Magi from the East

“The wolves travel with the star” The Nativity of Christ was accompanied by many wonderful and extraordinary circumstances; but among them, especially striking from a historical point of view was the circumstance that he briefly, but with solemn expressiveness sets out. Matthew. “When,” he says, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and said, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and we came to worship Him (Matthew 2:1-2).” Theological thought has long seen in this the first appearance of Christ to the pagan world, which had such a great part in salvation, and this phenomenon took place in the person of its mysterious representatives who came from the east. Hence, due to the very importance of this event, the need naturally arises to understand: what kind of wise men these were and what motives guided them when undertaking their journey from the east to the capital of the Jewish people. 1 This is not the first time that the Magi appear here on the pages of Holy Scripture. In the Old Testament we also meet the Magi, who, under various private names, appear especially in the book of the prophet Daniel. At the court of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, according to this book, there were entire states of special sages who were invited to the king in cases where it was necessary to resolve any perplexities or mysterious phenomena. When, for example, one day the king was puzzled by a strange dream, which he forgot due to extraordinary excitement, he “ordered to convene the occultists, and fortune-tellers, and sorcerers, and Chaldeans, so that they would tell the king his dream” (Dan. 2:2). These private names are then generalized into one general term - “wise men” or “Chaldeans”, but even among the private names there is a title that St. Matthew calls the strangers who came from the east to worship the newborn Christ. This name is magicians, 2 translated (although not with sufficient consistency) in Slavic and Russian texts by the word “magi”. Already from here one can see that the Gospel “magi” belong to the category of those very wise men for whom Babylon was famous, and this finds even more clear confirmation in the additional geographical explanation of the evangelist that these wise men came “from the east.” By “east,” both New Testament and Old Testament writers meant all the countries that lay east of Palestine, and therefore Mesopotamia was included in their number. In this case, the closest explanation of the question of the Magi must be sought precisely in the data that is available regarding Eastern magicians. In the history of the ancient East, magicians are a fairly common phenomenon, and by them they generally meant people who had some extraordinary advantages or talents that placed them above ordinary people. These were sages whose strength lay in their knowledge of secrets inaccessible to ordinary mortals, and this is indicated by the very philological meaning of the word “magicians”. Despite the insufficient clarity of philological research regarding the etymological root of this word, in any case, it is likely to believe that it is in a genetic relationship with the Sanskrit magh, Old Zend meg or mag, from which the cuneiform term magush, 3 Greek μέγας, Latin magis, Slavic-Russian mogiy, mighty originate. From here the dominant idea is already clear, which was associated with the word magicians. These were truly powerful or great people, whose power or greatness consisted in their possession of extraordinary wisdom or knowledge inaccessible to others. The word “magi” is found in Herodotus, who so names one of the six Median tribes, 4 which stood out among others, perhaps because, like the tribe of Levi among the Jews, it concentrated in its hands all religious functions, and therefore possessed exceptional knowledge, which placed it above other tribes. Based on this, some researchers argued that magic is a phenomenon specifically Median or Persian in origin, as a result of which the Gospel Magi are usually identified with the Persian sages. 5 But such a statement does not have sufficient grounds, because it does not cover the existence of magicians in more distant times, among the more ancient people, the Assyro-Babylonians, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, with its Chaldean culture, which consisted of an effort to penetrate the secrets of nature in order, with the help of the achieved knowledge, to be able to more successfully fight physical or spiritual phenomena and forces hostile to man, more than any other country can have the historical right to the title of the homeland of the Magi or magicians, who from there, with the spread of the Assyro-Babylonian culture, spread throughout the east and penetrated even to the west. Indeed, magic was one of the most important branches of knowledge in ancient Assyro-Babylonia and played a huge role in the life of the people. In its essence, it was knowledge that made it possible to communicate with the higher or lower world of spirits in order to attract them to promote a certain goal for the benefit or harm of people, as well as the opportunity to foretell the future. 6 In the latter respect, especially great importance was attached to observations of the heavenly bodies, which with their brightness had long attracted the superstitious attention of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and led to the fact that the very cult of the Assyro-Babylonians had the character of Sabeanism, i.e. worship of the stars. Both due to an infantile view of nature in general, and under the influence of a religious cult in particular, the Babylonian magicians developed and deeply rooted the view that all phenomena in life on earth and the people inhabiting it are closely dependent on the movement of the heavenly bodies. As a result of this, the most astronomical research, for which the Babylonian scientists were famous, acquired an astrological character, the character of stargazing, which had as its goal, through observations of the stars, to determine and foreknow events and phenomena in people's lives. For these astrological observations, there were observatories at all the main churches, which, as a result, had not so much strictly scientific as social and state significance. By one or another type of the Moon, by one or another combination of stars, Babylonian astrologers, or