By Aaron Lambert
In the grand tale of salvation history, few figures are more mysterious than the three Magi who tracked a star to Bethlehem to give homage to a newborn king with their humble gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Despite the fact that they are part of virtually every retelling of the Nativity story, who the Magi actually were has been a source of debate for centuries. Were they princes? Were they kings? Were they actually wise? Or were they, as their name implies, magicians? For many years, biblical scholars dismissed their inclusion in the story as a fable. However, even though history has not been totally clear on who these men were, over time, through tradition, ancient writings and other clues, various theories about these three wise men and where they came from have emerged.
Curiously, the Magi only appear in Matthew’s account of the Nativity. A prevailing theory for many years posited that the wise men were in fact kings, and they hailed from the Eastern regions of Ind, Chaldea and Persia. This theory originated in a 14th-century text called “Historia Trium Regum” (“History of the Three Kings”) written by John of Hildesheim, a Carmelite friar. The names that are traditionally associated with the three kings – Melchior, Balthazar and Caspar – find their origin in an eighth-century Greek manuscript, and they are referred to as such in the friar’s account.
In this version of the history, these three kings did not know each other but all were guided to Bethlehem independently by the star, a sign that the prophesied Messiah had been born — a prophecy they would have been very familiar with. Their paths converged and they reached their destination — not on Christmas night, as many popular stories tell it, but more likely about a year after Jesus was born. As Matthew’s Gospel recounts, it was during the reign of Herod that the three kings arrived in Bethlehem, and shortly after their arrival, the Holy Family fled into Egypt.
Another interesting and more recent theory about the three Magi comes from Catholic author and speaker Father Dwight Longenecker. In his book, “The Mystery of the Magi,” Father Longenecker digs into the geography, ancient history, archeology, religion and culture of the Roman Empire at the time of the birth of Jesus and presents compelling evidence for who the Magi actually were.
Far from a mere myth, the history that Father Longenecker uncovered reveals that the Magi were likely diplomats from a neighboring region of Judea called Nabataea. They hailed from the city of Petra, and after hearing that a new heir to the Judean throne had been born, the Nabataean King Aretas IV sent them as envoys to King Herod’s court to pay homage to the newborn king. The gifts they brought were customary of the Arabian kingdom from which they journeyed.
So, according to Father Longenecker’s research, the Magi were not from Persia, but rather Arabia. And they weren’t kings or “wise men,” though clearly they were very wise to have been able to trace a star to Bethlehem, which Longenecker interprets as an astrological phenomenon. Nor were they magicians, but diplomats sent to establish a diplomatic alliance with King Herod. And their names probably weren’t Melchior, Balthazar and Caspar. Moreover, there is no evidence that there were only three Magi who traveled to Bethlehem; this number corresponds with the three gifts they brought with them, but as it indicates in the Gospel of Matthew, there were enough of them that they troubled all of Jerusalem (Mt 2:3).
Mystery solved. Or is it? Perhaps we’ll never know.
Regardless of the history and mystery surrounding these enigmatic figures, the three Magi remain a key piece of the Nativity story. The Church commemorates their arrival to Bethlehem each year on the feast of the Epiphany, a day where we, too, are invited to share in the Magi’s wonder and adoration of the Christ child. The Church has always held that the Magi represent Christ’s revelation to the gentiles, hence the word “Epiphany,” which means “divine revelation.”
In this same way, the Magi also represent us in the Nativity story. Though we might not have to physically travel thousands of miles to encounter Jesus, it is still a journey that our heart makes each Christmas.
During his Angelus address on the feast of the Epiphany in 2023, Pope Francis observed that “the Magi allowed themselves to be amazed and inconvenienced by the novelty of the star, and they set out on a journey toward the unknown. Educated and wise, they were fascinated more by what they did not know than by what they already knew. They opened themselves to what they did not know. They felt called to go beyond.”
As we reflect on the mystery of the Magi this Christmas, may we, too, feel the call to go “beyond” and encounter the newborn king anew in our hearts, falling prostrate before Him and offering the humble gift of ourselves, in imitation of the Magi.
Aaron Lambert is a writer from Denver.
