Who Were the Magi? Revelation of the Magi text gives wise men’s view of the Christmas story

Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | 12/23/2018 | Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

[SunkenCiv]

One of the most compelling, recently translated into English by Bible scholar Brent Landau, is the so-called Revelation of the Magi, an apocryphal account of the traditional Christmas story that purports to have been written by the magi themselves.

The account is preserved in an eighth-century C.E. Syriac manuscript held in the Vatican Library, although Brent Landau believes the earliest versions of the text may have been written as early as the mid-second century, less than a hundred years after Matthew’s gospel was composed. Written in the first person, the Revelation of the Magi narrates the mystical origins of the magi, their miraculous encounter with the luminous star and their equally miraculous journey to Bethlehem to worship the child. The magi then return home and preach the Christian faith to their brethren, ultimately being baptized by the apostle Thomas...

In the Revelation of the Magi, there are not just three magi, as often depicted in early Christian art (actually, Matthew does not tell us how many there were), nor are they Babylonian astrologers or Persian Zoroastrians, as other early traditions held. Rather from Brent Landau’s translation it is clear the magi (defined in this text as those who “pray in silence”) are a group—numbering as few as 12 and as many as several score—of monk-like mystics from a far-off, mythical land called Shir, possibly China. They are descendants of Seth, the righteous third son of Adam, and the guardians of an age-old prophecy that a star of indescribable brightness would someday appear “heralding the birth of God in human form.”

[thepoodlebites]

>Yeah, because the Bible is based on astrology. What? Oh. Nevermind.

Critics, meh.

I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Joel 2:30,31

[thepoodlebites]

>Herod’s Death, Jesus’ Birth and a lunar Eclipse [2018]

This date is based on Josephus’s remark in Antiquities 17.6.4 that there was a lunar eclipse shortly before Herod died. This is traditionally ascribed to the eclipse of March 13, 4 B.C.

Unfortunately, this eclipse was visible only very late that night in Judea and was additionally a minor and only partial eclipse.

There were no lunar eclipses visible in Judea thereafter until two occurred in the year 1 B.C. Of these two, the one on December 29, just two days before the change of eras, gets my vote since it was the one most likely to be seen and remembered. That then dates the death of Herod the Great into the first year of the current era, four years after the usual date. [ibid]

That fact that this eclipse (March 13, 4 B.C.) was visible only very late that night in Judea and was additionally a minor and only partial eclipse, is significant.

-Frank

[Pelham]

A pity for astrology that those Joel verses don’t mention divination using the stars. Of course there are some verses in Isaiah and Daniel that do mention astrologers, but those verses mock them.

The Magi knew when to look for the birth of the Jewish Messiah not by astrology but because of a prophecy made by a leader of their order, Belteshazzar, 483 years earlier.