Three Kings in the Bible itself only in the Gospel of Matthew. And that in just twelve lines! We learn there that they came from the East to bow down to Jesus born in Bethlehem, talked with Herod, who tried to use them to find the Child, and having received a sign, they did not return to the ruler with information about the place of Jesus' birth. When they themselves reached the Child, they worshiped him and gave him gifts. And that was it!
Many scholars now believe that the Magi characters are fictional. And even if we assume that they really existed, it is not known whether there were three of them ... This short reference, however, caused that the Fathers of the Church, writers and researchers began to weave their hypotheses, conduct disputes, and the rulers wanted to be presented as wise men paying tribute to the newborn Jesus.
Source:
These and many other extremely interesting hypotheses about the Three Kings are described by Roman Zając in his book “Three Kings. The secret of the wise men from the East ", which has just been released by the Znak publishing house.