Who Were the Wise Men?
Matthew 2:1
Who were the wise men? Are you. ready for that? Matthew chapter 2. All of us have wondered. I remember when I was a little boy I wondered who those guys were. How many were there? Were they really kings? Did they really ride camels?
Why did they come to Bethlehem? And, as Paul said, we have most of our ideas about this fascinating group from the people who draw Christmas cards rather than theologians. Vincent, who has written some very helpful word studies says in regard to this, "Many absurd traditions and guesses respecting these visitors to our Lord's cradle have found their way into popular belief and into Christian art. They were said to be kings and three in number. They were said to be representatives of three families of Shem, Ham and Japeth and therefore one of them is pictured as an Ethiopian. Their names are given as Caspar, Belthizar and Melchoir and their three skulls, amazingly enough, are said to have been found. Yes, they were found in the twelfth century by Bishop Rinald of Cologne." The bishop dug those up and knew right off they were skulls, very clear. Their eyes were still in the sockets fixed toward Bethlehem. Today, believe it or not, friends, they. are on exhibit in a priceless casket in a great cathedral in Europe. Now frankly, folks, the only thing we know about these wise men is some history and what is said in Matthew.
We really are very, very limited in terms of specifics. In addition to what we have here in Matthew which is very limited, it says, "There came wise men from the East." That's it, folks, right there. We don't know their names, we don't know anything from that. But as we put the pieces together historically and we do have some very fascinating history. Some of it from the Old Testament, books such as Daniel where the Magi or wise men appear in several different texts, other Bible books as well as the writings of Herodotus and other historians. We basically have found, and here's the basic thrust of who they were and then we'll get into the specifics and I think you'll be fascinated by it, we're going to spend a lot of time with history tonight, this is going to be teaching not preaching W+ believe they were members of an Eastern priestly group, descendant of a tribe of people originally associated with the Medes, M‑e‑d‑e‑s Now I just want to remind you of something so you'll get a little bit of a picture. Basically in the history of the world there have been four major world empires, all right? First one was the Babylonian Empire. And that basically was settled in the fertile crescent area east of Israel in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates River, north or the Arabian gulf, east of what we know is Israel today. That was where the Babylonian Empire was. It was followed by the second great Empire that Daniel talks about and that was the Empire known as the Medo‑Persian Empire, it was a conglomerate Empire made up of the Persians and the Medes. The Medes were a very large and powerful people. The third great world Empire was Greece. When the Medo‑Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great the world became Greek, as it were. The fourth great Empire was the Roman Empire.
Now as we go backwards even while the Babylonian Empire was in existence there was still Medes and Persians. So they are very ancient people. In fact, there are many people in history who trace the origin of the Medes all the way back to the time when Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, way back in the 12th chapter of Genesis. So it may well be that these are very, very ancient people. Certainly they are people who appear in the Babylonian Empire because we see them in the book of Daniel. They are people from the Medo‑Persian Empire and existed on through the Greek Empire and are still in existence in the Roman Empire when Christ is born. So they are a very ancient and long lived people were these wise men. And by the way, the word wise men it says, "When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king behold there came magi." The Greek is magos, magoi, magi, it is really an untranslatable word. It is not a translatable word it is simply the name of a certain tribe of people. It should better be translated, perhaps, magi. The magi were a priestly line, a priestly tribe of people from among the Medes. This very ancient and large people. They were very skilled in astronomy and astrology, this was a very great preoccupation with them. Their interest in astronomy and astrology was only part of their involvement they were sort of occultists in a way, they had some sort of divination processes, they were involved in certain kinds of things that we would assume, perhaps were like a sorcery and that's why the word magi was corrupted through history into the word magic, magician which is a synonym for sorcerer. But the magi originally were basically a pagan, priestly tribe of people from the Medes and the Persians and there are many, many historical sources to validate this.
They became interested in astronomy and astrology and the study of the stars and in those days they didn't make much of a separation between the superstition and the science. The science is astronomy, the superstition is astrology and they were pretty well blended at the time. Now what's interesting about this is that during the time of the Babylonian Empire these magi were dwelling in the area of Babylon. They were there during the Babylonian time and the Medo‑Persian Empire as well. Now while they were there during the Babylonian Empire they were very heavily influenced by the Jews. You remember that one of the things that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did was take Israel, rather take Judah into captivity. Do you remember that?