Chaldeans, tried to predict the future - harvest, famine, war, flood, etc., and everyone, from the king to the last villager, listened to them with intense attention. Based on their observations, the Chaldeans even compiled entire astrological calendars. They attached particular importance to the phenomena of an eclipse, and, depending on what month or day the eclipse took place, it was given one or another interpretation. For example, one astrological calendar preserved in cuneiform says: "An eclipse will occur in the month of Elul, on the fourteenth day thereof... The king of Mullias will be given a crown... There will be rain in the sky and in the beds of the rivers there will be floods. There will be famine in the land, and people will sell their sons for silver." "Eclipse on the fifteenth day. The king's son kills his father and seizes the throne. The enemy plunders and devours the country." "Eclipse on the twentieth day. Rains in the sky and floods in the rivers. Country makes peace with country and celebrates. 7 8 The Magi moved from the Assyro-Babylonians to the Persians, where they first encountered strong resistance from the native priests. But then magic took root among the Persians, merging with the local priesthood, so that the very word magician or sorcerer among the Persians acquired the meaning of priest or priest. 9 Zoroaster is presented in many ancient monuments as the head or transformer of the class of magicians or magi. According to the definition of the later lexicographer, Svida, the Persians called philosophers and theologians magicians. From the Persian monarchy, the concept of the Magi passed to the Greeks, first to the Asian, and then to the European. Under the name of sorcerers or magicians, the Greeks generally began to mean various sorcerers or sorcerers, spell casters, whose art was sometimes of very dubious significance. The very word “magicians” became, especially later, synonymous with all deception and charlatanism. Among the Greek writers, however, one can notice significant fluctuations in this regard. Plato, for example, speaks with respect of the magic of Zoroaster as constituting a basis for education that is better than that of Athens. Xenophon also speaks favorably of magicians in his Cyropaedia. 10 From the Greeks, and then directly from the eastern peoples, the magi passed to the Romans, who very soon began to look at the eastern magi as low deceivers who unscrupulously exploited popular superstition. Tacitus calls the wisdom of the Eastern Magi superstition, 11 and Pliny sees in it emptiness and deception. 12 Roman satirists from the time of the empire castigated both the magicians themselves and their many clients. Despite this, the Magi gained more and more influence in Roman society. In many houses of the Roman nobility, magicians were on the payroll, and at the court of the Caesars they sometimes lived in large crowds, playing an important role in all court intrigues. More than once attempts were made to expel the magicians from Rome, although these attempts failed due to the fact that the emperors themselves were personally far from indifferent to them and secretly surrounded themselves with whole herds of Chaldeans, according to the sarcastic expression of Tacitus. But these later representatives of Eastern magic no longer expressed the real dignity of the Eastern Magi - a dignity that continued to be preserved in the depths of the East and enjoyed the respect of the people. Among these most worthy representatives of ancient magical knowledge were those magicians who, according to the testimony of Ev. Matthew, they came from the east to worship Christ. But what, exactly, was the motivating reason for them to undertake their significant journey? According to the testimony of St. Matthew, the motivation for the Eastern sages to go to Jerusalem was that, during their scientific observations of the sky they knew well, they were amazed by the appearance of an extraordinary star, never before seen by them. Every appearance of a new star, according to their teaching, testified to the appearance on earth of some great person who had a great influence on the fate of the world. But this new star was so extraordinary that it aroused special interest among the Magi: what could it portend? The answer to this question could only be suggested to them by a belief widespread throughout the world, which included the expectation of the imminent coming into the world of some extraordinary, mysterious king who was supposed to appear in insignificant Judea. And this expectation, in turn, was under the direct influence of Judaism, widespread everywhere, which, since the time of the Babylonian captivity, had become the leaven for the entire pagan world. It is known that the bulk of the Jews no longer returned to Jerusalem, but remained in separate communities in the land of their captivity. They proved their devotion to the faith by supporting the settlers in Jerusalem until the latter no longer needed their help. They looked at the church as their religious center, generously supported it and received their religious instructions from the authorities attached to it. The Babylonian Jew was proud of the purity of his origin. As much as the Jews of Judea themselves were superior to the Jews of other countries, so much so the Babylonian Jew, in his conceit, was superior to the Jews themselves, just as “pure flour is superior to bran.” From Babylon, the Jews spread throughout all the countries of the East, and everywhere they appeared, they became zealous missionaries of their faith. Various causes led to a similar widespread dispersion of the Jews in the west with the same result. Thanks to increased proselytism, both the east and the west were filled with Jews. Egypt, like other African countries, had a large Jewish population. According to Josephus, the inhabited world was so filled with Jews that there was hardly a corner of the Roman Empire where they could not be found. 