The mystery of the Wise Men

The carol assures us that “We three kings of Orient are…” and tells us they were “following yonder star”. Can we ensure there have been three of them? Were they kings? Where within the Orient were they from? What was the star they followed? In fact, there’s rather a lot that we just have no idea. This is the story …

What was the Star?

Many Christmas cards show kings in splendid oriental costumes riding on camels after which kneeling alongside shepherds, guided by a single brilliant star. We have no idea what the “star” was that was seen. In precedent days what we call a planet was called a wandering star, and in indisputable fact that is where we get the word planet from since it is from the Greek word for wander. A moving star perhaps implies a planet or a comet. There are astronomical theories but we have no idea obviously. If we knew the precise date of the birth that might help because we could use astronomical theories to work out the positions of the night sky that day, but we don’t.

How many Wise Men were there?

Our term “sensible men” was coined by Tyndale to translate “Magi”. It is just within the plural, but we have no idea exactly how a lot of them there have been, and even in the event that they were all men. We infer three only from the three gifts. There can have been many more. Early paintings of them from the Early Church sometimes have twelve.

Who were the Wise Men?

These visitors weren’t kings, but who they were we cannot ensure. Royal courts had Magi, and within the Bible we read in regards to the sensible men of Pharaoh in Genesis 41:8, the sensible men of King Ahasuerus in Esther 1:13, and the sensible men of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:18, so that they were likely coming on behalf of a king, without being kings themselves. Tradition ascribes them names, but we have no idea what they were called, or which language they spoke.

Where did the Wise Men come from?

The text only tells us that they got here from the east (Matthew 2:1), which in context meant east of the River Jordan, but which land we cannot ensure. In English we speak of east because the Near East, Middle East and Far East. Which of those easts they got here from is just not known. This has enabled different traditions to say them as their very own. Tradition sometimes has them coming from different lands, although more than likely they got here together from the identical place. There are theories about where they got here from, so far as Persia or as close as Petra, but no-one knows obviously. We have no idea in the event that they got here by camel, horse, or by foot and even partially by ship. We don’t understand how long the journey took, nor after they set off.

How old was Jesus when the Wise Men arrived?

We have no idea when the sensible men arrived. We could be fairly sure that they didn’t arrive similtaneously the shepherds. There is a giant clue within the presentation on the Temple, where Joseph and Mary sacrifice two birds (Luke 2:24) which is in response to the law in Leviticus 12:8 that allowed two birds to be sacrificed as an alternative of a lamb if the people were poor and will not afford a lamb. 

This tells us that the sensible men had not arrived yet, because in the event that they had had gold then presumably they may have afforded a lamb. Another clue is that Herod determined the time when the boy was born (Matthew 2:7) after which killed all of the boys under the age of two (Matthew 2:16), which suggests that Jesus was a couple of yr old, because Herod in-built a margin of error to hedge his bets. We have no idea when the sensible men arrived however it was a minimum of eight days after the birth, and not more than two years, probably somewhere in the center between these two points.

Summary

As is usually the case the gaps in our knowledge are filled in by tradition, created by the imagination of Christians over the centuries. When we scrape back the layers of tradition to the unique story we’ve to confess that we have no idea rather a lot, and maybe that is sensible. Matthew meant the main target of the story to be Jesus not his house guests.