That's what Jeremiah was saying, You are going to be taken into captivity. Jeremiah pronounced this fact and of course even the book of Lamentations laments this reality. And they were carried off into the Babylon captivity. Well, here in Babylon were existing these magi and they were very high ranking officials, by that time they had ascended to a high place in the Babylonian Empire because of
their amazing intuition, wisdom, knowledge, astrology, occultic ability whatever you want to call it, they had risen to a place of prominence and so immediately they came into contact with all these Jewish people who had been brought into captivity. They also came into contact wit one very specific Jew by the name of Daniel who was elevated in the Babylonian Empire. Consequently, they were very familiar or made familiar in the dispersion of the Jews in Babylon with Jewish prophesy regarding the Messiah. They were made aware of what was really on the Jewish prophetic plan for this one who was to come. And so that's basically who they were.
Now I want to really dig into that a little bit and set the scene for what happens in this incredible incident in chapter 2 of Matthew. Let's go back and see their history. According to the ancient historian Herodotus the magi were a tribe of people within a larger people called the Medes. Now listen to this. They were a hereditary priesthood tribe. In other words they were like the Levites in Israel. In Israel there were twelve tribes but one of those tribes was set apart as the priestly tribe and they were the ones who ministered in the rituals and the religious ceremonies of the temple and they were the Levites. Well the pagan Medes had a similar thing. Of all of the tribes within the Medes they had selected one of them to function as priests in their pagan rituals.
And that tribe which they had selected was the magi, again it's an untranslatable word, really. This is the name of that priestly group of people. It was a hereditary priesthood. Now as I said earlier some historians see them all the way back in Ur of the Chaldees as a part of a nomadic people that were wandering about in that part of the world. Whichever is true, whether they go all the way back to Ur or whether they first kind of surface in the Babylonian time we don't know, the point is this ‑ during the Babylonian World Empire they were significant, during the Medo‑ Persia Empire they were significant, during the Greek Empire they were significant and during the Roman Empire. they were significant. And in all of those empires they maintained a place of tremendous prominence in the orient, in the east. You see, even when the Greek Empire was in vogue there was still certain eastern culture and power. Even when the Roman Empire was in vogue there was certain eastern power. And in both of those periods the Magi were really the key people in the government of the easts, centered in the fertile crescent, the area around Babylon and Medo‑Persia.
Now they always appear with tremendous political power. Now this is very important for you, you have a little history lesson. They always appear with tremendous political power. I would say the majority of historians, at least the ones that I read and the ones that were referred to, see them as an eastern people who rose by virtue of their very unique priestly function, by their unique rather occultic powers of divination, by their astrological, astronomical knowledge, they rose to places of prominence. And they rose high in Babylonian government, Medo‑Persian government, even in some cases in the East during the Greek period and for sure during the Roman period to be the advisors to the royalty to the East. And that's where they got the name the Wise Men. They were the ones that were consulted about the various things that the kings and the rulers and the nobles and the princes wanted to know. Now we even have some history that tells us about their religious activities. Now I'll give you a little description of the kind of religion that the Magi were involved in. Their priesthood had certain functions and here are some of the things:
The principle element of their worships seems to have been fire. It's apparent from history that they worshipped or that they sort of reverenced fire. And we don't know for sure why but perhaps they saw fire as some kind of incarnation of deity. And, by the way, they were monotheistic, they only believed, really, in one God and so they had that in common with Israel. But they looked at fire as the principle element of their worship. And in connection with that they had an altar which burned with a perpetual flame. And they believed that that perpetual flame was kindled by God from heaven.
So they had this perpetual flame altar. Now, over beside that in their temples and wherever they also had another altar and on that altar they offered blood sacrifice. So they actually had a blood sacrificial system. And they lit the fire to burn the sacrifice with the flame off the perpetual altar. And then when they had burned their sacrifice, this is interesting, the victim was then eaten by the worshiper and by the Magian priests. What's fascinating about that is that's almost a direct parallel to Judaism. And you can see how way back then Satan was counterfeiting true religion ' from the very beginning, you see.
