MAGI VISIT
How much time elapsed between Christ’s birth and the visit of the Magi is not known, but they do not seem to have arrived until after Jesus’ presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem, 40 days after He was born. Tradition says there were three, probably because of the three gifts they presented. But some earlier traditions set the number as high as twelve, traveling with a large caravan. The names Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar don’t appear until the 6th century.
The Star: What might it have been?
Scientists and Bible scholars have offered explanations for the “Star of Bethlehem.”
The “Star” could have been a miracle sign, a miracle star, Jesus Himself, an angel, a
supernova, a comet, or a conjunction of planets. In order to use science to test these possibilities, they must be testable. Astronomical records were kept 2,000 years ago,
So we can look back for sightings of a supernova, comet, or conjunction of planets. But the appearance of a miracle sign, a miracle star, Jesus, or an angel cannot be tested—or discounted, for that matter. Where does this leave us?
The Magi probably came from Persia (modern-day Iran) all the way to Bethlehem. Why would they do this? One possibility is that God used the Magi’s fascination with the heavens to draw them to Jesus.
Jupiter, which ancient Jewish astrologers called the “King’s Star” (God), and Saturn, which they called the “Star of the Messiah,” came together in the constellation Pisces three times between 7 and 6 B.C. Those same astrologers assigned a country to each of the Zodiac constellations, with Pisces, the sign of the fish, representing Judea, or the “House of the Hebrews.”
It was certainly noteworthy when the “God” and “Messiah” planets rose in the eastern sky (the east signifying birth) and settled in Pisces, the “House of the Hebrews.” The Jewish astrologers, whose thinking may have been known to the gentile Magi (see main story), had predicted that the Messiah would arrive when Jupiter and Saturn conjoined in Pisces. This prediction would have been highly significant to the Magi—it would have alerted them to the birth of Jesus. Even though this possibility can be tested with computer programmes and has a certain logic to it, it remains only an interesting
idea. How the Star of Bethlehem, the Star of Epiphany actually happened remains a mystery. That it did happen remains a blessing.
Why non-Jewish Magi?
A plausible explanation of why non-Jewish magi visited the Holy Family could be the following. Nebuchadnezzar took as Jewish captives not the common people, laborers, or farmers, but the professional leaders in the land, including priests and rabbinical scholars. Nor did they all return with Ezra. Many of the Jews fared so well during their captivity that a large Jewish colony remained in Babylon for at least the next 1,000 years. What is
the greatest collection of Jewish writings? The Babylonian Talmud, of course, which was edited at Babylon in A.D. 400.
Here, then, is the point: Four centuries earlier, magi scholars, especially the religious historians among them, would certainly have had regular contact with their Jewish counterparts in the scholarly community at Babylon. Accordingly, they, too, would have had access to Hebrew Scriptures involving Messianic prophecies and the star,
including rabbinical traditions explaining Balaam’s oracle that “a star shall come forth out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel”(Num. 24:17), Isaiah’s prophecies and others.
The Magi’s question to Herod in Jerusalem, then, was not asked out of a vacuum, but was based on solid knowledge of the prophetic literature of the Hebrews whose exile in Babylon bore at least one great fruit – the Epiphany story!
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