Is Catholicism the "Babylon Mystery Religion"? (Story of the Magi in Matthew's Gospel)

How the story of the Magi sheds plenty of light on the historical soundness of the Gospel of Matthew and how early Christians viewed paganism.

As we saw last time in this space, the notion that Christianity is "really" warmed-over paganism is contradicted by the fact—abundantly in evidence not only in the New Testament but in the writings of the Fathers and the liturgy of the Church—that, well, early Christians just don't care much about pagan things, while both the New Testament and the Fathers are positively drowning in the images, words, ideas, thought forms, questions, and concerns of the authors of the Old Testament. Reading the New Testament in the hope of discovering the secret paganism that it is the real root of Christianity is like reading Shakespeare with the undying conviction that sufficient scrutiny will uncover his massive debt to Korean literature: it just ain't gonna happen. The New Testament is obsessed with the Old Testament, not with paganism. It makes reference to paganism only very occasionally, and to pagan literature only a handful of times.

Meanwhile, the New Testament is soaked in Hebraic thought, imagery, poetry, prophecy, law, and wisdom. The early Christians don't care too much about paganism, seeing it as, variously, 1) a dim hunch about things Jews and Christians were privileged to know by revelation from God; 2) a demonic deception; 3) a source of human wisdom, but not divine revelation. For that, they turn with obsessive fascination to what Paul calls "the oracles of God" (Romans 3: Early Christians will turn to it to illustrate a point, as when Paul quoted a Greek poet or two to connect with the Greek locals, just as a stump speaker might mention the local football team in attempting to connect to his audience). In much the same way, even today modern Christians offer punning riffs on current cultural phenomena (“Jesus: He’s the Real Thing,” “Christ: Don’t Leave Earth Without Him,” etc.).

But exactly what these Christians did not do was take passages of Scripture that referred to Jesus and apply them to Apollo or some other pagan deity. Nor did they look to any pagan deity to tell them about Jesus; they knew perfectly well that Jesus could be represented as the Sun of Justice and Light of the World long before Aurelian invented his pagan festival. That’s because early Christians were behaving in a way perfectly consistent with Scripture, becoming “all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22), not “holding the form of religion while denying the power of it” (2 Tim. 3:5).

This matters immensely because it bears directly on the first moment the early Catholic Church really did borrow something from pagans. And not just any pagans, mind you, but actual adherents of Babylonian Mystery Religion. And most amazingly, the early Catholics’ decision to do so receives the complete approval of, and even hearty defense by . . . Bible-believing Christians!

As a young Evangelical, one of the things I routinely heard from critics of Christianity was that “everybody knows” the story of the Magi in Matthew 2 is a pious fiction invented by the Evangelist. Since Evangelicals take a very high view of Scripture and believe (in the words of Dei Verbum) that “Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation,”it mattered to me whether Scripture was preserving truth or was just a bunch of legends. And since my first investigation, subsequent reading has only added to my conviction that there are ample historical grounds for the story of the Magi.

First—and often overlooked by moderns who have an irrational prejudice against treating Scripture as one source of ancient historical testimony—is Matthew 2 itself, which says “wise men (Greek: magoi) from the East” appeared in Jerusalem one day, seeking “he who has been born king of the Jews.” They claimed to have “seen his star in the East” and came to worship him. Matthew tells us they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gifts and that their visit provoked the paranoid Herod to kill all the boys in Bethlehem under two years old. Matthew also notes they returned to their own country in secret after having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod.

Not that there’s no hint of legend attaching to the Magi, of course. Matthew doesn’t tell us how many Magi there were, nor does he claim any of them were royalty. So how did they attain their legendary crowns and fixed number of three?

The number part is pretty easy: three gifts, three magi. Also, as Christians reflected on their significance as the first Gentiles to worship Jesus, it was natural to connect the Magi with the three biblical races of human beings descending from the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth—and thus representing all of humanity.

As to their alleged royalty, this is more complicated. Beyond the biblical record, there is other evidence about them.The historical magoi appear to have been a priestly caste in eastern lands. The Greek historian Herodotus tells us Magi were the sacred caste of the Medes.And Jeremiah refers to one of these eastern priestly figures, a Nergal Sharezar, as Rab-Mag, “Chief Magus” (Jer. 39:3, 39:13). Magi had long been involved in the various religious and political struggles of Persia and their influence continued through the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Parthian empires. By the time of Jesus, they had long provided priests for Persia and been a major religious influence in the region. One ancient writer named Strabo says Magian priests formed one of the two councils of the Parthian Empire.

