The Three Wise Men were kings, magicians, more than three, on camels, walking across deserts and the men who tricked Herod. How can they be all these things?Tristan Hughes is joined by Reverend Professor Lloyd Llewellyn Jones discuss the fascinating history and evolving narratives surrounding these characters from the Nativity story. Together they examine biblical accounts, historical context and artistic depictions of these iconic figures; from their origins in the Gospel of Matthew to their representation in medieval and Renaissance art. Discover how the story of The Wise Men has been interpreted and expanded upon over the centuries and become one of the most enduring Christmas tales.Presented by Tristan Hughes. The audio editor and producer is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Theme music from Motion Array, all other music from Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.
Chapter 1: Who were the Three Wise Men?
We Three Kings of Orient Are. They're one of the most recognizable parts of the Nativity story. The three kings, or wise men, who followed the Star of Bethlehem to the stable where Jesus of Nazareth was born. But who were these wise men, these magi from the East? How were they referred to in the Gospel? Where did they come from?
What was so significant about the three gifts they brought with them? And how has their story evolved over the centuries? It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and today, this December, we're exploring the history, the context, behind the story of the three wise men.
It's a fascinating part of the Nativity story and we're going to explore it in depth with Reverend Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, a stalwart and fan favourite of the Ancients podcast.
We're going to dissect the story of the wise men as told in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, looking into the historical context, before then exploring their portrayal in other sources, both in ancient Roman art and in other texts that retell the story of the wise men with some interesting differences, including where the number of these wise men, well, it isn't always three.
As always with Lloyd, this was a brilliant chat. He's such a great communicator and I hope you enjoy him. Lloyd, hello, my friend. Welcome back to the podcast. Always such a pleasure.
Tristan, hello. And hello all to your listeners as well. Great to be back with you all.
It's always a pleasure having you on the podcast. We've had you on recently for Darius the Great and for the Tower of Babel. We have talked in the past about these figures that are mentioned from the Bible and then dissecting the stories behind them and the history of these figures and how they're mentioned.
The wise men, as it's nearing Christmas, it seemed like another great topic to talk about because we've all heard of the wise men. They are such a key part of the Nativity story.
Yes, yes, they are. And of course, they come to us in kind of different guises in a way, don't they? Because, you know, they are the three wise men. They're the three kings. So, you know, we approach them differently. But they are part of our sort of Christmas consciousness, really, through a myriad of Christmas carols or Christmas cards. You know, it's a popular image to see.
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Chapter 2: What gifts did the Wise Men bring, and what do they symbolize?
As I always say, you know, I think the Bible is an ancient source which is ripe for plowing. So I refuse to treat it any differently than I would, you know, a work by Plato or a cuneiform tablet. You know, these are all valid ancient sources. Of course, what the Bible has beyond that is another level which people engage in, of course, and that is a text of faith as well.
So whenever we enter into any kind of historical debate about the Bible, obviously we always have to take into account that there are people who read this on multiple levels. And I think that's what's really interesting about the process of biblical scholarship. is the dealing with the idea of history and faith together.
I mean, it's also interesting because in the past, we've covered topics like the Babylonian captivity and the Tower of Babel. So stories from the Old Testament. But of course, the birth of Jesus, the Nativity, the Three Wise Men. We're going into the New Testament now. Is this...
For you, when you're approaching a topic like this, do you have to have a different perspective, a different mindset when looking at New Testament compared to Alt? Good question.
Yes and no. The yes part is that we're entering into a Greco-Roman world in which Judaism sits. But the no part is we have to take all of that Hebrew Bible scholarship with us into this world as well, because there is no disconnect suddenly between an Old and a New Testament in the Jewish mind of the first century.
And of course, the Gospel writers, Paul and his epistles, are all rooted not only in the world of Greece and Rome, but also in the world of the ancient Near Eastern and the Hebrew Bible as well. So you've got to carry all of those things with you simultaneously.
So I suppose you do need sort of different training or coming from it from a different angle, but you also have to maintain all of that Old Testament background too.
Well, let's now delve into the story of the three wise men, and let's start with the traditional story. Now, which gospel, I mean, which particular source do we have, Lloyd, for the story of the three wise men?
Well, they only occur in the Gospel of Matthew. And this is maybe a surprise to some people, you know, because when we receive those Christmas cards and we put up our Christmas crash, then, of course, what we do, we amalgamate the story of the shepherds with the wise men very often. Now, the shepherds are only mentioned in St. Luke's Gospel. They are particular to that.
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Chapter 3: How did the story of the Wise Men evolve through different gospels?
But really, by the 19th century, popular family Bibles and children's Bibles were beginning to amalgamate, to harmonize these two Gospel accounts. But the truth is that Matthew's Gospel, in almost every way, contradicts Luke's Gospel account of the Nativity. They were written with very different agendas for a very different audience. So St. Luke's gospel is very much written for the Gentiles.
Sorry, Lloyd, who are the Gentiles? The Gentiles are the non-Jews. So these are the Greeks and the Romans in the wider world out there. And he's trying to proclaim the gospel to non-Jews. Whereas Matthew's gospel is absolutely focused on Jewish identity, the Jewish past, Jewish traditions. And so the agendas for these two things are very different. St. Luke is all about making the unvoiced voiced.
So shepherds, the very poor people, Mary herself, of course, singing the Magnificat, my soul magnifies the Lord. God has cast down the mighty and are raising up the poor. This is Luke's agenda. Matthew's agenda is completely different. And the other thing to note is that of the Gospels, it is only Matthew and Luke who have a birth story for Jesus.
Mark, our earliest Gospel, doesn't have one at all. It was of no interest to Mark, and he's our first Gospel, probably about 60 AD, so 30 years after the crucifixion. And John completely goes his own way. And of course, the opening of John's gospel is in the beginning was the word. So, you know, it's a far more kind of philosophic idea of the birth of Christ.
So it's only that the nativity that our whole Christmas is built around is only based on two of the gospels. They say completely different things.
Well, let's delve into the Matthew version with the wise men. And I think, first of all, let's go through the accounts of the wise men, and then we can dissect it, as I know you've done previously, Lloyd, with your lectures and so on. So let's talk through it.
Okay, so what we have in Matthew chapter 2, and it's just verses 1 to 12, so it's only 12 verses of the Bible that these guys appear in. is that we are told that Jesus is born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod. This has to be, we presume, Herod the Great. And then Matthew says that, Behold, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who is born the king of the Judeans?
For we've seen his star in the east, and we've come to honor him, literally to prostrate themselves in front of him. And Herod, one of the great paranoids of history, suddenly starts pressing them for information about, you know, who is this kid who's supposed to be born, who's going to be a king? And they say, well, we don't know yet. We're on our way to find him.
And Herod presses them and says, well, once you've found him, please come back and let me know all about him so, you know, I can offer him my homage too. So the magi kind of pay lip service to that, and off they go, guided by this star.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the Star of Bethlehem?
And then they have a collective dream, and dreams play a very significant role in Matthew's gospel, in which they're told, don't go back to Herod's court, say nothing about this. And we're told that they return home to the east, another route. And that's it. That's all we get.
But it's a very important moment because in the Christian tradition, this takes place on the 6th of January on a feast which the Christian church from at least the 4th century has named Epiphany. So Epiphany, of course, is a Greek word, and it means a revelation or a manifestation. So if you think about it, in Matthew there is no other kind of presentation of this Christ child to anybody else.
This is the first time that the world sees the newborn Messiah, essentially. It's an important one in Matthew because the child is seen by non-Jews. The news of this child now can spread to the Roman world, essentially, and beyond the confines of the Roman world. So
That's the importance of it, together with the three gifts that are presented, because of course they are highly symbolic gifts in themselves. So we have gold, which obviously is the great signifier of kingship itself. So this heralds the kingship of the infant Jesus. Then we have incense, and incense emphasizes Matthew's use of Christ, obviously, as the Son of God.
So as a kind of living God, he receives incense, which any God in the Greco-Roman pantheon would get, clouds of incense. And then myrrh, of course, is highly significant because myrrh was an embalming resin. So it was used in particular for the preparation of bodies after death.
And of course, this heralds the idea that the child is born for one purpose, and that is to die to save the sins of mankind. So in a way, Christ's Christology is emphasized through those three gifts themselves. And that's why, actually, the gifts are more important than the givers, in a way. That's what Matthew seems to be saying in that.
Well, shall we save the gifts till last then, though, and start on the givers themselves? And it was interesting, as you were talking through that passage right near the start, I noted that you mentioned the word, you didn't say wise men, you said the word magi.
Well, it is the specific word that Matthew uses. And he's taking here a word which has been around in the Greek world for at least 400 years. And it refers to a priestly caste from Iran, so ancient Persia. The Magi were already around in the Achaemenid period. These were, according to Herodotus, the kind of living repositories of ancient Persian religious traditions.
So they knew the hymns to the Persian gods. They knew the rituals. They kept the scriptures of what we might call the Zoroastrian faith. Now, by Matthew's time, we're into a period called the Parthian era in Persian history. And the Parthians were certainly what we might call proto-Zoroastrians. And so they continued using these magi in their religious rituals.
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Chapter 5: Why are the Wise Men referred to as kings?
And of course, Zoroastrianism also believes in the purification of water, of earth, of air, and therefore the rituals all operate around this. And also with the formula which the Zoroastrians have, which is about always speaking the truth, always aiming to do good deeds, and always aiming to say good thoughts as well, to have good thoughts and to speak good thoughts.
And so they're part of this very, very long tradition of Iranian priestly caste. Now, Matthew doesn't say essentially where they're from. He just says Magi from the East. But I think we can read into that. Basically, it is Magi from Parthia. That's really what he's thinking. So when Matthew thinks about the East, his readers, his listeners would automatically think of Parthia.
Because Parthia, don't forget, was the great superpower of the East in this period. It was the continual thorn in the side of the burgeoning Roman Empire.
And Judea as well. I mean, Herod had had to fight. When he gained control of Judea, he had to wrestle control from a Parthian-supported figure. Precisely.
The Parthians at one point had penetrated into Judea, and Herod and his family had to run for safety from them. So they were a huge military machine. But also, their culture was spreading and taking hold in this period, including ideas from Zoroastrianism. For instance, the creator god, the invisible god.
All of this was really influencing what we might call Second Temple Judaism and had been doing so really since the return from the exile. So I think Matthew is drawing very clearly on this idea of the Parthian magi. Now, of course, magi is related to our word magic. And I think there was a sense of these magi being magicians in the Greco-Roman world too.
They didn't know everything about these men. So they thought, oh, there must be kind of magical practices involved. that they do out there in the East as well. That's always been a kind of Orientalist trope that Western writers and Westerners generally have had. And so I think they aligned the practice of religion with concepts of magic.
And in fact, that's not uncomfortable in a historical sense. You would be hard-pressed to put a hair between what is defined as religion, what is defined as magical practice. And so there's this element that they are not just priests but also magicians.
And then beyond that, of course, they're also drawing on another ancient Near Eastern tradition of wisdom, these magi being the repositories of wisdom as well, of long traditions of things. And I think what happens in Matthew's Gospel is that it also collapses into that the idea of things like astronomy and astrology, of course, which, you know, the ancient Chaldeans, Babylonians.
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Chapter 6: What historical context surrounds the Magi?
Precisely. And don't forget, Babylon now is part of the Parthian Empire at this stage as well. And with the link, of course, to the star in the story, then you can see how this whole thing about priests, Wise men, magicians, all of it becomes mashed together, really. And it's very, very hard to disassociate any of that.
And then the final element we've got in all of that, of course, which Matthew doesn't say himself, as we've said in the beginning, we call them we three kings, right? Yes, that seems quite a jump to go from magicians and wise men to kings. But in fact, the use of the kingly title for them does not come in until the 12th century.
