Epiphany!

 Epiphany!

Today is the first day of the liturgical year: Epiphany (also known as Epiphanytide) is the period (following Christmastide) between January 6 and Ash Wednesday.  This time of year we commemorate three events pertaining to Christ.  First, we commemorate Jesus' baptism by His cousin John the Baptist in the Jordan river.  Second, we commemorate the wedding in Cana when Jesus turned water into wine.  And third, and foremost, we commemorate the divine manifestation of Jesus Christ through the visit of the Biblical Magi.  So, to better understand this, let's take a look at the people we will emphasize.  First, there is the Magi.  Then, there is King Herod the Great.  You see, where the Messiah would be born and when the Messiah would be born were two bits of information that were important to finding the Messiah.  The thing is: neither the Magi nor King Herod knew both bits of information.  Due to the many years of studying the words of the prophets, King Herod knew WHERE the Messiah would be born, but he did not know WHEN He would be born.  This may be why he had not heard the the Massiah among them would be a child.  On the other hand, the Magi knew WHEN the Messiah would be born (due to following the Star of Bethlehem or Star of David), but they were not sure WHERE the Messiah would be born.  Since Jerusalem was and is the capital of Israel and they knew the Star would shine over Judea, this may be why they sought the Messiah in Jerusalem, instead of Bethlehem.  But neither knew both.  And as you will see, after knowing both, one will use the information with good intentions and the other will use the information for bad intentions.  So, who were the Magi and King Herod the Great?

First, who were the Magi?  In English, the term "magi" is most commonly used in reference to the Gospel of Matthew's "wise men from the East," or "three wise men."  Magi is derived from the Latin: magus (genitive: magī) of the second declension, Ancient Greek "mágos," meaning: "magician."  Similarly, it is also derived from the Latin: "sapientes homines," from the Ancient Greek "οι σοφοί" or "oi sofoí," meaning "sages."  Few people know what the noun: "sage" is, unless it's being referred to as a culinary herb.  However, when we use the noun: "sage" when referring to a person, it is defined as: a profoundly wise man or learned person, especially a distinguished philosopher or scientist.  They were popularly known as the "wisest of the wise."  In other words, they were men who "knew everything about everything."  The plural "magi" entered the English language around 1200 A.D., in reference to the Biblical Magi of 

Matthew 2:1

.  Therefore, we know there was more than one of them.  The EXACT number is not known, however, because they came bearing three gifts, it is assumed that there were three of them.  There's not much that is known of the Magi, aside from them being the first Gentiles to visit and worship Jesus, except for two things.  First, they were Kings of their on lands, as well as advanced in age.  And second, they were nocturnal scribes who studied the constellations.  Me?  I use stargazing as a mean of recreation.  Modern cultures would classify

astrology

as being a part of

the occults

.  Even the Prophets from the Old Testament were against astrology in some way or another.  For example, "

All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!  Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you

." --

Isaiah 47:13

.  However, during Biblical times, in the land of Persia (

now Iran

),

astrology

was classified as a

Science

.  No, they didn't work the graveyard shift at a planetarium (

I don't think

), although it would be a cool thing to do.  Nevertheless, another way they were looked at was as

:

"

astrologers

" or "

men of science

."  Traditions identify a variety of different names for the Magi.  In the Western Christian church they have been commonly known as

:

• Melchior (Melichior, Melchyor), King of Arabia, Place of Gold.
  
• Balthasar (Bithisarea, Balthassar), King of Sheba, Known for having Frankincense.
  
• Caspar (or Gaspar), King of Tarsus, Land of Myrrh.
  

Hence the three gifts: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

Now, let's look at the astrological logic on how they follow the Star of David (or the Star to Bethlehem).  Firstly, we have the Scripture from the Torah or the Old Testament from the Holy Bible, Numbers 24-17-20: "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near.  A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.  He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth.  Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong.  A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city."  Secondly we have the alignment of the stars and planets.  We have Jupiter.  The name of the greatest god of Roman mythology, not to mention the largest planet of our Solar System.  Jupiter has been known from ages-old to the present as the "King Planet."  This greatest of planets is a "gas giant," approximately eleven times the size of Earth and over 300 times more massive.  It circles the Sun far beyond Earth, in an orbit of about twelve years duration.  In ancient times, planets like Jupiter were considered "wandering stars."  Since humans have assigned kingly qualities to this giant wanderer for dozens of centuries, might it have something to do with our Star announcing the birth of a King?  That will be our working theory right now.  The gas giant Jupiter, many times larger than Earth, is visible to the naked eye It’s not enough to have a kingly name and reputation, of course.  To be Matthew’s Star, Jupiter as viewed from Earth would have to do peculiar things.  More precisely, as considered by a magus viewing from the Middle East during the years 2 and 1 B.C., Jupiter’s movements would have to satisfy all nine identifying characteristics of the Star.  In September of 2 B.C. at the time of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Jupiter began to do just that.  A magus watching Jupiter that September saw two objects moving so close that they appeared to touch.  This close approach of celestial bodies is sometimes called a "conjunction."  Our Middle Eastern viewer saw Jupiter coming into a close conjunction with the star: Regulus.  Regulus takes its name from the word root which yields our word "regal."  The Babylonians called: Regulus Sharu, which means "king."  The Romans called: Regulus Rex, which means "king."  So to start things, at the beginning of the new Jewish year, the Planet of Kings met the Star of Kings.  This conjunction may have indicated kingship in a forceful way to a Babylonian magus (satisfying one qualification for the Star), but would it have startled him?  Probably not.  But there are nine qualifications of the Star of Bethlehem.  Many are still missing.  How did Jupiter’s movement relate to the Jewish nation?  Is its association with the Jewish New Year enough?  Where is an indication of a birth?  Some might say that the triple conjunction by itself would indicate to a magus that a new king was on the scene.  Maybe.  But there is more.  The Jewish nation is composed of twelve ancient tribes.  Jewish prophecy states that a particular tribe will bring forth the Messiah: the tribe of Judah. The symbol of Judah’s tribe is the "lion."  You can see these connections in an ancient prediction of Messiah’s coming found in the first book of the Holy Bible: the Book of Genesis, Chapter 49:9-10.  This association of Messiah with the tribe of Judah and with the lion is a productive clue.  It clarifies the connection between Jupiter’s behavior and the Jewish nation, because the starry coronation—the triple conjunction—occurred within the constellation of Leo, The Lion.  Ancient stargazers, particularly if they were interested in things Jewish, may well have concluded they were seeing signs of a Jewish king.  But there is more.  As Jupiter was beginning the coronation of Regulus, another startling symbol rose in the sky. The constellation which rises in the east behind Leo is Virgo, The Virgin.  When Jupiter and Regulus were first meeting, she rose clothed in the Sun.  And as John said, the moon was at her feet.  It was a new moon, symbolically birthed at the feet of The Virgin.  The sheer concentration of symbolism in the stars at this moment is remarkable.  These things could certainly lead our magus to conclude that a Jewish king had been born.  But even this is not the whole story.  These symbols could indicate a birth, but if they were interpreted to indicate the time of conception, the beginning of a human life, might there be something interesting in the sky nine months later?  Indeed.  In June of 2 BC, Jupiter continued the pageantry.  Jupiter glides slowly past Regulus about every 12 years.  Let’s assume our magus enjoyed a 50-year career (say from age 20 to age 70).  We don’t know how old the Magi were, but if our man was in the second half of his career, he might have seen such a pass two or three times before. Jupiter’s orbit wobbles relative to Regulus, so not every conjunction is as close as the one he saw in 3 BC.  Perhaps our magus recorded this event with some interest, but it is hard to imagine great excitement.  Not from this alone.  But, of course, there is more.  The planets move against the field of fixed stars.  From Earth, they appear to be "active."  For example, if were you to watch Jupiter each night for several weeks, you would see that it moves eastward through the starry field.  Each night Jupiter rises in the east (satisfying a second Star qualification).  Each night it appears to be slightly farther east in the field of fixed stars.  All of the planets move like this.  But the wandering stars exhibit another, stranger motion.  Periodically, they appear to reverse course and move backward through the other stars.  This may seem odd, but the reason is simple enough: we watch the planets from a moving platform—Earth—hurtling around the Sun in its own orbit.  When you pass a car on the freeway, it appears to go backward as it drops behind.  For similar reasons, when the Earth in its orbit swings past another planet, that planet appears to move backward against the starry field. Astronomers call this optical effect retrograde motion.  In 3 or 2 BC, Jupiter’s retrograde wandering would have called for our magus’ full attention. After Jupiter and Regulus had their kingly encounter, Jupiter continued on its path through the star field. But then it entered retrograde.  It "changed its mind" and headed back to Regulus for a second conjunction.  After this second pass it reversed course again for yet a third rendezvous with Regulus, a triple conjunction.  A triple pass like this is more rare.  Over a period of months, our watching magus would have seen the Planet of Kings dance out a halo above the Star of Kings.  A coronation.  The Planet of Kings traveled on through the star field toward another spectacular rendezvous, this time with Venus, the Mother Planet.  No one alive had ever seen such a conjunction.  If the Magi only began their travel plans in August or September, when they saw this sight four months later, someone may have shouted: "What are we waiting for?  Mount up!"  At the end of their travel, which took months, these experts arrived in Jerusalem.  To qualify as the Star, Jupiter would have to have been ahead of the Magi as they trekked South from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.  Sure enough, in December of 1 B.C. if the Magi looked south in the wee hours, there hung the Planet of Kings over the City of David (i.e. city of Messiah’s birth.)  

