Michael McLeod
Moving on from politicizing to mythologizing:
From the Catholic Digest -- a very respectful, reverent as opposed to irreverant job of putting one of the most fascinating and widespread myths of all time in perspective.
St. Matthew records a bare-bones account of “wise men from the East” who see a star and journey to Jerusalem, winding up in Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn Jesus Christ before returning to their country by a different route, courtesy of angelic guidance.
However, the bare-bones of Matthew’s drama have grown not only flesh and blood, but multiple layers of lavish costumes, props and scenery. Christians celebrating Christmas and Epiphany re-tell the story of three mysterious kings named Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar who came from Arabia, Africa and India. The exotic wise men followed a magical star in a camel caravan to bring fabulous gifts and pay homage to the infant King of the Jews.
The problem is, Matthew never calls them kings. He never says there are three of them. Their names are never mentioned. He doesn’t say where they came from. There are no camels, and the “star” doesn’t necessarily lead them through the desert to Bethlehem. These traditions developed in the first five centuries of the Church, and were further elaborated throughout the Middle Ages.
Furthermore, most biblical scholars pooh-pooh the idea that the magi were historical at all. The Catholic Bible scholar Raymond Brown, in his monumental study, The Birth of the Messiah notes that it was a mark of modernist orthodoxy not to believe in the historicity of the magi story. Confronted with exotic wizards, magical stars, angelic messengers and a mystical trek across the desert, the modernist deconstructionist biblical experts were more scoffers than scholars. They deemed the Magi’s quest to be not only mystical, but mythical. The magi were wonderful wizards conjured up to make baby Jesus seem more special.
To suggest to the devout worshippers at Christmas or to the wide-eyed children at the school Nativity play that these extra traditions (and the magi themselves) are not likely to be historical would be churlish. So clergymen of all traditions—wise men and women that they are—maintain the myth. Believing that the magi story is no more than a pretty parable, like stage magicians, they continue the annual Christmas illusion.
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