Magoi is, of course, related to our English word “magic” but it’s not really accurate to speak of Magi as “magicians.” They lived in an age which hadn’t yet distinguished between the attempt to understand and control nature by what we now call “science” and the attempt to understand and control nature by what we now call “magic.” So we might say the Magi practiced the rudiments of astronomy and the rudiments of astrology.

Precisely what star they saw, and whether it was a natural or supernatural event, we do not know. We do know Jupiter conjoined Saturn three times in seven months in 7 B.C. We also know Mars joined them and produced a very striking configuration at about that time. Further, there’s some speculation that the Star of Bethlehem may have been an occultation of Jupiter by the moon that occurred in 6 B.C., with the royal planet dramatically re-emerging from behind the moon. We even have an ancient Chinese chronicle, the Ch’ien-han-shu, which states that an object, probably a nova, or new star, was observed in March in 5 B.C. and remained visible for 70 days.

Those who assume that any contact between biblical and pagan beliefs can only lead to paganization of biblical teaching should note that there’s very good reason to think the Magi’s beliefs were a mix of Persian astrology and messianic ideas floating around their country, courtesy of the significant Jewish population that had lived there since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, five centuries before. An American culture that’s quite familiar with Fiddler on the Roof or the tales of Isaac Bashevis Singer should not marvel that, after 500 years, stories far more sacred to the Jews than these folk tales would be widely known among the educated elite in Persia. And a Magian knowledge of sacred Jewish texts certainly fits with Herod’s behavior in slaughtering the innocents of Bethlehem.

Some critics have found this story of Herod’s brutality absurd. Yet we know from non-biblical sources that Herod was indeed profoundly paranoid about rivals to his throne. He had his own children put to death to protect it (whereupon Augustus, who had granted Herod his puppet kingdom, remarked that since Herod observed kosher laws to placate his Jewish subjects, “It is better to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son”). But beyond this psychological evidence, there is in Scripture itself a tantalizing suggestion about why Herod would react so ferociously to the news of a newborn “king of the Jews”—a reason that dovetails remarkably well with what we know of the Magi.

You see, Herod—the “king of the Jews”—was not a Jew. He was an Edomite, or Idumaean, as they had become known by the time of Christ.Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. Jacob, you will recall, received the blessing and birthright from Isaac that Esau was supposed to get (Gen. 27). From that time on, rivalry existed between the brothers (and their descendants). Centuries after Jacob and Esau, when Israel escaped from Egypt and was journeying to the Promised Land, Moses requested passage through the land of the Moabites (a people closely allied with the Edomites) and was refused. In fact, the Moabites tried to destroy Israel. As part of their plan, the Moabite king, Balak, hired Balaam the prophet to curse Israel (Num. 22–24). However, as hard as Balaam tried, he found he could only bless the Chosen People.

What’s significant about this is Balaam’s third blessing on Israel. For he declared, in a prophecy that was, by Herod’s time, widely regarded as messianic:

I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not nigh:
a star shall come forth out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab,
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
Edom shall be dispossessed,
Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed,
while Israel does valiantly.
By Jacob shall dominion be exercised,
and the survivors of cities be destroyed!
(Num. 24:17–19; emphasis added)

“Edom shall be dispossessed” by a “star . . . out of Jacob.” Would a paranoid Edomite king with Herod’s psychological track record be unnerved by the Magi’s report of a star and their question, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”? Would such a king, who had proved himself willing to murder his own son to protect his throne, hesitate to slaughter the children of nameless peasants in an obscure village if he thought it would keep him from being “dispossessed”? To paraphrase Augustus, in such a situation, it would be better to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s subject. So it turns out there’s good reason, both biblical and extra-biblical, to think that—in an age especially inclined to look for signs and portents in stars and holy books—Persian astrologers would have seen such signs and portents in the skies and sacred books of Israel and Herod would have acted upon them.

So are there other examples of zodiac mysticism in Scripture? Yes. Of which more next time.

