Just who were the three wise men from the East?

Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series.The Christmas carol "We Three Kings" tells the story of the wise men from the East who brought gifts to the baby Jesus.Because of widespread neglect of careful Bible reading, numerous traditions have arisen about these important eastern visitors, and some of these traditions are quite speculative. For more than a millennium and a half the church has been observing a festival commemorating their visit. The calendar denotes Jan. 6 as the feast called Epiphany, from the Greek for "manifestation" and in its western rendition is associated with the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the wise men (Matthew 2:1-11). This 12th day of Christmas actually is supposed to mark the close of the festivities in honor of the Lord's birth.A historic and scientifically accurate explanation of the account of the wise men is not to be found in Scientific American, National Geographic or even the Encyclopedia Britannica. Our most important source of information on this topic is the Holy Bible.However, the Biblical record does not seem to tell us much, at least initially from a reading of Matthew's account. But the Bible doesn't tell camels were the mode of transporation used by the three wise men.They, and other details, have been added over the years from sources outside the Bible. In other words, the Christmas story has been, if you will, "Santa Claused."As Santa Claus and his reindeer are to the secular celebration of Christmas, so the three wise men and the crèche are to the "religious" celebration. Even most of the non-religious (or non-Christian) among us recognize the symbolism of the nativity scene.Gaining story from ScriptureWe can, however, glean from Scripture the following actual facts: The wise men came from the east. Even though the national origin of these men is not mentioned in this particular account it is likely they came from either Media, Persia, Assyria or Babylonia. It is very clear from Matthew's account that the wise men followed a star to Bethlehem to find the Christ Child.The Biblical record indicates the star as a real and visible phenomenon. The exact mode of transport for these travelers is not mentioned. Also, Scripture discloses that the wise men came to a house, not a stable. It was the shepherds, not the wise men, who visited the infant Jesus at the manger, according to Luke 2:1-21.When the wise men finally arrived at Bethlehem, probably around two years after the birth of Jesus, the saw a young child, not an infant. The wise men arrived bearing three gifts, namely gold, frankincense and myrrh.Understanding the 'wise men'The term "wise men" is perhaps the best English equivalent of the Greek word for Magi. The magi were a Median Kurdish priestly caste or tribe who rose to prominence in ancient Persia (today's Iran).Their religion, Zoroastri-anism, originated around the Sixth Century BC after the Median Zoroaster (the name itself possibly means "dawn star"). Zoroaster was a religious reformer of ancient Persia and the founder of this pre-Islamic religion. This religion taught the worship of the god Ahura Mazda as the source of all good and required the practice of good thoughts, words and deeds, and the renunciation of evil.The magi were held in awe as highly educated scientists and scholars who could interpret and even control demons. The Greek words magos, magoi, magi, from which we derive our word magic, is essentially untranslatable into English because it was the name of this certain group of people. The magi were very skilled in astronomy and astrology, which was a great preoccupation with them. In their interest in the stars they did not make much distinction between the science of astronomy and the superstition of astrology. The two were rather well blended by that time. They were also occultists of sorts and were involved in divination activities which we would call sorcery. That is why the word magi was corrupted through history into the English word magic or magician which is a synonym for sorcerer. Nevertheless, the magi were originally a pagan, priestly tribe of people from the Medes and Persians for which there are many historical references to confirm this. However, the magi mentioned in Matthew's account were different as we shall see.- Part II of Timothy Unruh's wise men column will run in the Dec. 29 News Messenger.