It's a Middle Ages thing, and we can virtually put it down to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa who allegedly found the bones of the wise men and installed them in Cologne Cathedral, where you can still see them and honor them today in a beautiful gilded shrine in the middle of Cologne Cathedral. And he began to call them the three kings.
And I think that's really interesting because it's part of that whole medieval ideology, isn't it, of kingship, where Christ bestows kingship on those who are worthy kings. So I think Frederick Barbarossa is using that kind of theology to engrandize himself as well. So that's where we get that the Magi is kings for the first time.
Shall we also talk about the star in the yeast? I mean, what can we explore here for that part of the story? Maybe, I guess, the importance of stars at that time as signs of key events, maybe?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, you know, astronomy and astrology had always played an enormously important part in Near Eastern traditions and indeed in Greco-Roman traditions as well. And people looked to the heavens for omens, for confirmation of things. And there was a very, very long tradition of this, especially in Babylonia.
where we have preserved, even today, hundreds and hundreds of astronomical diaries. So these are observations of the stars and the movements of the planets, which are recorded by professional astrologers who then write down their findings and are used to predict events. It was a very serious business in antiquity. Now, when it comes to the star of Bethlehem,
tomes and tomes have been written about trying to identify what this star might have been. It might have been an early showing of Halley's Comet. And of course, we can pin down times and places. And we do know around about 4 BCE, there was a comet which made an enormous impact. It wasn't the only one in the period. But certainly there's nothing unusual in Matthew's gospel about star searching.
It goes on a lot. But I think it's there in Matthew for two purposes. First of all, Matthew is drawing on Old Testament Hebrew Bible precedents. And in the book of Numbers, there is a prophecy which predicts this gleaming star will herald the coming of the Messiah. So he's keen to draw his readers or his listeners into this Old Testament prophecy.
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Chapter 7: How do the Wise Men relate to the Nativity story?
Now, he can't do this conspicuously. But with any text, you can do alternative readings. And if you go into a gospel, including Matthew, with an alternative view, then you can begin to see, actually, there is a critique of the secular world. The world cannot accept or will not accept Christ as its king. And we really see that, I think, in the nativity story.
First of all, of course, we've got the rejection of Herod. Herod comes over as this terrible king, but also, of course, a collaborator with Rome. That's what he was famous for by the Jews. But the use of the star is something I think that Matthew uses often. to downplay or even contradict the use of a star that had appeared in Rome.
So we know that the Emperor Augustus, when he first comes to power after the death of his uncle Julius Caesar, he witnesses a comet in the skies over Rome. And he says, this comet is Julius Caesar being deified. So for Roman astrologers, they saw this blazing star and they said, oh, this is clear evidence that Caesar has become a god.
And Augustus, who is pretty adept at propaganda, I think we can all agree, cashes in on this and says, yes, indeed, that is what it is. And he begins to issue coins. with his head on one side and on the other side, this blazing star. And of course, that coin gets circulated around the whole empire. Of course, a couple of them must have fallen into Judea as well.
So this is an image that people would have been familiar with. He also issues a coin showing the deified Julius Caesar with a star and a tail, a comet's tail, above his head as well. And even poets like Ovid in his Metamorphoses talk about this star heralding the coming of this new son of God. And that's the title that Augustus now begins to use for himself.
He is the divus filius, so he is the son of God. And that, of course, is the principal title that Matthew uses throughout his gospel for Jesus as well. So can you see how basically he is taking the political situation of Rome and saying, do not apply these things to the Roman emperor because that is a dead end. There is no kingdom here.
The real empire is the empire of Christ who was heralded with a star. That's the star that we need to look at.
and the only true son of god is jesus christ himself and it's also quite interesting because i remember in a previous chat we flirted with the book of revelation and you were saying how things like the horror of babylon it was a subtle dig actually towards the roman empire and you can actually see another subtle dig potentially with the nativity scene as well so it's interesting how you know so i think you can read the whole the whole of the new testament
with a kind of anti-Roman lens. But they have to do it carefully, because this is a world of real Christian persecution, don't forget. But they do it. And if you know the code, then you can crack it.
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