13 The great synagogue at Alexandria was so large that, if the Talmud can be believed, the chazan, or reader, had to use a handkerchief, which he waved to signal the congregation in the synagogue to say “Amen.” 14 How great were the successes of Jewish proselytism, there is a lot of random evidence for this. Such Roman writers as Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, Tacitus and Seneca were equally exponents of the irritation that prevailed everywhere due to the fact that many of the Greeks and Romans were inclined towards the despicable, as these writers put it, Jewish superstition. The exemption granted to the Jews from military service, the trade privileges which they especially enjoyed, marriage and other connections everywhere increased the number of proselytes. “The Jewish faith,” says Seneca, 15, “is now accepted throughout the whole earth: the vanquished gave laws to the winner.” “This family,” says Dio Cassius, “was repeatedly suppressed by the Romans and yet has grown amazingly, so that it has acquired the greatest courage.” 16 According to Josephus Josephus, 17 in Antioch many Greeks continually became proselytes of Judaism. The same thing happened even further in the east, because, according to the testimony of St. Luke (Acts 2:9-11), proselytes flocked to Jerusalem for the great holidays from the provinces lying north of the Mediterranean Sea, from Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Cappadocia, from Rome itself, from southern countries like Egypt, Arabia, Crete, from Cyrenan (in Libya) and from its most remote eastern outskirts, and even, not to mention Mesopotamia, from such countries as Parthia, Media and Elam, from those vast countries that extend from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf and even further to the east. In short, the influence of Judaism extended to all countries of the then known world. Among the Jewish views that were widely spread throughout the earth with the help of such wonderful missionary work, not a single one could have received such rapid and widespread dissemination as the view that most of all filled the soul and heart of every Jew at that time, namely the expectation of the appearance of the great King, whom they spoke of as the Messiah or the Anointed One. The best indicator of the people's mood is the literature of that time. And this Jewish literature from the time of Daniel to the birth of Christ was more and more imbued with the spirit of messianism. The Book of Enoch, the Jewish Sibylline books, the Psalter of Solomon, the Ascension of Moses, the Ascension of Isaiah, the third book of Ezra, the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan and other writings of later Judaism energetically supported and excited the spirit of the people in that dark time precisely with the prophetic sermon about the approaching consolation of Israel. All this literature is imbued with the most ardent hope, revealing to us how much the heart and thought of all Israel were concentrated on this very great expectation. The politically alarming state of Judea was only a new symptom of this general mood of popular thought. Patriotic hatred of foreign rule and religious zeal against the invasion of pagan morals and customs among the Jewish people maintained constant excitement among the people. This excitement was further intensified on each holiday due to the assurances of rabbis, priests and fanatical preachers that Jehovah would not long tolerate the invasion of the pagans into His land. Fearing precisely this mood of the people, Herod was forced to build five times as many fortresses in Judea as were needed in Galilee. And yet, despite this, the robbers and fugitives hiding in the Judean mountains never ceased to fight against the existing government in the name of Jehovah. This was further facilitated by the fact that blind superstition reigned among the people. The fanatical masses of the people were constantly deceived by false messiahs, who took them away to the Mount of Olives, 18 to see how the walls of the new, paganized Jerusalem would fall according to the word of the prophet; then to the Jordan River, 19 to cross it like the fathers, like dry land; then into the desert, there to await the signs of the Son of Man, predicted by Daniel. 20 One can imagine what influence this state of affairs had on the masses of Jews and proselytes who annually flocked to Jerusalem from all countries for the great holidays. I. Flavius, perhaps with some exaggeration, says that at least three million pilgrims gathered for major holidays. 21 It is clear how these pilgrims spread throughout all countries the expectation of the great King of the Jews, who was to conquer the world. And this King was none other than the expected Messiah. It is not surprising that Flavius, Tacitus and Suetonius should have recorded this fact, although the Jewish historian out of simple flattery, and others in view of the very turn of events, applied this prediction to Vespasian. 22. If such a rumor circulated in Rome itself, which, as the capital of the then world, was the center of all sorts of opinions and rumors, from here in turn spreading to the most distant outskirts, then it is not surprising that the same opinion could reach the distant “east” and, of course, was known to the Chaldean or Persian sages. And for them, especially the latter, this rumor should not have represented anything strange or incredible. Mesopotamia, and in particular Chaldea, was the homeland of Abraham, where the father of the believers first received his calling and where he received promises, the essence of which lay precisely in the idea of ​​the Deliverer. Jacob also lived there for a considerable time, of course, with his stay he refreshed the holy traditions in his native Mesopotamian circle, and this, of course, explains the undoubted fact that traces of the ancient patriarchal beliefs never essentially disappeared in Mesopotamia, especially among the local sages or wise men. A striking proof of this was subsequently presented by the famous Mesopotamian sorcerer or soothsayer Balaam, who, in his well-known blessings to the people of Israel, pronounced before their entry into the Promised Land, revealed a deep acquaintance with the true religion and on the basis of this acquaintance, under the influence of higher inspiration, uttered the famous prophecy that “a star will rise from Jacob, and a rod will arise from Israel” (Num. 24:17), directly pointing specifically to the subject of age-old promises and expectations both of the chosen people and of the whole world. And in later times, the connection between Mesopotamia and the chosen people essentially never ceased: the prophets of Israel repeatedly visited the banks of the Mesopotamian rivers, and the prophet Jonah, with his divinely