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n The story of the Three Kings comes from Chapter Two of Matthew’sngospel, but it is the subsequent legends that have grown around this strangentrio that concern us today. In verse one, Matthew tells us that,
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n“Now whennJesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold,nthere came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.”n
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nNotice that. ‘There came wisenmen from the east.’ They are not kings and there are not three of them. These ‘wisenmen’ are the Magi, which comes from the Greek word µαγοι ‘magoi’, which is thenplural of ‘magos’, which in turn comes from the Persian Magu, both terms refernto a class of scholar-priests from Medes (now in modern Iran).
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| The Adoration of the Magi – from the Franks Casket c 800 CE |
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nIt is the rootnof our word ‘magic’ as these Magi were astronomers, astrologers, interpretersnof dreams, philosophers and the keepers of ritual; they were occultists thatnknew and studied the works of the Ancient Greeks, of Plato, Aristotle, Socratesnand Herodotus, and they used them in their own researches. They observed thenskies, for signs and portents, and according to Matthew “the star, which theynsaw in the east, went before them,” which is a little odd, since if the starnwas in the east and the Magi were also in the east, then they would havenfollowed it further to the east, in the opposite direction from Bethlehem, butnthat’s by the by.
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| The Adoration of the Magi |
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nThey went first to Herod and then to Bethlehem, where theynpresented Mary and Jesus with ‘… gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.’nThey were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and so went back to theirnown country by another way. That the gifts were gold, frankincense and myrrhnhas given rise to the legend that there were three men, each of whom bore ansingle gift, but again Matthew does not mention the real number of the Magi,n(indeed, early Christian tradition held that there were twelve of them,nforetokening the number of the twelve apostles).
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| Albrecht Durer – The Adoration of the Magi |
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nBy the second century,nChristians celebrated the visit of the Magi in the feast of the Epiphany (nownJanuary 6th), which means ‘appearance’ or ‘manifestation’, and the Epiphanynpredates the feast of Christmas by more than a century. Folk legends began tongrow around the identity of the Three Wise Men; the eldest, Melchior, was anKing of Arabia, white haired and white bearded, with a pale complexion and henbrought the gift of Gold. Caspar came from Chaldea, was younger and had a ruddynskin, was beardless and brought frankincense. Balthasar was a black King ofnEthiopia, tall and middle-aged, he bore myrrh (in some legends, thendescriptions of Caspar and Balthasar are interchanged).
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| Gentile da Fabriano – The Adoration of the Magi [Detail] |
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nIn other traditions,ntheir names are Apellius, Amerus and Damascus, another names them Megalath,nGalgalath and Sarasin, whereas a fourth version calls them Ator, Sator andnPeratorus. It was thought that, regardless of their names, they represented thenthree (then known) continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and some thought that they werendescendants of Balaam, a seer and Magi mentioned in the book of Numbers, whonforetold a ‘star out of Jacob’ and who passed the watch for it down through hisnline. Bede, amongst others, speculated that the Three Wise Men were descendednfrom Ham, Japheth and Shem, the three sons of Noah.
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| Gentile da Fabriano – The Adoration of the Magi |
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nThe pomp of their coming,nwith horses, camels and mules, in rich array bearing great treasures andnaccompanied by servants, gave artists of the Middle Ages an opportunity tonexhibit their skills in a portrayal of the scene.
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| Van Eyck – The Ghent Altarpiece |
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nIn Northern Europe, where oilnpainting was developed, artists like Van Eyck, Durer and the German schoolsnproduced richly detailed depictions of the Three Kings in all their splendour.
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| Reliquary of the Magi – Cologne Cathedral |
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nThe Magi became associated with Cologne when Empress Helena, mother ofnConstantine the Great, had their bodies brought from the Far East tonConstantinople, and in 1164, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa gave them tonRaynuldus, Archbishop of Cologne, who placed them in a magnificent shrine atnCologne Cathedral, where pilgrims from across Europe came to venerate thesenrelics. A popular belief was that to touch them would protect travellers fromninjury whilst on the road, and these three saints had special powers ofnintercession and protection, against sorcery and sudden death; special ringsnwere available from Cologne, inscribed with the names of the Magi and otherncharms and were thought to be especially efficacious against cramps and fallingnsickness.
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| Magi Pilgrim Rings |
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nThe Adoration of the Magi became an integral part of the Christmasnstory and they feature widely in Nativity scenes, on Christmas cards and innNativity plays and they appear in umpteen carols, most notably ‘We Three Kingsnof Orient Are’.
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