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It is a story intertwined with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, but also one of the favorite motifs in religious art.
The cult of the Magi and the symbolic displacement of the act described in the Bible have been adequately studied and analyzed.
As so many painting teachers have shown us, the Virgin He usually appears seated with the Divine Infant in his arms, who extends his arms to receive the gifts of the magicians.
The oldest of the three, Melchior, gives him gold. Incense Belshazzar smyrna e Gaspar. This simple scene was to play an important role in Christmas iconography and, over the years, it would become one of the most beautiful Christmas stories. He also had long journeys and gifts.
But what happened to the sages who, following the brightest star in the sky, emerged from its depths? East worship the Son of God?
Who were the magicians?
The cult of the Magi is narrated only by the evangelist Mateo. It shows them coming from the depths of the East to Bethlehem guided by the bright star and adoring the Child, the Son and the Word of God.
According to John Chrysostom, their homeland was probably Persia, they were people of other languages and of another race, points out this great father of his. Of the orthodox church.
According to other theologians, they were Chaldeans, a fact that they believe is confirmed by their knowledge of astronomy.
Magicians were probably wise men or scientists, astrologers possibly in the sense of the term at the time. According to other interpretations, they may have been kings or rulers, rich and certainly important people from the East.
As we remember, the three wise men arrived in Jerusalem with only the star as their guide. He asked the locals «ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ τεχθεὶς βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων; εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν προσκυνῆσαι αὐτῷ »(κατά Ματθαίον ηατθαίνονηπηπα
Και τότε «ὁ ἀστήρ ὅν εἶδον ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ προῆγεν αὐτούς» (στο ίδη). The three magi arrived at the house of the Virgin Mary. and Joseph and they found in him the Virgin Mary and the Holy Child. And then “the fallen worshiped him”, offering “gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
Chrysostom recognizes the symbolic function in the gifts. Gold was a gift to kings and incense to gods. As for the myrrh, it was prophetic, they gave it to a man who was going to die.
The problematic of history
But why is this important aspect of the birth of the Man-God mentioned only by Matthew and no one else? But even he doesn’t talk about the number of magicians. The gaps were then filled by Christian tradition as a logical conclusion: three were the gifts, then three were the magicians who offered them.
According to Matthew, whose Gospel is the only one of the four canons that mentions the Magi, these illustrious and eminent personalities managed to find the Divine Infant with the help of the stars.
We know that the Chaldeans and Aramaeans studied the stars and had gained a wider reputation for their astronomical discoveries, but also for their astrological interpretations of the world. Magi were probably Persian sages of the time, empirical scientists in years when the term didn’t even exist.
The New Testament does not give us names of magicians either. In fact, in the early Christian years, there were many legends about who they were. Again the names we know (Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar) were ultimately the ones that managed to survive the centuries.
Melchior (or Melichior in earlier versions) is recognized by some biblical scholars as a Persian scholar, Gaspar (but also Caspar or Gaspar) as a Hindu sage, and Balthasar (or Balthazar) as a Babylonian scholar.
The different Christian doctrines, however, have completely different interpretations, but also names for the wise men or kings, since the ancient sources that describe them were many and different for the scholar to choose from.
Matthew’s phrase “from the east” is, after all, the only primary information the evangelist gives us about his country of origin.
Some have even pointed to the vast Parthian Empire, which at that time had almost all the territories east of Judea.
The journey and the pilgrimage
But why did they make such a long and dangerous journey? Again, Matthew does not provide any interpretation. Εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν προσκυνῆσαι αὐτῷ Perhaps it had to do with a relevant prophecy that existed in the Zoroastrian tradition.
“The magicians surrounded the Divine Infant.
This practice of pilgrimage, along with Luke’s account of divine birth, had a profound effect on their religious practices. of christianity.
Kneeling and pilgrimage were adopted in early Christian times as signs of absolute respect and have survived even today in some Eastern Christian traditions, especially during Lent.
Gaspar was most commonly depicted as an old man, with a typically white beard, giving the divine child gold as a gift. In some sources he is even known as the “king of Tarsus”, the land of merchants (in Asia Minor). Gaspar is the first to kneel before Jesus.
He is followed by Melchior, a middle-aged man who brings incense from his country, Arabia, and the third is Belshazzar, the young man in the representations, who is usually (but not always) represented as dark skinned. He brings myrrh (myrrh) from Savva (the south of today) Yemen).
Most scholars agree that their ages are 60, 40 and 20 years, respectively, expressing three characteristic stages of human life.
But also for Balthasar, Christian literature seems to agree that it comes to us from Ethiopia or some other African country, thus he is presented as a member of the black race.
Matthew, however, rightly speaks of his gifts: “they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh” to the Holy Child. Innumerable assumptions have also been made about the meaning and symbolism of these gifts.
Most theologians of the first centuries of Christianity agree that the three gifts were the usual offerings given to Kings. Myrrh was used as an anointing oil and frankincense was used to make perfumes. As for gold, it has always been valuable.
Matthew, however, probably wanted to give a symbolic and spiritual meaning to the gifts. Gold in this line of thought is a symbol of the earthly kingdom, frankincense (like frankincense) a divine symbol, and myrrh (myrrh, the aromatic resin) a symbol of death.
This is what Origen tells us in one of his explanatory works (“Against Celso”): “gold, as in a king, myrrh, as in a mortal, and incense, as in a God.”
What happened to the three magicians?
The Scriptures do not tell us what happened to the three gifts. It was again the long and rich ecclesiastical tradition that promised to fill in the gaps in the narrative.
According to one version, the gold was stolen by two thieves, who were later crucified with Jesus. Another point of view wants the gold to be entrusted to Judas, who squandered it for his own ends.
A third tells us that this gold financed his dangerous journey. Jose and Maria from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous plans.
Tradition says that myrrh is used as a funeral oil after the crucifixion of Jesus. In the Holy Monastery of Agios Pavlos on Mount Athos there is still a 15th century gold box containing the Gifts of the Magi, which was donated to the monastery by the daughter of a Serbian king and wife of Sultan Murad II.
As for the prophecy wizards themselves, nothing is known either. The Bible no longer addresses them, but two theories have developed over the centuries, each with important ecclesiastical foundations.
They both agree that these pagan magicians were surprised by their brief contact with the Divine Infant and converted to Christianity. Either on the spot or in later meetings with an apostle or even himself Jesus.
As Matthew informs us, the magi returned from another road to their homeland to avoid Herod who had ambushed them. The evangelist tells us: “καὶ χρηματισθέντες κατ᾿ ὄναρ μὴ ἀνακάμψαι πρὸς Ἡρῴδην, δι᾿ ἄλλης ὁδοῦ ἀνεχώρησαν εἰς νὴνὐ”.
The Christian tradition has many versions of what happened to the magi after the visit. One of them claims that one of the magi was finally baptized a Christian by St. Thomas upon his return to India.
Another version wants their bodies to be found by st. Helen and transported to Istanbul, from where they somehow found their way to Germany. They are preserved there to this day, in the Cologne Cathedral (Relic of the Magi).
The story of the three magicians has to do with many traditions and beliefs and their reconstruction is lost in the depths of time.
The Persians had their own ancient myth of wizards and stars, as did the Indians.
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