inspired preaching, shook even the proud capital of Assyria, Nineveh. As for the later times, which served as a direct threshold to the appearance of the Messiah, the very center of Eastern culture, namely Babylon, could become acquainted with the idea of the Messiah from such a high representative and exponent of this idea as the prophet Daniel, who, being initiated into all the wisdom of the Chaldeans and occupying an honorable place among the Babylonian sages, of course, could not help but introduce them to the subject of the most dear and most ardent aspirations of his people, and with his system The weeks even determined the time for their implementation. After the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity, the connection between Judea and Mesopotamia also did not break at all, but on the contrary, both of these countries became, as it were, kindred to each other, since both of them were largely inhabited by Jews who felt their unity, despite political disunity, and this connection was further strengthened by Hellenism, which since the time of Alexander the Great has become common, culturally unifying force for the entire then civilized world. All learning necessarily acquired a Hellenistic character. Familiarity with the Greek language and Greek literature began to be considered a necessary sign of education, and the Chaldean sages, as representatives of education, inevitably had to enter this general cultural current and become acquainted with Greek literature, which began to embrace all the best works of book wisdom of all languages ​​and peoples. Proof of this, by the way, is the fact that one of the Babylonian priests, the famous Berosus, who lived in the 3rd century BC, knew the Greek language and Greek literature so well that he himself was able to write the ancient chronicle of Babylonia in this language. 23 This was indeed a period of great prosperity for Hellenism, and since it was around this time that the Greek translation of the Old Testament was published, produced under the auspices of the famous philhellene Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 B.C. BC), then, of course, this famous work could not remain unknown to the learned sages of Mesopotamia or the East in general, and thus, those Jewish beliefs that were hitherto known only by tradition or by oral communication, the eastern sages could study in a publicly available, authoritative translation. And such a study, of necessity, had to open up a broad historical perspective for them and show them that the whole soul of the Jewish Holy Scripture lies in the explanation of the idea that their famous compatriot Balaam once expressed, precisely in the idea of ​​the Messiah as the great “star from Jacob” and “rod from Israel,” i.e. an extraordinary representative of light and power, the Redeemer of the world. And in this idea, upon closer acquaintance with it, not only was there nothing strange for the Eastern Magi, but on the contrary, it was in close accordance with their own religious worldview. If we admit, in accordance with a very widespread tradition, that the gospel “magi from the east” came from Persia itself, then for the Persian magicians or magi the idea of ​​the Deliverer was completely understandable, because it partly stemmed from their religious worldview. In their opinion, a terrible struggle was taking place in the world between good and evil principles, and this struggle should finally be resolved. All the disasters that befall people in the present life are temporary trials that should end with the triumph of Ormuzd over Ahriman. 24 To support believers in this struggle with the trials that constitute the work of the evil inclination, Ormuzd, at the end of each millennium, sends a prophet who gives people a new revelation that establishes truth and legality on earth. But then a special prophet was to appear who would destroy the works of Ahriman and establish the kingdom of blissful life for a thousand years. This is the so-called Soziosh (Çaoshyanç), i.e. The Savior, who, descending from the seed of Zoroaster, will be born from a virgin who had to receive this seed, kept for centuries in the sea, while bathing. 25 To help him in the great task of reviving and ridding the world of the power of Ahriman, the most famous men of all times will rise to life again. At the end of the millennium, the general resurrection of the dead will take place, and then the great burning of the old world will begin with terrible catastrophes: the mountains will be destroyed and the whole world will become like a sea of ​​molten metals, Ahriman and hell will be completely defeated, and only the great community of the blessed will remain, who will live in blissful communion with Ormuzd. It is clear that with such a worldview, which bears all the signs of the most ancient patriarchal belief, the Eastern sages had to follow with extraordinary intensity the manifestations of the idea of ​​the Messiah or the Deliverer in all the literature available to them, and since this idea found a particularly sublime revelation in the sacred books of the Jewish people, it was here that their attention was directed. According to the revelation of these books, the expected Deliverer (Messiah the Ruler - Dan.9:25) should also be born of a Virgin and establish the kingdom of the blessed, and since already in ancient times one of the most famous eastern sages, namely Balaam, who was later identified by many with Zoroaster, predicted that this Messiah-king should come from Israel, it is not surprising that the eastern wise men specifically focused their attention on Judea, as the place of the appearance of the Redeemer, with which the general rumor, which found an echo among Roman writers, completely agreed. In order to be completely convinced of this, they only needed some external indication, and when this indication appeared to them in the appearance of a new extraordinary star, the question of its meaning for them was already resolved and they went to the capital of Judea to honor and worship the newborn Messiah. 26 The appearance of this extraordinary star, under the circumstances described and under the influence of the prevailing expectation of the Messiah, was sufficient reason for the Eastern Magi to come to the conviction that something great was really happening in the world and that Christ was being born. And so they, having arrived in Jerusalem, began to ask everyone: “Where is he who was born King of the Jews?” In this question of the Magi, there is complete confidence that this King had already been born, and they only did not know where He was at the moment. According to their assumption, everyone in the Jewish capital should already have known about this; Imagine their surprise when it turned out that almost no one there knew about the great event that had taken place, and the Jews asked the Magi in amazement how they learned about the birth of the King of the Jews. To this the wise men answered them that they saw His star in the east and came to worship Him. Such a statement should not have seemed strange to the Jews, because among them there was a very widespread astrological opinion that the destinies of people were closely dependent on stellar phenomena, especially planets and planetary combinations. It is known that the Jews already long before R.C. were fond of astrology and various magical formulas associated with this science. They were skilled in mysterious combinations of letters and numbers, which they used as talismans and amulets to heal the sick, drive out evil spirits and pronounce a terrible curse when necessary, and even claimed that some of their charms could bring down the moon from the sky or open an abyss underground. 27 Such activities between them already occur in the time of Alexander the Great. Among them, the practice of casting horoscopes based on the numerical value of the name was highly developed. Throughout the Roman Empire one could meet Jewish magicians, dream interpreters and wizards. 28 Josephus Flavius ​​attributes the very expulsion of the Jews from Rome to the work of deceivers of this kind. 29 Their superstition did not stop here either. They were skilled in unraveling the mysteries of astrology itself. “The planets give wisdom and wealth,” says the Talmud, and in other places it adds: “the life and fate of children depends not on righteousness, but on their star.” “The planet of the day has no meaning, but the planet of the hour (of birth) has a lot of meaning. Those who are born under the sun are beautiful and noble in appearance, frank and honest; those born under Venus are rich and amiable; those born under Mercury are strong in memory and intelligence; under the Moon - weak and inconsistent; under Jupiter - fair; under Mars - happy.” “Stargazing is the joy of a rabbi,” says Pirke-Abot. Elsewhere, however, one rabbi tells his co-questioner that “there is not a single planet that rules Israel”; but the explanation attached to this reveals only pride, which only a Jew could express, namely, that “the sons of Israel are the stars themselves.” In general, many rabbis indulged in astrology. 30 It is not surprising, therefore, that Josephus attached particular importance to the fact that before the fall of Jerusalem, a star in the form of a sword shone over the ill-fated city for a whole year. 31 As for the fact that the fate of the Messiah King they expected was supposed to be in one relationship or another with the stellar world, this was known to the Jews more than anyone, since the famous prophecy of Balaam about the star that was to come from Jacob was contained in their sacred books, and they had long attributed it specifically to the expected Messiah, so that even impostors, such as for example, used this belief. Barkokhba, who took the proud name of “Son of the Star” in order to have a stronger influence on the masses. Finally, there was a popular belief among the rabbis that when the Messiah appears, “a star will rise in the east, shining with great splendor,” and this “star of the Messiah will remain in the east for fifteen days.” 32 But if the eastern sages who arrived in Jerusalem explained their arrival there by seeing the star of the Messiah in the east, then the question arises: what kind of star was it? Was this really some kind of astronomical phenomenon, or just a visible sign that miraculously appeared to the Chaldean sages to announce through them to the pagan world the birth of the long-awaited Savior? The latest astronomy provides a striking answer to this question. According to astronomical research, it appears that at that time or thereabouts, precisely in the year 747 from the founding of Rome, an extraordinary stellar phenomenon was visible in the sky, namely, a highly remarkable combination of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces. This combination occurs once every 800 years, and that year it took place at least three times, namely in May, October and December. This fact is now recognized by all astronomers. This phenomenon was not only extraordinary in its very essence, but also presented an amazingly brilliant spectacle against the background of the night sky, and it could not help but attract the attention of everyone who observed stellar phenomena, and, of course, most of all those who were engaged in astronomy, i.e., the eastern sages or wise men. Moreover: in the following, i.e. in 748 from the founding of Rome, Mars also joined this combination, which further enhanced the extraordinary nature of the whole phenomenon. The honor of discovering this remarkable fact belongs to the famous Kepler, who, on the basis of this discovery, believed the very year of the birth of Christ to be 748 from the founding of Rome. 33 Kepler came to this discovery thanks to the fact that in his time, precisely in 1603–1604. a similar combination of planets took place, and at the same time he also noticed that when the combination of three planets took place, some other new, extremely bright, passing star appeared between Jupiter and Saturn, and, according to his assumption, the same star should have appeared in the sky in the year of the birth of Christ. No matter how you look at this coincidence, it is, in any case, extremely remarkable and involuntarily recalls the saying of the psalmist that “the heavens will tell the glory of God.” Then, in the astronomical tables of the Chinese, the veracity of which was confirmed by the famous author of “Cosmos” Humboldt with his high authority, the appearance of a passing star around this time is also noted. Pingre and other astronomers believe that it was a comet, and, according to their calculations, it should have first appeared in the sky in February 750. from the founding of Rome, and this, in all likelihood, is the time