MAGI. – Characters who came from the East to Jerusalem, guided by a star, to worship the King of the Jews. Sent by Herod to Bethlehem, they find the Child Jesus, offer him gold, frankincense and myrrh; then, warned by an angel, they return by another route to their own lands (Mt. 2:1–12). Here m. seems to have the primitive sense of followers of Zoroaster.
The Greek μάγος is derived by many from the Sanskrit mahhet (“great”) or from the Pehlevi mog (“priest”). After the studies of G. Messina, many think of the Persian maga (“gift”), in the sense of a divine revelation announced by Zoroaster. The participants in this gift, followers of Zoroaster, are called maga-van, mogu, magu.
The Greeks Xanthos, Hermodorus, Aristotle regarded the m. as followers of Zoroaster (Zarathustra). Herodotus (I, 101) believed they were a tribe (or caste) of Media; later authors, with Bolos of Mendes, presented the m. as astrologers or sorcerers; they confused them both with the Babylonian Chaldeans and with the Egyptian magicians. In the Roman Empire the term had this pejorative sense of sorcerers (the magician Elymas, Bar-Jesus, Acts 13:6–8; Simon “magus,” Acts 8:9). In the Vulgate of the Old Testament, magus renders several Hebrew terms meaning “diviners,” “enchanters.”
The homeland of the m. is uncertain. The Gospel says only “from the East,” that is, from the regions beyond the Jordan. Many think of Arabia, few of Babylon; but the majority connect the m. with Persia: thus, among the ancients, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Chrysostom, Ephrem; among moderns J. Knabenbauer, G. Messina, G. Ricciotti.
In various Persian circles there was an expectation at this time of the birth of a “savior” (saushyant) who was to be conceived by the bath of a virgin in the lake of Kayansch, where the seed of Zoroaster was believed to be preserved. This Iranian expectation, together with the Jewish expectation of Balaam (“A star shall rise out of Jacob”: Num. 24:17) and the appearance of a strange star, must have led the m. to seek in Jerusalem the newborn King of the Jews.
The “star” of the m. has given rise to many opinions. The following deserve mention: according to some it was a conjunction of planets (Jupiter and Saturn, in 7 BC); according to others a comet (Halley’s, in 12 BC). Better is to see in the “star” a miraculous meteor, low in the atmosphere, which guided the m. until it stopped over a house (Mt. 2:9–10). Besides the external star there was the internal star that called the m.
The date of the m.’s coming is indicated with some approximation by the fact that Herod had all the children of Bethlehem killed “from two years old and under,” according to the time he had inquired of the m. (Mt. 2:16). The Child was not yet two years old, but probably about a year old (v. INNOCENT, SLAUGHTER OF THE).
The number of the m. is uncertain. In the paintings of the Roman catacombs they appear now as 2, now as 4, now as 6 (even 12 among the Syrians and Armenians), but in the majority of monuments and documents the number 3 prevails (perhaps arising from the number of gifts). The popular names (Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar), with variants, appear about the 9th century. From the 12th century it was said that Caspar represented the Japhethites, Melchior the Hamites, Balthasar the Semites. The title of king is attributed to the m., it seems for the first time, by St. Caesarius of Arles and by some apocryphal works: it seems to derive from Ps. 71:10 or Is. 60:3.
The historicity of the m.’s coming is confirmed also by the fact that the episode is narrated not by the universalistic Gospel of Luke (which wished to show that the Messiah was a light of revelation for the Gentiles), but by the Jewish Gospel of Matthew. Some rationalists, to deny the historicity of the event, declare it a legend born from the visit of Tiridates, king of Armenia, to Nero (cf. Pliny, Hist. nat., 30, 2, 16; Tacitus, Ann., 15, 24, 29; Suetonius, Nero, 13; Dio Cassius, 63, 1). But between the two journeys there is not the slightest resemblance: if one excludes the fact that Tiridates in his theatrical journey had brought with him some m. or “diviners.” That journey, which took place in AD 66, did not at all involve Palestine, where Matthew had already written (v.).
The relics of the m. are said to have been transferred in the 4th century from Persia to Constantinople, thence to Milan (in the basilica of St. Eustorgius), whence, in 1161, by order of Frederick Barbarossa, they passed to Cologne.
For the m. in archaeology and art, V. EPIPHANY; for non-Christian religions, V. PERSIA.
Pietro De Ambroggi