Smoodock's Blog

Matthew tells us that certain wise men came to Jerusalem sometime after Jesus was born, and they came in order to honor him with gifts (Matthew 2:1-2, 11). They have been called kings, wise men, magicians and astrologers to name a few. However, who are they really, and can we know? I believe the Bible does tell us what sort of people they were, and we are able to find out more from historical records what their status was in the world at this time. One thing is certain from Matthew’s account, and that is, they were legitimate authorities. It doesn’t seem likely that a king, such as Herod would be troubled by a group of traveling astrologers. Yet, they were taken very seriously by King Herod and both he and all of Jerusalem became troubled (G5015) or visibly shaken over their presence (Matthew 2:3). So, why should he be troubled? After all, he was appointed king by Augustus Caesar, himself.

The Magi were from the East, probably meaning they represented the Parthenian Empire in some manner, so they came from the court of a rival empire to Rome, and, if this is logical and true, they would have been accompanied by a military escort and had a large entourage of servants. So, in this context it is understandable why Herod and all of Jerusalem were troubled with their appearance from the East. Were they friendly, or did they represent a threat?

Many scholars assume they were gentiles, but this isn’t necessarily so.[1] The word translated to wise men or magi is magos in the Greek (G3097). The same word is used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Covenant text) for one of the four groups of people who stood before King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:2), all four groups were considered wise in their fields of expertise. After interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel was made the ruler over all the wise men (Sophos; G4680) of Babylon. So, the magos (G3097) were among the wise men (Sophos; G4680) who stood before the king, to advise him and prophesy concerning matters of importance. In this context, the magos, who came to Jerusalem, may have been Jews descended from the time of Daniel. They would have known about his prophecy of the four kingdoms, and they would have known that the fourth was Rome, and the “Stone” or “King/Messiah” who was to come in the days of the fourth kingdom. Therefore, the time to look for the coming of this king was near. Moreover, Daniel 7:24-27 actually offers an approximate timeline for actual ministry of the Messiah, so they would need only to calculate and approximate birth.

The heavens are like a gigantic solar clock with its bodies moving in orbits around the sun that take one year (earth), a little over two years (Mars), over 11 years (Jupiter) and about 28 years (Saturn). So, interesting formations involving these “wandering stars” would occur against the seemingly fixed starry background of the Zodiac at various intervals, some formations being very rare, taking hundreds of years to occur. The Sophos (G4580), particularly the magos (G3097) of Babylon used these formations to predict certain important events, and, no doubt, with followers of Daniel among them, would have been looking for such rare star formations to predict the coming of the Stone/King in the days of the fourth kingdom of Daniel 2.

An interesting point, concerning the heavens about the time of the birth of Jesus, was that certain rare and extremely rare star formations were to occur in 3 BC and concluding in 2 BC,[2] which coincided with the 750^th anniversary of the founding of the city of Rome. This was also the time of the announcement of Augustus’ silver jubilee, which called for the world census (cp. Luke 2:1) which was carried out to honor him as “Father of the Country/Empire.” With this as the background, the Magos (G3097) came from the East, asking, where is he who has been born “King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:1-2).

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[1] In an earlier study in the Gospel of Luke, I claimed it was possible that Simeon (Luke 2:25-34) was one of the Magi. If so, then the revelation that came to him (Luke 2:26) would have sparked his looking for his star (formation) to appear in the heavens.

[2] Remember, the heavens act like a predictable clock and the formations that the planets (wandering stars) make with the seemingly fixed starry background of the Zodiac, can be predicted accurately, since their movements around the sun and the seasonal recurrent constellations in the night sky are known.