Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: pastorbillrandles; MHGinTN
Magi is a Persian word.

Maybe, but so is "paradise" a word borrowed from Farsi and made a part of the Greek language, used three times in the NT (Lk. 23:43, 2 Cor. 12:4, Rev. 2:7). None of these have anything to so with Persia. Regarding the Hellenic use of the word "Magos/Magoi":

==========

Strong's Number G3097

μάγος
magos
mag'-os

Strong's Definition
Of foreign origin [H7248]; a Magian, that is, Oriental scientist; by implication a magician: - sorcerer, wise man.
Total KJV occurrences: 6

Thayer's Definition:
1) a magus
. . 1a) the name given by the Babylonians (Chaldeans), Medes, Persians, and others, to the wise men, teachers, priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, augers, soothsayers, sorcerers etc.
. . 1b) the oriental wise men (astrologers) who, having discovered by the rising of a remarkable star that the Messiah had just been born, came to Jerusalem to worship him
. . 1c) a false prophet and sorcerer

Part of Speech: noun masculine

========

Magos is a Greek word also. Because of their extensive contact with Mideastern Asians in warfare and in administering Alexanders conquests, they adopted the word and Hellenized it into "Magos" (Magoi is the plural form). So has the English language its Anglicized form "magician." But thus because someone is called a magician or a magus (in Latin) doesn't mean that one is referring to a person of Persian descent. Because Jesus told the thief, "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (a Persian word for a protected garden of recreation) didn't mean that He would take the thief to Persia for a vacation.

Examples of "magos"

"And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcererμαγος, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: . . ." (Acts 12:6 AV) 

Bar Jesus was a Jew, not a Persian, though he practiced magic.

"But Elymas the sorcererμαγος (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith" (Acts 13:8 AV).

The term "Elymas" was a foreign word (not Persian) describing the person's occupation as a wizard, Magos being another name for it. He was not a Persian, either. Both of these guys were on the Greek island Paphos, far away from Persia or Anatolia.

Thus for Levi to use the Greek word "Magos" (plural magoi, as found in Matthew) did not at all necessarily mean that these "wise men" came from Persia. A wise man from Anatolia would, in a Greek-speaking culture, be titled "Magos," as one can gather from Thayer's better, more detailed lexicon.

This noun of Farsi origin was also turned into a verb:

"But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorceryμαγευων, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:" (Acts 8:9 AV).

This guy was a Samaritan person, and Peter had to go and reprimand him.

So, claiming the Magoi to necessarily be from Persia would be a sort of "iffy" proposition, not wholly supported by history, culture, or Scripture, not an unarguable exegesis of the Wise men story.

 

51 posted on 12/17/2019 2:39:08 PM PST by imardmd1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies ]


To: imardmd1

“Because Jesus told the thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (a Persian word for a protected garden of recreation) didn’t mean that He would take the thief to Persia for a vacation.”

Since Jesus did not go to heaven before His resurrection, where do you say He went for the three days?
We teach of a place called Spirit Prision, a part of the spirit world, where the spirits of mankind wait to reunite with their their physical bodies in the Resurrection.


53 posted on 12/17/2019 6:05:34 PM PST by fproy2222
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies ]

To: imardmd1
I do not think it a salvific issue but a lot of people have reasons they believe the Magi came from Persia, here is an excerpt from an article A. Non-Biblical Evidence We may form a conjecture by non-Biblical evidence of a probable meaning to the word magoi. Herodotus (I, ci) is our authority for supposing that the Magi were the sacred caste of the Medes. They provided priests for Persia, and, regardless of dynastic vicissitudes, ever kept up their dominating religious influence. To the head of this caste, Nergal Sharezar, Jeremias gives the title Rab-Mag, "Chief Magus" (Jeremias 39:3, 39:13, in Hebrew original - Septuagint and Vulgate translations are erroneous here). After the downfall of Assyrian and Babylonian power, the religion of the Magi held sway in Persia. Cyrus completely conquered the sacred caste; his son Cambyses severely repressed it. The Magians revolted and set up Gautama, their chief, as King of Persia under the name of Smerdis. He was, however, murdered (521 B.C.), and Darius became king. This downfall of the Magi was celebrated by a national Persian holiday called magophonia (Her., III, lxiii, lxxiii, lxxix). Still the religious influence of this priestly caste continued throughout the rule of the Achaemenian dynasty in Persia (Ctesias, "Persica", X-XV); and is not unlikely that at the time of the birth of Christ it was still flourishing under the Parthian dominion. Strabo (XI, ix, 3) says that the Magian priests formed one of the two councils of the Parthian Empire.http://www.ldolphin.org/magi.html B. Biblical Evidence
69 posted on 12/18/2019 1:23:15 PM PST by pastorbillrandles (ore and rebuild Jerusale)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson