#1──簡介：聖人與星童──INTRODUCTION: THE SAGES AND THE STAR-CHILD

INTRODUCTION: THE SAGES AND THE STAR-CHILD

──Brent Landau

The Magi──usually known as the “Three Wise Men” or “Three Kings” ──are easily the most famous of the visitors who appear at Jesus’s birth in the Gospel accounts of the Christmas story. Whether or not one is a churchgoer, practically everyone has heard of them. Their bringing of gifts to the Christ child began a tradition that has linked them forever with the rite of holiday gift giving. Despite their great fame, however, there is only one short passage in the New Testament that tells of the Magi, and this account is remarkably vague about these figures. Found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12, it says this:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time they star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Notice the enormous gaps in this story, gaps that a thoughtful reader must attempt to fill in. The wise men have no specific country of origin. No number of names are given for the wise men, though three was destined to become the most common number because of the three gifts (See The Three Kings [Wise Men] on pages 4 and 5).

In fact, “wise men” itself is a rather poor translation of the Greek word magoi, which elsewhere in the New Testament means “magicians” in a clearly negative sense. Equally problematic──if not altogether disturbing──is the puzzling nature of this “star” that the Magi have followed to Judea. The Gospel of Matthew never explains how to Magi came to know that this star revealed the birth of the King of the Jews. Moreover, the star itself behaves very strangely, reappearing to the Magi on their way to Bethlehem and then coming to rest directly over the place where the child Jesus was. All in all, the story of the Magi from Matthew’s Gospel is a very bizarre one, and many early Christians struggled to make sense of it.

Amid a wide range of early Christian speculation on the Magi – apocryphal Gospels, hymns, sermons, mosaics, wood carvings, and sculptures on sarcophagi – one composition is particularly impressive and yet surprisingly unknown. Called the Revelation of the Magi, it is a lengthy narrative that claims to be the personal testimony of the Magi themselves on the events of Christ’s coming. Though versions of this legend were well known in Christian Europe throughout the Middle Ages, this book presents the first-ever complete English translation of the Revelation of the Magi.

I confess that I have had a lifelong fascination with the Christmas holiday, with the traditions of Jesus’s birth and childhood, and with the story of the Magi and their star in particular. As a young child, I was captivated when my church in Flagstaff, Arizona, brought in an astronomer from the nearby Lowell Observatory one Advent season to discuss the range of possible scientific explanations for the Star of Bethlehem. Then, during my high school education at a Jesuit school in Phoenix, I first learned about the existence of writings outside the New Testament that purported to fill in gaps in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s upbringing. Finally, as a doctoral student studying early Christianity at Harvard University, I was deeply impressed during a study trip to Italy when I saw how popular a subject the Magi were in paintings, altarpieces, and sculptures. Upon my return to Cambridge, I resolved to learn as much as I could about early Christian legends of the Magi. In this search, I happened upon an article that mentioned the Revelation of the Magi. I asked around and was surprised to find that none of my colleagues had even heard of it. Did such a document really exist? It sounded like such a remarkable text that almost immediately I decided to investigate further.

Later in this introduction, I will discuss where this text came from, why it is so little known today, and why it may be a writing of great importance. But I’ll start with the contents of the story itself, which I eventually discovered hidden away in the Vatican Library.

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