He's always done that. You know, even today, there is real Christianity and there is phony. And in that day there was real sacrificial system with genuine worship toward the one right true God and there was phony monotheism, phony blood sacrifice, false sacrifice and offering burned and then eaten by the worshiper and the priest.
Additionally, these people had a hereditary priesthood. Again, a counterfeit of the Levitical priesthood. These people carried about small bundles of divining rods in their garments and they used these divining rods for their little ceremonies. Not unlike the Urim and Thummim of the priests, the high priest, by which the knowledge of God was sought. They believed in the distinction of certain kinds of unclean animals. That's interesting. They believed that certain insect and certain reptiles were unclean. Again this is an interesting parallel to what God truly revealed to Israel. And another thing that I felt very interesting as I was reading about it was they were very ritualistic about ever touching and disposing of a dead body. Another thing common to God's standard for Israel.
So in the Babylonian Empire this very interesting religious group of people appears. And they rose to tremendous prominence. In Jeremiah 39:3 and verse 13. A man by the name of Nergal‑sharezer is mentioned. And Nergal‑sharezer is the chief of the Magi in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.
Okay? These oriental kings starting with Nebuchadnezzar had elevated the Magi, and even before that but as far as the Scripture is concerned we see them first with Nebuchadnezzar, they had elevated this priestly group from the Medes to the place of being the official advisors to the king. And so they are tremendously powerful people.
And even when Babylon fell and the Medo‑Persian Empire came in and you have great rulers like Cyrus and others you still have the high ranking officials of the Medo‑ Persian government being taken from this group called Magi. They were unmatched in political power.
Now I want you to turn in your Bible with me for a minute, back to Daniel and I want to show you how they appear in the book of Daniel.
Daniel, chapter 2, when I get all done with this and you re‑read verse 1 of Matthew 2 it's going to make a lot more sense. Daniel chapter 2 and verse 10, and we won't take time to set all the context, but here we are in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel is there, the Jews are in captivity in Babylon and it says, "The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man on the earth that can reveal the king's matter: therefore, there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asked such things of any Magi or astrologer or Chaldean." And it' very likely that those are all synonyms. And then astrologer and Chaldean may just be other ways of saying the same thing. So here we find the word Magi, it's not strictly the word magician, that's an English corruption it's the word Magi. It's talking about this priestly tribe.
They had a very prominent place at that time. They were known as those who could interpret dreams. Now you remember Nebuchadnezzar had this bizarre dream and none of them could handle it. New you know what's so fascinating about it is there was one man who could interpret it.
You know who that man was? It was Daniel. Let's go on a little bit, Chapter 4 verse 7. We again see the Magi. Chapter 4 verse 7: "Then came in the Magi, the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers, and I told the dream to them but they didn't make known unto me its interpretation." Verse 9, "O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians." Now here we meet the master of the Magi.
And I'm just trying to point out that they are mentioned repeatedly in the book of Daniel. And rather than call them magicians, they should .be Magi, that's essentially what he is referring to. Now when Daniel came along and all these Magi who were in the high, high ranking place of advisors to the king couldn't give any answers, Daniel could, something amazing happened. Daniel 5:11, "There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him:" talking about Daniel now, "Whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king I say, thy father made master of the Magi." Now how interesting. Daniel was so adept at telling the dreams of the king that the king made Daniel the master of the Magi.
