STAR OF THE MAGI, the celestial sign which led the “wise men from the East,” to the abode of the Christ child. The name Magi is of Pers. origin (Gr. μάγος, G3407; Lat. magus), and is found in many classical authors. Apparently in the Hel. age the magian class from Persia was widely spread as soothsayers or shamans throughout the Near E. The narrative concerning the star of the Magi is found only in Matthew 2:1-12. The story is short and direct, the wise men are identified only as, μάγοι ἀπὸ̀ ἀπὸ̀ἀνατολῶν, “Magi from (the) East,” and their sign is an ἀστέρα, which was glossed in some MS traditions by a repetition of the phrase “in the East,” although the so-called neutral text does not support the reading. The star is mentioned four times in 2:2, 7, 9 and 10 and nowhere else in the NT. The immediate reaction of Herod and his courtiers to search the OT prophets for further information about the promised child-king indicates beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was from that source that the Magi had derived their information. However, the specific passages are not mentioned, nor cited. Matthew only mentions and quotes a portion of Micah because it was that text the courtiers answered to Herod. The only plausible texts which could have been known are those dealing with a star and the birth of Israel’s king (Num 24:17 and Isa 60:3). In the narrative in Numbers the strange character, Balaam, the son of Beor, is cursing Israel at the invitation and under the employment of Balak, king of Moab. This soothsayer performs the customary offices of the type of incantation priest known in the Mesopotamian lit. as a bārû(m). In fact it has been suggested by a number of scholars that the phrase בֶּנ־בְּעֹ֗ור, “son-of-Beor,” may act ually mean, “member-of-bārû,” that is, a title of identification with that group of soothsayers. One aspect of bārû-practice, called bārûtu, was to make up poems and imprecations involving the twisting of the names and titles of the enemy. The OT prophets do this frequently with the names of the pagan gods. The central text in the curse-blessing of Balaam is Numbers 24:17 which describes a future time, Heb. בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים, “in the last days,” which is understood in the OT to mean the time of Israel’s Messiah. At this time a person described as a “star” was to step forth from out of the people of Jacob. The parallel in the last half of the v. (17b) describes the “star” as a “scepter,” and so two standard symbols of the Near Eastern world are brought to bear on the personage to appear. In all cuneiform lit., the simple configuration of a star, the sign read dingir in Sumer. and all later derivative cuneiform systems, is the determinative put before the name of a god to properly mark divinity. Some of the very ancient Akkad. kings who were later considered divine were so introduced. The scene of this prophecy is most important as it accords well with ancient Near Eastern practice. The soothsayer was standing on a hill, Peor (23:28) and looking out over the encampment of Israel. It was understood by all ancient astrology that the events of the macrocosmic sky were predictive of subsequent events in the same quadrant of the microcosmic earth. Therefore Balaam was looking at the sky above Israel when he made his prediction on the basis of the astrological signs. In God’s providence the nonsense of astrology was turned to a true prophetic vision. The elaborate poetic statements of Balaam, which preserve some of the oldest Heb. in the OT, were undoubtedly literary efforts. It was on the basis of such texts that later predictions were made, as can be easily seen in the Jewish mystical and astrological works such as the Kabbalah. The Neobabylonian records of the Persian period show a great deal of mystical and futuristic interest. In addition, it is known that such astrological data as the ephemerides of the planets and the conditions of the moon’s glow were studied. Reports of the findings were recorded and passed to the royal officers in charge. The collections of these texts have been invaluable in reconstructing the chronology and planetary configurations at the time they were inscribed. Although the goals of their efforts were speculative and superstitious, the methods employed were often amazingly accurate. It was the use of all three of these written materials that brought the wise men from the E. The actual appearance of the star which guided the magians is a difficult problem. In the Rationalistic Age of the 18th cent. the negative higher critical schools of the European universities attempted to find cause and effect for such inexplicable events in Scripture in some natural process. The result was that three common theories of the star arose. In the various books on the subject and many popular planetarium displays one of the three reconstructions is presented. The most popular is that an unidentified comet passed by and was clearly visible both night and day, which would account for its apparent movement. The older theory is that a supernova occurred, and that its spectacular brilliance was seen by the astrologers. This thesis is often supported by some possible sightings of such phenomena and records of such sightings from antiquity. The oldest reconstruction found in 17th-cent. rationalist commentators is that several planets converged with a bright star under optimum conditions of observation. Such a phenomena can be simulated but there is little evidence to support the thesis. A more acceptable alternative seems to be that God provided a source of light which cannot now be determined, and which the wise men saw and interpreted on the basis of the ancient texts at their disposal. The time of the Magi’s visit is not given in the Gospel narratives but is inferred in the fact that King Herod ordered the deaths of all children up to two years of age. This means that the age of Jesus was not known to Herod and that some time had elapsed since His birth. The casual assumption that the visit of the wisemen was made on the night of our Lord’s birth and that it was at the same time as the shepherds’ adoration is unsupported by the text. There is also no support for the notion that the shepherds ever saw the star. The classical commentators often tied in the passage in Isaiah 60:3 which would apply to a number of instances in the life of Christ. However, the mention in that prophecy of a “brightness” (KJV); “starshine” seems to apply to the Matthew story, the additional citation of the gifts of the kings, gold and frankincense in v. 6, leaves little doubt that at least one aspect of the prophecy is to the presentation of the Magi. The notion that the Magi were kings of oriental countries became very popular in the Medieval period and the adoration of the Magi was a popular theme in Renaissance art as far back as the Florentine school. Giotto (1267-1337) painted such a scene in the Arena Chapel showing the Magi in kingly-garb. Many countries have made the Magi into an elaborate part of the popular mythology of Christmas by taking them out of the Bible chronicle and adding all manner of tales gathered from the folk legends of their people. The story is often glossed by unaccountable details. The common assumption in Western folklore that there were three is undoubtedly gathered from some non-Christian source, possibly the stories of the three pagan Norns of Norse Yule festivities. While the Rom. churches of the W. expanded the mass of the Incarnation and further added the growing cult of Mary, the Eastern or Gr. rite churches did little to elaborate the story of the wise men as given in the Scripture. The star plays little part in the Orthodox art and lit.

The question concerning the purpose of the star is directly answered in the text which states, “We have seen his star, and have come to worship him” (Matt 2:2). The purpose of the star was to authenticate and publicize the incarnation, and to draw men to worship the celestial king. The many speculations about the aspects of the star and the frequent searches for a mechanistic explanation violate the very purpose of the gospel narrative. This is not to say that the gospel is not trustworthy in descriptions of phenomena. It does acknowledge that the evangelist sets forth the event in naive-theoretical language without intent to declare in any way a law of astronomy or erect a mathematical model. To force by over-extending analysis to penetrate the methods of the divine activities is to render the Bible nothing but a crystal ball. On the other hand, the tragic mistake so often made in dealing with such short and unique events in Scripture is to make them dramatic and colossal, to magnify them out of all proportion to the scale of the little agricultural populations of the ancient Near E with their relatively humble world views. Although the Rom. world of Pal. was so much smaller, and so much simpler than later centuries it was into that time and place that God was pleased to send His Son. In considering this momentous event it is necessary to keep the birth of the Messiah uppermost in consideration and to repress any intrusion of non-Biblical emphasis.