CHRISTMAS 2023 -- WHITHER THE WISE MEN

It's Christmas 2023.

In the past, I've focused on this as the season of anticipation.  On kids who cannot sleep while listening for Rudolph.  On adults who millennia ago deemed it the day of new beginnings. ("Twas the Night Before Christmas", 12/24/08, 12/24/16, 17, 18 and 19)

In other years, it's been Shillelagh Law's musical catalogue of downtown lights and wrapped presents overcome by a 9/11 Christmas eve prayer.  From the believer (or was s/he a skeptic) who knelt "down in the last pew, right on the aisle" admitting " 'God I know that it's been awhile.' " ("It's Christmas in New York Again", 12/22/14; "A Christmas Carol", 12/15/21)

One year, I channeled John Lennon's plaintive "what have we done".  ("Silent Night", 12/21/10)

This year I cannot get the three Wise Men out of my head.

The story's original source -- the Gospel of Matthew -- creates as many questions as it answers. 

The first is whether they were all that wise.  The Biblical text is all over the place.  It changes depending on which translation you read.  The King James version intones "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem."  Though the New Revised Standard Version dispenses with King James's awkward meter, it too calls the travelers "wise men". That changes, however, in the New International Version.  There, it's "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem,

So, which is it?

Wise Men or Magi?

And does it matter?

Matthew wrote in Greek and the English "Magi" comes to us from the Greek (transliterated) "magos" that he used in his Gospel. That Greek word, in turn, referred to Zoroastrian priests who, coming full circle now, were deemed reputable astrologers at a time when astrology was considered a science.  More than that, they were also advisers to kings, large in number, and reputedly expert at divining the meaning of dreams. As such, they became important political, administrative  and economic players and veritable king-makers.  

Not surprisingly, therefore, the ancient world thought Magi possessed wisdom. Cicero even said so, calling them "wise and learned among the Persians". Ditto Herodotus, centuries before. And this view survived long enough for King James to put the words "Wise Men" into Matthew's mouth and the English world's Bible.  

Today, of course, astrology and oneiromancy are  closer to sorcery than science.  (Extra points for anyone who even knew the word oneiromancy -- the use of dreams to predict the future -- existed, let alone what it means.) So the ambiguity of Magi is a more useful construction, especially in a world full of atheists and agnostics. That way, the Magi's wisdom can be mediated through the epistemic seas we humans have travelled over the centuries. 

And made real for us.

Put differently, today's Magi would be physicists, counselors and psychologists.

Not astrologers or . . .

Oneiromantics.

In Matthew's Gospel, his Magi come "from the east" bearing gifts of "gold, frankincense and myrrh" for the Christ child. He never tells us how many came but the Christian churches and traditions have conveniently settled upon the number three, largely on account of the three gifts.  

Matthew also does not tell us his Magis' names or precisely where they came from in the "east". This too, however, has not stopped the churches, though here the choice depends largely on which Christian rite one follows. The west decided the three were the Persian Melchior, the Indian Caspar and the Ethiopian or Arabian Balthazar. Other rites settled on different names and origins, some as far east as China.

Almost all of this is historically suspect.

At the time Herod was king, Judea was basically a buffer-state between the Roman west and the Persian-Parthian (present day Iran and Afghanistan) east, the control of which alternated between the two depending upon which contending army had won the latest battle. 

This made Herod's rule inherently shaky. 

Though the Romans made him King of Judea, he was an Edomite (thus not Jewish), had bribed his way to the office, and had by the time of Christ's birth assassinated competitors. Neither fully Roman nor Jewish, he assuaged Rome but also sought favor with the Parthians when the opportunity presented itself. 

In a word, he was cunning.

He was also paranoid.

In Matthew's Gospel, the visiting Magi arrive first in Jerusalem asking "" 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?' " "When King Herod heard this," Matthew reports, "he was disturbed, and all of Jerusalem with him." 

No kidding. 

The Magi were king-makers. 

Looking for someone who might replace him. 

How many were there? 

We don't know.  

But as one Biblical observer notes, "The whole city of Jerusalem wouldn't be upset about three guys on camels; no, this is a major Parthian group, or entourage, that has arrived, and Herod is nervous."

The churches' origin traditions make the Magi's visit a form of international worship and approval.  The gifts they gave are used to symbolize the Christ child's godly kingship and human mortality on the one hand, while restricting the number of visiting Magi to three and keeping politics out of the nativity on the other. 

For the Magi, however, politics was the heart of the matter.

Herod sought to use them.  

Matthew again: 

Herod "called together all the chief priests and teachers of the law" and "asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied' ". He then "called the Magi secretly . . .  and sent them to Bethlehem and said 'Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.' "

The Magi, however, would not be used.

They were looking for a new king.

Not Herod's next victim.

So . . .

Upon arriving in Bethlehem and "coming to the house", Matthew writes that "they saw the child with his Mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.  They then opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route."

There's an awful lot hanging on that last sentence.  

In the New International translation, the Magi are "warned in a dream".  In the King James version, "God" delivers the warning "in a dream".  Either way, the message is being delivered to a group (Magi) in a form (dream) they get.  Remember, in the ancient world, these guys were the experts on dreams. Empires rose and fell  depending on the meaning they attached to them. 

They figured dreams out.

Shortly after the Magi left, Herod "realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi" and "was furious".  He therefore "gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under".  By then, however, Jesus had been ferried by his parents to Egypt where he stayed until Herod died.

A lot clearly hung on the Magi's "wisdom".  

On their putative expertise.

What if they had misinterpreted the dream?

What if they had said to themselves:

"Yeah, we know Herod is paranoid. And we know he has killed competitors before. And we know he is dishonest and lies. But, let's get real here. This is a just a baby. Not even a kid yet.  And Herod's pretty old. And that star leading us here, they're saying, is a prophet's sign. So, hey, maybe the old man is softening. Gotten religion even. Let's just go back and give him a chance."

The Magi could have gotten it wrong.  

There were probably even some in their entourage who argued for a return. Herod had worked with Parthians in the past. Been an ally of sorts.  Done them some favors. 

Some perceived him to be a pragmatic politician and wily negotiator. 

Not an extremist bent on killing a mere infant.

Others, however, remained steadfast.  

The were unwilling to forget Herod's past. The bribes, the lies.  They weren't taken in by his false promises.  They knew that a man who had killed kings would not pay homage to another who would be king.  They especially knew he would not do so with another who would bear his own title.

King of the Jews.

The steadfast prevailed.

The Magi did not get it wrong.

Neither should we.

Merry Christmas.