Mystery of the Magi

Seriously, who were they, what was their position, where did they come, when did they come, why did they bring such unusual gifts and how many where there anyway?

Nativities throughout the centuries have included these mysterious men visiting baby Jesus in the manger.

 

On our fire mantel sits a single king gazing at the newborn baby Jesus to symbolize the upcoming Epiphany on January 6th.  I became curious about the timing of the magi’s visit visit after learning about the Le Fete de Rio celebration during a trip to France with friends.  Galette de Rio cakes were appearing in bakery windows during our visit.  We celebrated this local tradition while  at a farm house; as the youngest, I was required to sit under the table naming who would get the next piece of galette waiting to see who would find a fete in their galette honoring them with celebratory status of being king for the evening.

Although the magi are popularly considered to be kings, they are widely held  to be learned spiritual men based on their discipline of reading the night sky.   They must of been men of means or at least who had access to the resources that enabled them to travel and offer such valuable gifts.

I learned that the 12 days of Christmas are the days between Christmas and the Epiphany, celebrating the day the magi came to visit Jesus as many as two years after his birth.  The Bible reports these mysterious men seeing a star in the sky, interpreting the night sky to determine that a king had been born to the Jewish people, then traveling from the east, a journey of perhaps two years.  They traveled to Israel to honor this new king of the Jewish people.  We know this timeline because the Bible records Herod asking these mysterious men when they’d seen the star that they’d followed.  Herod subsequently proceeded to have all children under two years of age put to death in order to prevent his own kingship over Israel from being usurped.  How frightening it would be to share this story with young children. Instead, the story has been sanitized and reduced to what almost seems like a fairy tale.  I was shocked with as an adult, I learned of the infanticide caused by the birth of Jesus.  

The Bible doesn’t indicate how many men visited Jesus or provide further details as what countries from the east they originated.