So that Daniel was literally in Babylon the chief over this whole priestly group. Okay? It's fascinating. Now, that puts Daniel in the tremendously unique position of being able to dispense to these Magi all of his information about the Old Testament which without a shadow of a doubt is precisely what Daniel did. We know that Daniel was a man of God. We know that Daniel was a man totally devoted to worship and expression of his faith because he wound up in a lion's den because of it, didn't he? And there's no question in my mind but that Daniel and the other godly remnant in the diaspore of the dispersion shared their knowledge of the Old Testament and their copies of the Scripture with these people in Babylon and additionally, when the final decree of Cyrus came that they could go back to the land the majority of the Jews never went back. The majority of the Jews stayed in Babylon, intermingled, intermarried and throughout the remaining history of Babylon and Medo‑Persia there were people in the noble families, people in the high ranking offices, some say even monarchs in that part of the world who had part Jewish blood. And certainly we would have to conclude that Daniel had a profound impact in the dispensing of that information. And, by the way, I want to add another footnote to this that as I was studying this ‑ it was very fascinating to me because I began to think about this ‑ if Daniel was so good at winning these Magi over and convincing them about this fact of the coming Messiah why was it that they plotted against him and threw him in the lion's den? If he was so influential and believable. And so I began to study and the 6th chapter of Daniel revealed a most interesting thing, you don't need to ‑ we're not going to go all through it but this, in the sixth chapter of Daniel we find a plot against Daniel based on jealousy but what is really amazing about this plot is that it is not a plot devised by the Magi who dominated the hierarchy of the royal court, it is a plot developed by men known as the satraps, and I don't mean s‑e‑t I mean s‑a‑t, satraps. That was the term used to describe the regional governors who had nothing to do with the palace. So remember, the plot that was hatched in jealousy against Daniel was not a plot hatched at the hands of the Magi. Which again leads me to see that very likely Daniel was extremely believable and convincing in his impact.
In fact, do you realize that when Daniel was actually being thrown in the lion's den the king said, "Daniel, I know that your God will deliver you." You remember the king actually said that? He was so convinced of the power of God through the testimony of Daniel. And I'm sure he just checked it as often as he possibly could to see that that anticipation was in fact a reality.
So, the Magi kept their place of prominence. Influenced, no doubt, by such a great man as Daniel and there were few ever lived like him, influenced by Godly Jews in the dispersion.
Influenced by the intermarriage and the constant Jewish culture that was imposed upon them in many ways. And they became and maintained a position in the Medo‑Persian Empire of great power in the court of the king.
Now let me tell you something else interesting. In the sixth century B.C. there was a great king of Persia by the name of Darius. Darius the Great, this is in the Medo‑Persian Empire.
This is right around the time of Daniel. And Darius came in and Darius said ‑ "I am going to establish a national religion." And you know which one he picked? Zoroastrianism. Now we don't have time to go into Zoroastrianism but Zoroastrianism had with it a lot of astrology. And it may well be that the final little nuances of astrology and the pre‑occupation of the Magi with that came in the merging of Zoroastrianism..
So, now what you've got, you've got these Magi who have their own culture religion on top of that has been superimposed Judaism and on top of that has been superimposed Zoroastrianism. Now that's really a can of worms to put it mildly. But what's so interesting is the Magi was so anxious to maintain their political power and they were so anxious to maintain their religious power that when the decree came from Darius that Zoroastrianism was the religion that was going to exist they just slid right in and said ‑ Fine with us. And they made some adaptations. But now what you've got is very interesting. You've got the Magi all gobbled up here and you've got some of them, no doubt, committed to Zoroastrianism as time went on, some of them committed to ancient magian formulas and some of them maybe believing honestly in their heart that the God of Daniel was the real God. And so this is the key as history moved on from here, the Magi began to depart from a singular commitment to their historic religion and they began to find their way into different things. Some of them may be leaning toward Zoroastrianism, some toward the ancient magianism and I believe in my heart that some, like these Magi that show up at the birth of Christ were really true seekers of the true God. So that gives you a little bit of the background.
Now, I'm going to talk some more about this history. The Magi were so powerful that historians tells us that no Persian was ever able to become king, now watch this one, never able to become king except under two conditions: one ‑ he mastered the scientific and religious discipline of the Magi: two ‑ he had to be approved of and crowned by the Magi. Now that's something, that's power.
Do you know what they called the wisdom of the Magi? They had a name for it. The name for it was this ‑ the law of the Medes and the Persians. That law was the law or the code defined by the Magi. And if you want to see that phrase it's in Esther 1:1? and Daniel chapter ? a couple of times. The law of the Medes and the Persians was the code the scientific religious discipline of the Magi and their wisdom was that which was required for anyone to be a monarch in Persia. Additionally, historians tell us that they controlled the judicial office as well as the kingly office.
In Esther 1:13 we have the indication that the royal bench of judges was all chosen from the Magi. Man, they were powerful. And you have to remember when you talk about the Persian Empire and the Median Empire and the Babylonian Em