All the Wise Men

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.’

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew 2: 1-12

After Jesus was born, Wise Men came to look for Him, probably from an area which is now in either Iran, Saudi Arabia or the Yemen. Although they are often called the ‘Three Kings’, the Bible does not say how many there were, or that they were kings. One theory is that they might have been Kings of the Yemen, as during this time the Kings of Yemen were Jews. Three is only a guess because they brought with them three gifts: but however many there were of them, they probably would have had many more servants with them.

They were definitely men of learning - probably today we would call them scientists. They had seen an unusual new star in the sky, and knew that it told of the birth of a special king. Stories of a Jewish Saviour were told all over this part of Asia and they would have known these stories as very intelligent men. Legends are told about them and they have been given names. This is how they are often described:

• Gaspar, who has brown hair and a brown beard (or no beard!) and wears a green cloak and a gold crown with green jewels on it. He is the King of Sheba. Gaspar represents the Frankincense brought to Jesus.
• Melchior, who has long white hair and a white beard and wears a gold cloak. He is the King of Arabia. Melchior represents the Gold brought to Jesus.
• Balthazar, who has black skin and a black beard (or no beard!) and wears a purple cloak. He is the King of Tarse and Egypt. Balthazar represents the gift of Myrrh that was brought to Jesus.

No one really knows what the new star is the sky was, but one of the most likely explanations is a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

I have got a program called ‘Skyglobe’ that is an easy to use astronomy program. This displays the sky in a way that is similar to a planetarium. In one of the books I have used to research this site, it said that the conjunction took place in 7BC in the constellation of Pisces looking towards the west from Arabia. So I looked this up in Skyglobe, looking west from the now capital of Saudi Arabia and below is the result!

Pisces has a special meaning in ancient Astronomy and astrology (during Biblical times they were almost the same thing). It is the sign of Israel and of Kings. So a new star or what looked like one appearing in that constellation would mean a great deal to the scientists of that time. Astrology was not widely practiced by Jews during those times, but it was practiced by a few Jews and many Arabs such as those around the area of the Yemen.

The next year (6BC), the same conjunction again appears in Pisces. This time it appeared in the west — the direction that the Wise Men would have looked, if they were in Jerusalem looking towards Bethlehem after they had been summoned by King Herod.

Herod asked the Wise Men to find Jesus and tell him where he was, not so he could go and worship him as he said, but so he could kill him! He thought that Jesus sounded like a new King that could come and take his power away.

When the Wise Men found Jesus and Mary, they would have been living in a normal house in Bethlehem, because by this time Jesus would have been aged between one and two. Then they gave their gifts to him. The gifts seem quite strange to give to a baby, but Christians believe that they had the following meanings:

•  Gold: is associated with Kings and Christians believe that Jesus is the King of Kings.
•  Frankincense: is sometimes used in worship in Churches and showed that people child worship Jesus.
•  Myrrh: is a perfume that is put on dead bodies to make them smell nice and showed that Jesus would suffer and die.

The gifts are also all things that come the east of Israel in Arabia. When they were about to go to tell Herod where Jesus was, they were warned in a dream not to, so Herod could not carry out him horrible plan.