Three Kings from the East

 

The story of the three kings is often seen in every Nativity play. As a child,

I remember being one of those three Kings, as at least one was traditionally black.

The notion was that he was from Africa. The tradition even named them Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior. Each of the Kings symbolically brought a gift with a specific meaning: gold representing kingship, frankincense symbolizing divinity, and myrrh foretelling Jesus' death and burial. Balthasar is often represented as a king of Arabia or sometimes Ethiopia and is thus frequently depicted as a Middle Eastern or Black man in art. He is usually said to have given the gift of myrrh to the Christ Child. Caspar (or Gaspar) is often represented as a king of India and is usually said to have given the gift of frankincense to the Christ Child. Melchior is often represented as a king of Persia and is usually said to have given the gift of gold to the Christ Child. The incense was worth more than gold in weight and was used by Kings. The three named Kings are venerated as saints and martyrs and are celebrated on the Feast of the Epiphany in the West. Any nativity play is only complete with them. I remember singing the song in primary school.

We three kings of Orient are;

bearing gifts we traverse afar,

field and fountain, moor and mountain,

following yonder star.

O star of wonder, star of light,

star with royal beauty bright,

westward leading, still proceeding,

guide us to thy perfect light.

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain,

gold I bring to crown him again,

King forever, ceasing never,

over us all to reign.

The gifts were costly and rare, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in today's money. The "Kings" brough the three gifts from the Orient. Traditionally, it was said that these were rulers in the East and that they followed the star. At the time, many people did not actually read the Bible, which was only available to a small proportion of the populace. Few people were educated and had to get scribes to read the scriptures. Figures might estimate less than 10% of males and around 2% of females were literate in the UK around 1500.

However, studying history reveals that the three Kings were not actually Kings. The Bible says that they were "wise men" or magi. Most likely, they were astrologers studying the stars and planet movements. The astrologers, known as 'Chaldeans', were part of the King's circle of so-called 'wise men' who practised divination. At that time, astrology was seen as a science. They were among the group that often advised the King.

So the King summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the King, Daniel 2:2

There is a school of thought that they were Jews who were still living in Babylon or were still in the service of the King, as Daniel. The Jews were taken to Babylon during the Babylonian Exile. They did not follow the Jews back after the fall of Babylon 70 years later and the edict of Cyrus the Great, which stated that all Jews could return to their homeland. Some Jews remained and were still in the service of the King of Persia. They had been reading their scripts about the coming of the Messiah from some of the books of the Old Testament and some other books which might have been lost to history. They had been following the scriptures and were able to predict his coming.

Nowhere in the scriptures is the number of the wise men given, but it is assumed to be at least two. The number of three was assumed because they were bearing three gifts. The story of the wise men is only found in the Gospel of St Matthew. The Gospel did not give a specific number of wise men. The wise men from the East made the mistake of asking King Herod about the Messiah. King Herod was a convert to Judaism and a Roman puppet, but he was not accepted by the people because he was not of the lineage of King David. That tipped the King that he was in a more precarious situation than he had ever been in. In the nativity play, we saw the shepherds and wise men simultaneously arriving at the stable. However, the Bible does not collaborate with this.

Now, after 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? Or 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. d when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'"

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also." Matthew 2:1-8

Unfortunately, the book of Matthew does not mention Shepards tenting their flock by night and an angel appearing before them. Everyone arriving at the manager is out of the question, as there is an account that Jesus had grown up, and it was not immediately after birth that they found Jesus, but likely as a toddler.

When was Jesus born? The year resulted from a monk named Dionysius Exiguus, who was told to convert the previous Roman pagan calendar to a Christian one in the 6th Century. He tried to calculate the year Jesus was born based on the number of years each Roman Emperor ruled. It was thought that he forgot Augustus ruled as Emperor under his other name, Octavianus, for the first four years. Then, allegedly, he also forgot about the year zero, and together with some other mistakes, he was said to be off by about 6 years. Hence, Jesus was born around 5 or 6 BC, and our Millenum celebration should have been some years before 2000 AD. The specific date was forgotten, and since people were celebrating the birth of the Sun god in December, they decided to put Jesus' birthday on the 25th of December, which is nearer to the shortest day of the year, a day already used by the pagans for celebration. The star's first appearance is likely to be in April, and shepherds in the town of Bethlehem only take their flock out from April to September, and December is far too cold. Hence, Jesus was likely to be born in April. However, an estimation is taken from Computer Analysis of what the sky would look like around 5 to 6 BC, the configuration in the sky which astrologers would find interesting. The Star of Bethelem is not likely to be a "star", as we define it, but it is likely to be a planet or a comet. The planet Jupiter would appear to be moving forward and backwards, standing still in the sky from Earth's standpoint months later by the time the Wise men had left the dangerous King Herod, who would have likely used the wise men to locate this "King of the Jews". The wise men gave King Herod the slip after being told in a dream by an angel of his intention and did not return it to him. This further infuriated him, and he committed mass murder, killing all children around 2 years and below. But by this time, Joseph, Mary and Jesus were in Egypt.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Matthew 2:12-16

Hence, we have lost the notion of them being three Kings; now, there is an undetermined number of wise men from Persia. It is not likely they saw Jesus in a manger but as a fully grown toddler. Jesus was not even born in December; the Christmas tree and Father Christmas were added years later from pagan festivals. The wise men followed what we would not define as a star with our modern sensibilities but fit what the ancients would call a star. The question is, should we be celebrating Christmas? My answer is yes. We should use it to spread the love and joy of Jesus Christ.