when the Magi, having visited Jerusalem, went to Bethlehem to worship the newborn Christ, since their worship undoubtedly preceded the death of Herod, which followed in March of the same 750 year. Moreover, it is astronomically confirmed 34 that this stellar phenomenon appeared before the eyes of those who left Jerusalem, and that it, one might say, even preceded them or led them in the direction of Bethlehem. All this is truly wonderful, even if we limited ourselves to the assumption here of purely astronomical phenomena. But if we add to this the belief, not denied by sound science, that in the stellar world, as being entirely in the omnipotent hand of the omnipotence of the Creator, by His will such extraordinary phenomena can occur that go beyond any astronomical calculation, then the star that amazed the Eastern sages with its appearance could also have had a completely miraculous, supernatural character, and natural combinations of planets could serve as a preparatory sign of its appearance for Magi. 35 This news struck the suspicious Herod like a thunderbolt, who at that time, depressed by years and a disgusting illness, and already feeling unbearable remorse for his sins and the bloody crimes of his vicious life, was in a state of almost insane frenzy. Amid all the splendor that surrounded him in the magnificent palace, which probably surpassed the church itself in the sophistication and splendor of its architecture, he, hating everyone and hated by everyone, aware that his subjects could not wait for his death, reflected in gloomy solitude about his fate. Around this time, the Pharisees, numbering six thousand people, refused to take the oath of allegiance to him, and their leaders, in whom the people recognized the gift of prophecy, even almost openly asserted that, by God's decree, Herod with all his family would be expelled from the throne in order to cleanse it for the Messiah. In order to facilitate the speedy fulfillment of this prediction, with their participation, a conspiracy was organized among the court ladies, in which the main role was played by the eunuch Bagoa, who believed the statement of the insidious Pharisees that the Messiah would be born from him. 36 The conspiracy was extinguished in the blood of its participants, as had been done many times before. But now, having shed whole streams of blood in order to destroy everyone who had even the slightest right or claim to the throne he had stolen, Herod was positively frightened when the news reached him that now, precisely when the forces abandoned the tyrant and deprived him of the opportunity to act with his former energy, now the Messiah was born, the true son of David, to whom the throne illegally occupied by him rightfully belongs. Together with him, the whole of Jerusalem became alarmed - the entire large class of the population who, having forgotten honor and conscience, managed to settle down at the court of the usurper, enjoyed his favors and, under his protection, lived at the expense of the oppressed and downtrodden people. For such people, with whom Jerusalem was swarming at that time, any change in government threatened a complete revolution in their own position, so their anxiety was quite reasonable and understandable. This excitement, of course, was greatly facilitated by the undisguised rejoicing of those who really expected the overthrow of Herod and his house and used all sorts of rumors to spread this idea among the people. And so, in order to clarify this important matter and, if necessary, take the necessary measures, Herod immediately “gathered together all the high priests and scribes of the people” and demanded that they answer him the question: “Where should Christ be born?” It was not difficult for Jewish learned theologians to answer this question. Their science had long ago decided, and quite correctly, that the Messiah had to come from Judah, whose tribe became the most prominent and noble among the chosen people. From him came David, the progenitor and prototype of the Messiah, and the words of Jacob’s blessing that “the scepter will not depart from Judah until the Reconciler comes” have long been attributed specifically to the Messiah. “How wonderful is the King Messiah,” says the Jerusalem Targum regarding this prophecy, “the Messiah who will rise from the house of Judah. “A king will arise from among the sons of Jesse,” says the same targum in another place, “and the Messiah will come from the sons of his sons.” Hence the name “son of David” was constantly attached to the expected King. But, being a descendant of David, He, according to the beliefs of the Jews, was to be born in the city of David, that is, in Bethlehem. And in this sense, the Jewish scholars understood the prophecy of Micah: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are no less than the provinces of Judah: for from you will come a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.” 37 At the same time, however, there was a widespread belief among the Jews that the exact place of birth of the Messiah would be unknown. Subsequently expressing their doubts regarding the messiahship of Jesus Christ, the Jews thoughtfully reasoned among themselves: “we know Him, where He comes from; But when Christ comes, no one will know where He comes from” (John 7:27). It was in this sense that the Jewish learned theologians answered Herod’s question. Pointing to Bethlehem as a city in which, according to the prophecy of Micah, the birth of the Messiah can be expected, they limited themselves to only this general indication, without more precisely determining the time and conditions of His birth. Such an answer, of course, could not satisfy Herod, and at the end of the meeting, he secretly called the wise men and asked them about the time of the appearance of the star, hoping in this way to accurately determine the time of birth of the King of the Jews; and then, explaining to them that He was to be born in Bethlehem, he sent them there, giving them an insidious instruction: “go, carefully scout out the Child, and when you find him, notify me so that I can go and worship Him.” But completely different thoughts lurked in his heart. A true descendant of David could hardly count on mercy from a man who killed even the last of the Asmoneans. But the hope of the world should not have perished in this way, because the Magi, having visited Bethlehem and, in accordance with the ancient custom that required appearing before kings with gifts, bringing their gifts to the newborn King, 38 as a result of the warning they received from above in a dream, returned by another route to their own country. 