After reading these chapters more I still don’t see the term “Babylon Mystery Religion”. There is a “mystery” from “Babylon” in 17:5, but the word “religion” isn’t there. Although arguably it’s referring to a religion of Babylon.

It seems to me chapters 17 and 18 are warning against Christians falling into the trap of secularism, wherever it may be, not to come out of any one particular religion per se. (Although that would go hand in hand)

It seems to me to be a general warning against secularism though because all the terms used in these chapters describe the results of secularism.

The Kings of the earth have fornicated with the harlot (17:2). This is representing the time then (Rome) and the countries to come who have or will forsake truth of Christ for a lie.

In 17:4 we can see a foretelling of the persecution of martyrs by Rome and how Rome eventuall will fall. (Remember at this time the term “Babylon” meant “Rome” to the early Christians it was kind of a code, but it didn’t mean the religion of Rome it meant the government, the military state thereof). Also that verse foretells how any nation state that opposes Christianity will fall eventually.

There are many verses that have a dual meaning of referring to the Roman state of the day, predicting it’s downfall, and also have a future meaning for today, that all secular states that persecute Christians in one way or the other will fail and fall eventually. Along with those that support such secularism. (17:8)

This becomes more clear in chapter 18. 18:4 is urging all Christians to avoid succombing to the state’s will, which would have Christians compromise in some way or another. Remember at that time too, like today but much more severe, Christians were asked to comlrimise their faith by the Roman government which said to them you must worship our gods and either renounce yours or at least worship ours first (depending on the Ceasar at the time). So that’s what these verses are warning against to not give up the faith even in the time of persecution. It’s not necessarily saying to leave an organized religion for another one less organized or to forsake organized religion all together (which I have heard others apply it in that way).

Certainly it warns against falling into false religions but it’s not warning religions are false just because they are organized as again I’ve heard people claim.

It really seems to me to be encouraging the martyrs at the time and even today. To clarify for them and us today that all who are persecuted should not give up hope, lest we too fall into the same sins the secularists then and today commit. Again remember “Babylon” referred to the Roman government at the time but it can apply to any secularized government even today.

So it’s a dual message predicting the fall of Rome back then and the more general victory of Christ over all the nations when He returns in glory.

but the word “religion” isn’t there.

My mistake, the word religion did not register on me.

It might be no more than what you say, I surly don`t know.

Christians already know to worship God instead of the world, whether they do it or not, so why the peculiar explanation of who she is?

Why would we have to be told to come out of her?

Mathew 24
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

The false prophets were already here when the Apostles were preaching the gospel but how much worse were they going to be?

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,

Could it be beyond our belief just how many there may be and who they may be, we have been warned.

Why would it matter if it never had anything to do with Christianity? Christians were already being killed for their faith so why would Jesus or Paul be warning about that?

It is plain that Jesus was warning against false doctrine.

Why would John wonder with admiration if it was something he was already familiar with, and he surly knew what secularism or worldliness was.

And if the whore is a secular power it would just be a secular power among secular powers.

The ten kings give their power to the beast to destroy the whore, them giving their power to the beast indicates they are nothing more than a secular power them selves.

And notice that the ten kings were not even here at the time of the writing but is here at the time of the beast.

Also the golden cup and the fact that the whore was drunken on the blood of the saints does not indicate a secular power, why would unbelievers have any thing to do with the blood of the saints?

The blood of the saints could be the wine which the Church teaches actually turns into the blood of Christ.

I don`t know but could they be using the blood of the saints which would be Christ`s blood to deceive the world in other matters?

Could false doctrine be connected to drunkenness?

It is hard to find an answer on this but some say that the Catholic Church has many thousands of golden cups.

Cups, wine. blood, drunken, mystery Babylon. it is hard for me to see it as anything but religion.

“Those who assume that any contact between biblical and pagan beliefs can only lead to paganization of biblical teaching should note that there’s very good reason to think the Magi’s beliefs were a mix of Persian astrology and messianic ideas floating around their country, courtesy of the significant Jewish population that had lived there since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, five centuries before.”

That’s an interesting thought. There is, of course, the famous prophecy in Daniel of the 70 weeks, that includes a timeline to the coming of the Messiah. Perhaps some of these easterners were familiar with that prophecy and that is why they were looking for a sign in the heavens about the birth of the “Jewish King” at that particular time.

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