We Three Kings was my favorite Christmas carol when I was a child. John Henry Hopkins penned the hymn when he was rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania back in 1857. It wasn’t my favorite because of its deep theological content. That’s not a knock at the content, it just isn’t why I liked it. I liked it because of the way it sounds—so different from other hymns, at least different from the hymns we sang on most days at church. The music is hauntingly beautiful, reminiscent of Middle Eastern music (which I cannot help but think is intentional). Hopkins intended everyone to sing the first verse, and then three robust male voices would intone a verse each, before everyone joined again to finish together. Ahhh! I love this song.
We hardly ever sang it.
I didn’t know the Three Kings were controversial until much later . . . college, in fact. In seminary, we were still discussing their details of their visit.
I just liked the unusual sound . . . We Three Kings of Orient are . . . bearing gifts we traverse afar . . . field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.
Let’s Take a Look
Let’s look at these Wise Men, whose story appears only in Matthew 2:1-12. Shortly after the shepherds arrived to adore the baby in a barn, laying in a wooden manger, the three foreign kings majestically adorned and riding on camels stroll into Bethlehem. Together, everyone gazes in amazement as the kings dismount and reverently place their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh around the babe. Who doesn’t sing songs about that!?!
Is that what Matthew says? Is it really?
Let’s take a look.
Wise Men, Kings or Magi
Matthew never calls them kings; he says they are magi. I’m sure the tradition that they are kings sprang up because we like the idea of kings coming to the King of Kings.
Matthew doesn’t give them names, but legend and tradition does. They came to represent the three known continents, as well as the three ages of life (youth, adulthood, old age). Their names are Melchior, Balthazar, and Caspar. However, the names have not been consistently assigned to a particular king. However, Caspar is most commonly the Asian king, wearing green and beardlessly bearing frankincense. Melchior is the senior king with a long gray beard. Representing the European continent in his gold cloak he bears gold. Finally, Balthazar is the African king with his dark skin and beard, and bears myrrh.
Nevertheless, Matthew just says magi.
What are magi? Wise men is one way to translate the word. Magi comes from the Greek work magos, from which we also get our word magic.
Magi were the priests of the Zoroastrian religion, the indigenous religion of the Persian Empire. They would have been exposed to Jewish prophecy texts during the Babylonian Exile. In the early 6th century BC, the Hebrew people were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon fell to the Persian Empire, under Cyrus the Great, who eventually allowed them to return to their homeland.
THREE Kings
But of course, there were three of them. Everybody knows that. Youngsters fight over the three wise men costumes for every live nativity a church hosts. But look again. Matthew does not say that there are three wise men. Matthew says that there are three gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Three gifts do not mean that there were three wise men, each bringing one. In fact, the narrative says that they opened their treasures and presented him gifts.
Their Arrival
The barn had to be getting crowded with the holy family, animals, shepherds, and now wise men and camels. First, it wasn’t a barn. Mary and Joseph were staying with his relatives, and Mary most likely sought privacy for birthing in the lowest room (probably a cave) of the home which was where animals were kept in the evenings. Mangers were stone, not wooden.
And the wise men did not show up on the night of the birth.
There, I said it! The wise men did not arrive on the night of the birth.
The wise men saw a star in the night sky, a new star, and they followed it to find the child. They came into the house. The HOUSE. Now, this alone doesn’t disqualify their arrival being on the evening of the event.
The best clue to the timing is in what happens after the sweet Christmas Eve story. When the wise men did not go back and share with Herod where they found the child, Herod ordered all the male children in Bethlehem who were under two years of age killed. We call it the Massacre of the Innocents.
Bethlehem wasn’t a large town, but there may have been between ten and twenty children in this age range. For a small town to lose twenty children in such a brutal and violent way would have scarred the town.
Herod chose this age range based on the time the wise men reported first seeing the star, which seems to have been around two years before.
Star of Wonder
What do we know about that star the wise men followed? There are many theories—ranging from probable to absurd, in my opinion—on what this star might have been and when it might have appeared.
The most interesting to me concerns planets and stars in the constellation Leo the Lion. The Jewish people have been called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, so the magi might have associated this constellation with Israel. A flurry of activity occurred in 2 and 3 BC, which roughly matches our timeline.
I think the description is a little confusing. Let me line it out.
- First there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus,
- Then three conjunctions of Jupiter and Regulus, the brightest star in the Leo constellation.
- Nine months later, Jupiter is in conjunction with Venus again.
- Six months later, Jupiter is in retrograde (appearing to stop moving across the night sky) in Virgo (the virgin).
Whatever the details, it appears that this flurry of activity indicated to the Zoroastrian priests that a new royal baby is entering Israel. They come to honor him, and expect to find him in the palace, indicated by where they go for information.
A New Picture
This changes the nature of the wise men’s visit.
According to Matthew, who wanted to emphasize that this Jewish Messiah was going to be savior of all the world, God reaches out to priests of a foreign religion who were fascinated (or at least interested) in the Jewish people. Using the stars in the sky he created, he draws them to his son. For as much as two years, this unspecified group of seekers journeys across many miles to present him with gifts.
Perhaps the point of the story of the wise men isn’t who they were, how many came, or even to where they arrived. Perhaps the point is that they came. People outside the Jewish people, outside the religious structure, heathens, pagans, outsiders, heard God speak through creation and were drawn into this story.
Perhaps the moral is that we are all being drawn into God’s story. None of us are truly outsiders. None of us are rejected by God.
Though my brain might hum We Three Kings at the end of each Silent Night, the fading notes of We Three Kings intertwine with strains of O Little Town of Bethlehem: where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.
Blessed Epiphany! (January 6)
Coming Soon!
Check back middle of December.