39 At the same time, Joseph, having received the highest warning about the danger threatening the Child, at the direction of the angel, hastily moved with his family to Egypt, which had long been the natural place of refuge for all those persecuted in Palestine. And the fierce king, seeing himself deceived by the Magi and suspecting them of complicity with the royal Infant, became even more furious and stained himself with a new crime - the massacre of infants in Bethlehem. The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi naturally served as the subject of many subsequent legends. Nothing is said either in the gospels or in the apocrypha about the country itself from which the Magi came, their number and names; but this event in itself is so significant and interesting that it could not remain without being supplemented by later legends. According to one of these legends, these were the kings of Sheba, who came to the light of the Messiah and to the radiance rising above Him (Is. 60: 3–6). However, opinions regarding their country varied extremely, and different countries were considered their homeland: Persia, Chaldea, Ethiopia and India. In these legends, even the question of who these aliens were, Jews or pagans, is left without resolution, although most opinions are inclined to favor the fact that they were precisely pagans, as representatives of the pagan world, who also had to take part in salvation, and the Arabic “Gospel of Childhood” (VII,VIII) presents them as fire worshipers, who, moreover, referred to the prophecy of Zoroaster regarding the Messiah. 40 The triple number of their gifts led to the idea that there were three Magi themselves, which, by assumption, corresponded to the three then known parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Africa. According to another legend, however, there were twelve of them - in accordance with the number of the apostles. The legend about the Magi especially spread in the West, and its spokesman was Bede “the venerable”, who conveys accurate information about them. According to his testimony, there were three Magi. Of these, Melchior was an old man with long white hair and a large beard, and he brought gold to the newborn Christ; the other sorcerer was Kaspar, a beardless young man with a ruddy face, and he brought incense as a gift to Christ; the third sorcerer was Belshazzar, a dark, hairy sage, and he brought myrrh to Christ for His burial. In Eastern Christian legends, the Magi receive even more external greatness and splendor. They arrived in Jerusalem with a retinue of a thousand people, leaving behind them on the left bank of the Euphrates a detachment of troops of 7,000 people. Upon returning to their country (in the distant east, near the ocean), they devoted themselves to contemplative life and prayer, and when the apostles subsequently scattered to preach the gospel throughout the world, Apostle Thomas met them in Parthia, where they were baptized by him and themselves became preachers of the new faith. The legend adds that their relics, found by Queen Helena, were first placed in Constantinople, but from there they were transferred to Mediolan, and then to Cologne. In the Cologne Cathedral, visitors are still shown the skulls of these three sages, kept in precious jewelry and displayed in a large gilded shrine. These skulls were allegedly discovered by the Bishop of Cologne, Reynald, in the twelfth century. In honor of the Magi, a special holiday was established in the west, the so-called “Feast of the Three Kings,” which supplanted the Feast of Epiphany on January 6. These wise men generally became so popular in Western Europe that among the common people they were considered patrons of travelers, and hotels and inns were often named after them. The Star of Bethlehem has become no less a subject of conjecture and speculation. The Arabic Childhood Gospel says that it was an angel in the form of a star, an opinion echoed by later writers. According to Origen, it was a comet. Of the various legends related here, one can cite one that is not uninteresting in some respects. In the far east, it says, there lived a people who had a book in which the name of Seth appeared, and in this book it was written about the appearance of the star of the Messiah and about the bringing of gifts to Him. This book was passed down from father to son, from generation to generation. Twelve persons were chosen who were given the task of observing the appearance of this star, and when one of them died, another was chosen to take his place. These people in the language of that country were called magicians. Every year, after the wheat harvest, they climbed to the top of the mountain, which was called Victory Mountain. There was a cave in this mountain, and it abounded in pleasant springs and trees. And then, finally, a star appeared, and on it appeared the figure of the Child, and above him the sign of the cross; and this star itself spoke to them and told them to go to Judea. For two years, when they made their journey, the star moved before them, and they did not need either food or drink. Gregory of Tours adds to this that this star finally fell into one source in Bethlehem, where he saw it himself and where it can still be seen now, but only by pure virgins. 