And second, who was King Herod the Great?  King Herod the Great was a Roman client king of Judea.  He was the son of Antipater I (the first), the Idumaean, who was the founder of the Herodian Dynasty (poisoned and killed by one of Hyrcanus’ cup-bearers in 43 B.C.) and Cyprus, the daughter of an Arabian sheik.  Herod was a successful ruler and was on terms of friendship with Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor.  His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."  He, however, wasn't all bad.  He was a brilliant architect.  He is known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple, a.k.a.: his greatest achievement) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima, the fortress at Masada, and Herodium.  On the other side of the coin, King Herod was possibly Bipolar, due to his "highs and lows" mood-wise.  He, in a jealous rage and reasons of betrayal, murdered his wife: Mariamne and two of his sons: Alexander and Aristobulus.  He had enforced an uneasy peace with his family and subjects during his rule over Judea partially due to this.  In the same year as the Massacre of the Innocence at Bethlehem, he had Antipater, another of his own sons, put to death.  Unknowingly to Herod Antipas, Herod the Great did not favor him.  However, when his kingdom was divided, Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea.  Herod the Great's death was, without a doubt, agonizing.  Herod's final illness – sometimes named as: "Herod's Evil" – was excruciating.  Some medical experts propose that Herod had chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's Gangrene (a cancer-like fasciitis, necrosis, or flesh-eating disease affecting the perineum).   He suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia.  The visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms.  It is believed that Herod died, at age 69 after a 37 year reign, in March or early April of a year or two after Jesus was born (assuming the December 25 birth). 

 

The Gospel of Matthew describes how the Magi from the east were notified of the birth of a king in Judaea by the appearance of his star.  Meanwhile, Caesar Augustus (The Roman Emperor at the time of Jesus' birth) issued a cencus of the population and their property that was used for assessing taxes.  King Herod attempted to use this to his advantage, for he knew that the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem and the census would bring him there.  Upon the arrival of the Magi in Jerusalem, they visited King Herod to determine the location of where the king of the Jews had been born.  Herod, disturbed and troubled by the situation, told them that he had not heard of the child, but informed them of a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (

Micah 5:2

).  He then asked them to inform him when they find the infant so that Herod may also worship him.  Guided by the Star of Bethlehem (

a.k.a. the Star of David

), the wise men found the baby Jesus in a stable, worshiped him, and presented him with "

gifts of gold and of frankincense and of myrrh

." -- 

Matthew 2.11.

  In a dream they are warned not to return to Herod, and therefore return to their homes by taking another route.  "

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 2:16, therefore, what was said in , "Jeremiah 31:15, was fulfilled.  This particular evening went down in history known as the Massacre of the Innocents

.  Since Bethlehem was a small village, the number of male children under the age of two may not have exceeded 20.   However, Herod's order in Matthew 2:16: includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger umerically and geographically.  The infants, known in the Church as the 

Holy Innocents

there have been claimed as the first Christian martyrs, so to speak.  

December 28

 is the date of Holy Innocents' Day, also called Childermas or Children's Mass in he Church of England, the Lutheran Church  and the Roman Catholic Church.  

Isn't the difference between the Magi and King Herod mind-boggling?  On one hand, we have a king who has ruled over Judea for (at this point, maybe) 35 years.  He was on friendly terms with Caesar Augustus (The Roman Emperor) and had a gift of architecture.  And yet, his paranoia consumed him so much, he was willing to slaughter a prophetic child in fear of losing his kingdom.  In fact, (due to being so harsh and nasty to his family and subjects) Herod was so concerned that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho, and actually gave an order that they should be killed at the time of his death so that the displays of grief that he craved would take place.  Fortunately, for these guys, Herod's sons Archilaus and Antipas, and sister Salome did not carry out this wish.  And then, we have the Magi.  They were Kings, and thus, were rich.  They came from a pagan culture, and yet believed in the coming of the Messiah.  They left the comfort of their own kingdom to journey to Judea, not knowing the of dangers they would find.  The distance from Persia (presently Iran) to Bethlehem is approximately 1,000 miles.  While riding on camels, it took them four months to journey there.  And although they used a star to guild them, they journeyed to Judea strictly on faith.  And it was that faith (not necessarily the star) that led them to the baby Messiah they were able to worship.  Except for the fact that they took a different route to return to Persia, there is nothing known about what happened to them thereafter.  Most likely, they lived out the rest of there days as kings, studying the stars, and simply went about their lives, with a joy in their hearts that the Messiah came within their own lifetime.  As mentioned, they were the very first Gentiles to worship Jesus.  And they definitely were not to be the last.  

Melchior, Caspar, & Balthasar... The Magi! (Image from "The Nativity Story" (2006)