MAGI. - Figures who came from the East to Jerusalem, guided by a star, to adore 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 way to their own regions (Mt. 2, 1-12). It appears that here it has the primitive sense of followers of Zarathustra.
The Greek μάγος is derived by many from the Pahlavi 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 divine revelation announced by Zarathustra. The participants in this gift, followers of Zarathustra, are called maga-van, magu, magu.
The Greeks Xanthos, Hermodorus, Aristotle considered 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 sorcerer (the magician Elymas, Bar-Jesus, Acts 13, 6-8; Simon μαγεών, Acts 8, 9). In the Vulgate of the Old Testament magus renders various Hebrew terms indicating "soothsayers", "enchanters".
The homeland of the m. is not certain. The Gospel says only "from the East", that is, from the regions beyond the Jordan. Many think of Arabia, few of Babylonia; but the majority connect the m. with Persia: thus, among the ancients, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Diodore of Tarsus, Chrysostom, Ephrem; among the moderns J. Knabenbauer, G. Messina, G. Ricciotti.
In various Persian circles there was expected in this period the birth of a "helper" (snushyant) who was to be conceived from the bath of a virgin in the lake of Kayanseh, where the seed of Zarathustra was believed to be preserved. This Iranian expectation, united with the Jewish expectation of Balaam ("A star shall rise out of Jacob" Num. 24, 17) and with the appearance of a strange star, must have induced the m. to seek in Jerusalem the newborn King of the Jews.
The "star" of the m. has given rise to very many opinions. The following deserve to be remembered: according to some it would be the conjunction of planets (Jupiter and Saturn, in 7 B.C.); according to others a comet (of Halley, in 12 B.C.). It is better to discern in the "star" a miraculous meteor, not very high in the atmosphere, which guided the m. until it stopped over a house (Mt. 2, 9-10). Besides the exterior star there was the interior star that called the m.
The date of the coming of the m. is indicated with a certain approximation by the fact that Herod had all the Bethlehemite children "from two years old and under" put to death, according to the time he had inquired of the m. (Mt. 2, 16). The two-year period of the Child's life had not yet passed, but probably the year (v. INNOCENTI, STRAGE degli).
The number of the m. is uncertain. In the paintings of the Roman catacombs there appear now 2, now 4, now 6 m. (even 12 among the Syrians and Armenians), but in the majority of monuments and documents the number of 3 predominates (born perhaps from that of the gifts). The popular names (Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar), with variants, appear around the 9th century. From the 12th century it was said that Caspar was the representative of the Japhethites, Melchior of the Hamites, Balthazar of the Semites. The title of kings is attributed to the m., it seems for the first time, by St. Caesarius of Arles and by some apocrypha: it appears to derive from Ps. 71, 10 or Is. 60, 3.
The historicity of the coming of the m. is confirmed also by the fact that the episode is narrated not by the universalistic Gospel of Luke (who wished to show that the Messiah was a light of revelation for the Gentiles), but by the Jewish Gospel of Matthew. Some rationalists, in order to deny the historicity of the fact, 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, 83, 1). But between the two journeys there is not the slightest resemblance: if one excludes this, that Tiridates on his theatrical journey had brought with him some m. or "soothsayers". That journey, which took place in 66 A.D., did not concern Palestine at all, where Matthew had already written (v.).
The relics of the m. would have been transported in the 4th century from Persia to Constantinople, from there 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. EPIFANIA; for non-Christian religions, v. PERSIA.
Bibliography3 works
Pietro De Ambroggi