41 All these legends, of course, represent only an attempt by human curiosity to penetrate the mystery of the Epiphany of Christ and therefore they must be looked at as such; but the main thing remains the great fact that the mysterious star announced to the eastern wise astrologers about the fulfillment of the aspirations of the peoples, and they were honored to be the first of the pagans to worship the newborn Christ, and having worshiped Him themselves, upon returning to their country, they became His first heralds in the far east. The greatest representatives of pagan wisdom were the first to realize its insufficiency to satisfy the highest thirst of man and, for its satisfaction, turned to the incarnate Divinity, as the source of all truth. See W. Upham, the Wise Men. New York, 1873; Lenormant, La magie chez les chaldeens, Paris 1874; Magier's articles in Enz. Herzog’a and Magi in Smith’s biblical dictionary, “The Magi” in Brockhaus’s Russian encyclopedic dictionary and the corresponding sections in the biography of Christ by Farrar, Edersheim, Geikie and others. Μάγοι - Greek translation of the LXX, and magi of the Vulgate. The word magician is also found in the Hebrew text, as obviously borrowed, in the title of one of the envoys of the Babylonian king, Nergal-Sharetzer, who is called a slave-magician, i.e. “chief of magicians” (Jer.39:3:13). Hence Delitzsch, in his Hebrew translation of the New Testament, calls the Magi megushim. See under Matthew 2:1, 7. Le Camus, La vie de Jésus Christ, 4th ed., I, p.188. Depending on what purpose the magic pursued, good or bad, it was called white or black. See Lenormant, Histoire ancienne de l’Orient, ed. IX, vol. V, pp. illustrated, vol. V, p. 192. Records of the past, vol.I, p.160. Diodorus Siculus, who lived a generation before Christ, says about the astrologers of the East: “They think that the noblest science is the study of the five stars called planets, which they call prophets. They give them this name due to the fact that other stars do not wander like them, but have a definite course, while these stars have their own paths and foreshadow the phenomena that will take place, thus interpreting the will of the gods to people. According to their statement, they portend for those who study them diligently, something by its rising, another by its setting and still another by its color, for at one time, in their opinion, they predict terrible storms, at another - excess rain or heat, the appearance of comets, eclipses of the sun and moon, earthquakes and in general any change in the sky, fortunately or unluckily not only for nations and regions, but also for kings and the common people. Diodor. Sic.II, 29, 30. Wed. Strab. XVI, I, 6, Sic. De Div.I, 1, 2; 42, 93; Plin. H.N. VI, 30, 123, etc. “Persarum lingua Magius est qui nostra sacerdos” (“in the Persian language a magician is the same as in ours a priest, a priest”), Apulej. Apolog. p.290, pr. y Duke, under the words. Magier.. See the Bible, Smith's Dictionary under the word Magi. Vanitates magicae, mendacia magica. Ant.XIV, 7, 2; Bel. Jud. VII, 3. Succa, 51b. adv. in Delitsch, Judisches Handwerkerleben. I. Flavius, Bel. Jud. II, 13, 5. I. Flavius, Bel. Jud. II, 13, 4; Matthew 24:24–26. I. Flavius, Bel. Jud. VI, 9, 3. “But what especially excited them to undertake this war was an ambiguous prediction, also found in their sacred books, that around this time one of their compatriots should become the ruler of the entire inhabited earth. According to the Jews, this prediction applied especially to them, and many of the wise men were led astray by it. Meanwhile, this prediction, of course, had in mind the reign of Vespasian, who was proclaimed emperor in Judea” (Bel. Jud. VI, 5:4). “According to the belief of many, it was written in the ancient books of the priests that the east would be reborn around this time and that people would come from Judea who would take possession of the empire. These predictions applied to Vespasian and Titus, but the common people, according to the usual inclination of human nature, interpreted such a great destiny in their own favor and could not be convinced of the truth even by their adversities” (Tas., Hist. V, 13). “Throughout the East there was an old and deep-rooted belief that at that time people would come out of Judea and seize power into their own hands. Although this prediction, as events showed, applied to the Roman emperor, the Jews applied it to themselves and constantly carried out rebellions” (Suet., Vesp., p. 4). Some historians, like Gieseler and Schürer, believe that Tacitus and Suetonius only copied Josephus. On the other hand, Keim rejects such a view (in Herzog, Real.-Enc. under the word Vespasianus). And indeed, there was no need for them to copy from the Jewish historian an opinion that was known to everyone and was widespread throughout all countries. Βηρωσός, who lived during the reign of Antiochus II (261–246 BC), was a priest at the church of Vela in Babylon and his three books under the title. Βαβυλωνικά was compiled on the basis of ancient church archives. The books were lost, but were preserved in fragments by I. Flavius, Eusebius, Sincellus and others. According to a more accurate reading - Agura Mazda over Angromeni. Windischmann, Mithra p.80; at Herzog under the words. Parsismus, XI, p.121. The very word Messiah (Mashiach, Μεσαίας) could not represent anything particularly strange for the Persian magicians, because one of their deities of light, namely Mithra (Mithra = Mithra) was called Μεσίτης in Greek transcription (by Plutarch). Hausrath, Zeitgeschiehte, I, 108. I. Flavius, Ant. XVIII, 3, 5. Bruxtorf, Lex. Heb. 1623. Gfrürer. Jahrhundert des Heiles, II, 416. I. Flavius, Bell. Jud. VI, V, 3 Sohar on Ex. p.3 and Pesitha Sotaria on Numbers 24:17. Lead. in Gfrürer, Jahrhundert, II, 360. See Ederscheim, vol.I, p.212, and Geikie, p.148. De Stella nova, Praga 1606, See Ederscheim, vol.I, p. 213. Astronomer Goldschmidt. See Wieseler, Chron.Syn. p.72; Ederscbeiin, ibid. For an interesting discussion of its kind about the star of Bethlehem, see in “Christian Reading” for 1828, in an article supposedly written by the late Metropolitan Isidore: it serves as interesting evidence that already at that time our theological science was striving to become level with the scientific demands of the time. I. Flavius. Antiquities, 27, 2, 8. Micah 5:2. It is in this sense that this prophecy is interpreted in the targums. “One Arab said to a Jew behind his plow: it says in the Talmud: your Messiah has been born! -Where were you born? asks the Jew. “In the royal palace, in Bethlehem of Judah,” answered the Arab.” The Magi had already appeared in the west several times, and, according to Seneca, during their stay in Athens, they visited Plato’s tomb and brought him incense as a divine being. Senec. Epist. 38. Arriving, in all likelihood, on the large caravan road that went from Damascus to Jerusalem, they could return along the desert road that went south of the Dead Sea. This is one of the serious reasons for the legend that the eastern wise men were from Persia. One manuscript of the First Gospel says – ’εκ Περσίδος. Regarding these traditions, see Hofmann, Das Leben Jesu; Winer, Bible Dictionary, under the word Stern der Weisen, etc.