Clear, slightly cooler. Nice breeze.
I ticked some folks off the other night when I was at a holiday gathering, when I said something about the "myth" of the magi. (I think some other things actually did the ticking, but ... another time.) I've said in earlier posts that I'm a believer, so I don't think the magi are mythical. Or do I?
The New Testament has only two "birth narratives" of Jesus, one in Luke and one in Matthew. The one in Luke is by far the better known: it's the one Linus recites in that "Peanuts" animated TV special. It basically has an archangel appearing to shepherds, announcing the birth of the Messiah. The shepherds then go to Bethlehem to visit Christianity's First Family in the stable.
Matthew's account has "some" wise men from the East traveling to Bethlehem to visit the Christ child. They are following a star (also mentioned in Luke) to lead them to the site. Various things happen and then Matthew says these wise men (magi) eventually find Jesus, Joseph and Mary in a "house." It doesn't say anything about a stable, or about shepherds.
These details don't necessarily conflict. Luke doesn't say how long Jesus and his family had to stay in a stable, with the baby Jesus in the manger (which is basically a feed trough for the livestock). So, they could maybe have found better lodging by the time the Magi arrived.
Matthew doesn't say how many magi there were. The account just says "some." There is no mention of their names, either, or what specific kingdom or kingdoms in the East they came from. It also doesn't say which brought gold, which brought frankincense, and which brought myrrh -- or if any of them were individual gifts.
I did a little (very little) research, and I found that "magi" is a Persian word first found in Greek in Herodotus -- once to describe a Persian family of dream interpreters, and again to describe dream interpreters generally. "Magi" is plural -- "magus" is singular. I also found that astrology was a kind of sideline for many of these dream interpreters, some of whom were advisers to kings and sometimes were entrusted with the king's signet ring, giving them the right to transact business in the name of the king.
This jibes with Matthew's account. He says they came from the East, where a lot of this kind of thing went on; they were following a star; they had to check in with the local king, Herod, to follow diplomatic protocol; and they realized Herod was playing them when they had a dream in common.
So the "myth" I was referring to is the manger scene many of us have in our heads -- the manger, the Christ child, Mary, Joseph, animals, shepherds and magi. I'm not saying it didn't happen -- it just probably didn't happen that way. Shepherds had to follow the flocks, and the original group had probably moved on by the time the magi got there. We really don't know.
By the way, there's a Persian miniature (I think it illustrates some kind of manuscript) somewhere, painted by some Moslem artist in the 18th century. It depicts the 'adoration of the Magi', but it has all kinds of people in the scene, women and men, in addition to the Madonna and Child and some magi. Mary is holding Jesus in her lap, just outside a big, boxlike tent-type house. Mary is sitting on a pillow Oriental style, but she's dressed as if she were an English lady in Tudor or maybe Elizabethan times. Magi and others are also in the costume of that period.
Odd.
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*Wikipedia has an informative article entitled "Magi". I saw no mention of dream interpretation in it, however. That was just my take on it, and -- to a certain extent -- still is.
LJ orig.: 12/19/06
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