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Magi, the
founders of first Christmas In previous
my articles, I have written extensively, with concrete historical proofs that
there has never been a civilization in the history of the world, no matter
how pragmatic, experimentalist and multi-form it may have been, that did not
derive its thrust from some foundational interpretation of religion.(1) We've also
identified the destructive forces that characterize the collapse and fall of
civilizations are the consequence of refusal to answer to the expectation of
a new age that is brought by a new Messenger of God. In other words,
each great civilizations of the past fell into chaos and decline after
refusing to follow the instructions of the new Messenger of God.(2)
In this
article we shall see not only a proof of the fulfillment of the prophecy of
Zoroastrian religion in the birth of Jesus Christ, we shall also see the link
between these two religions and the oneness of their teachings.
Moreover, we shall see the great civilizations they found and, at the
conclusion, the conclusion of what makes Christians distinguished from
others. Christmas
is the day of commemoration of the Birth of Mary's boy child, Jesus
Christ. He is indeed one of the greatest men to have ever lived in this
planet. Even kings up until the present day will testify to His
greatness and majesty. The magi,
as you may know, were the three wise men who came from the East to bring
gifts to Jesus Christ, the Babe in the manger. They were the first to recognize Jesus as a
King of Kings. They also invented the
art of giving Christmas presents. In the
Gospel according to Mathew, these Magi said: “Where is He that is born King
of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east and are come to worship
Him!” (2:2). When the hour of the Revelation of Jesus drew nigh, three
of the Magi, aware that the star of Jesus that had appeared in heaven, they
sought and followed it, till they came unto the city which was the seat of
the Kingdom of Herod. The control of Herod's rule in those days
embraced the whole of that land. When they had searched, they found out
that it was in Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, that the Child had been born.
The star they followed was the sign that was seen in the visible heaven. As
to the sign in the invisible heaven—the heaven of divine knowledge and
understanding—it was John the Baptist, son of Zachariah, who gave unto the
people the tidings of the Manifestation of Jesus. In the Bible it is
written: “John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and
saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”(3) This shows
that these “Magi from the east" that "came to Jerusalem”,
knew the identity of the one whom they sought, the time and the place of His
arrival . And God used a spectacular
stellar event, that was prophecies in their books, to get their attention and
to get them moving. What is the most striking about this passage is the
hope the magi placed in the coming the King.
Consider their sacrifice of time, energy, and treasures in seeking Him
out for the sake of bowing in worship to Him. The
information given in Mathew is not sufficiently detailed to unequivocally
identify the wise men and the nature of the star that led them in their
search for the King of the Jews. However, most reasonable explanation
for the wise men given by the many scholars indicate that they were Zoroastrian
priests. Moreover, Miriam Webster
Dictionary defines Magi ("wise men") as "A caste of priests
and sages among the ancient Persians." They were
believed to have been Zoroastrians from Persia. Two of the wise men are known by the
scholars to have been Persians, however, the third one of them was a black,
from Abyssinian origin. Zoroaster
(flourished circa 600 BC) proclaimed a religion of lofty moral ideals
based on the principle, "Do good, hate evil". For Him there was only one God, represented
by purifying fire. In the New
Testament of the Bible, there is similar symbolic terms used for acceptance
of God as with Fire. (4) The influence of Zoroastrianism is also certainly traceable in
many other religions. Under this
religion, the Persian Magi became Zoroastrian priests. Within Zoroastrian prophecy they were
expecting of a “Future Savior”, someone who would be born of a virgin. A remarkable prophecy attributed to
Zoroaster runs: "You,
my children, shall be the first honoured by the manifestation of that divine
person who is to appear in the world.
A star shall go before you to conduct you to the place of His
nativity, and when you shall find Him, present to Him your oblations and sacrifices,
for He is indeed your Lord and an everlasting King." This
prophecy was certainly known to the author(s) of the "Arabic Gospel
of the Infancy". (5) In this particular document we read:
"... magi came from the East to Jerusalem as Zeraduscht [Zoroaster] had
predicted." This prophecy could well have been known to the writer(s) of
the nativity story in Matthew's gospel. E. F.
Burgess, in his Explicator article titled “T.S. Eliot's 'Journey of
the Magi',” bases the magi's
"satisfactory" journey in conditions of a prophecy hundreds of
years before. Burgess first notes that the Magi were not Kings but priests:
"holy Zoroastrian astronomers who followed the signs of the heavens.
'Yonder Star' the Magi followed was a sign prophesied 600 years before by
Zoroaster. The prophecy not only
described the celestial occurrence, but also specifically named Bethlehem as
the birthplace of the new prophet." Burgess
then offers a reinterpretation of the "satisfaction" image in the
poem: "it simply means that every condition of the prophecy was met,
leaving the alienated Magus (plural of Magi), a priest no more, secure in his
knowledge of Zoroaster's truth, and in that knowledge stranded, suspended between
the realization and the consummation of God's plan". Burgess suggests that with the prophecy
met, the old magus was satisfied in Zoroaster's truth. As it was
mentioned elsewhere, it was Zoroastrian religion that made the Persians the
first most civilized people in the known world.(6)
As attested by many chronicles of the world's most illustrious historians,
the first government to be established on earth, the foremost empire to be organized
among the nations, was Persia's throne and diadem. Aside from that
which is a matter of record in Persian histories, it is also stated in the
Old Testament that in the time of Cyrus, called in Iranian works Bahman son
of Isfandíyár, the three hundred and sixty divisions of the Persian Empire
extended from the inner confines of India and China to the farthermost
reaches of Yemen and Abyssinia.(7)
Zoroastrian priests, (also called Magi or "wise men" from East),
were also mentioned in Daniel --Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, who served as wise-men/advisors in the royal court of Babylon, with
Daniel in charge of them all.(8) Having seen the civilization built by Zoroastrian
religion, of Jesus' founding civilizations little need be said before this is
wrapped. When the Roman Empire collapsed, upon His shoulders,
Christianity rose from its rubble and then the Greek and the Roman
civilizations were born and flourished first throughout Europe and later
spread throughout the rest of the world. After first stirring a
spiritual revolution in some parts of Europe by the hands of the little as
yet unnoticed band of Christian missionaries(9),
it culminated in establishment of the greatest civilizations throughout that
continent. A civilization which has contributed so richly to the
development of American civilization and to the origin of American culture. (10)
Moreover,
it was after a direct result of Jesus' teachings that Europe became the
mother of Christendom and the scene of the greatest exploits of the followers
of Jesus Christ, that is, following the footsteps of His disciples, for two
thousand years, Christians from Europe have enlightened countless human
beings and given their lives a goal, a meaning and a mainstay.
Moreover, the innumerable works of active Christian charity which no
historian has recorded, the devotion, the selfless acts of mercy which were
carried out in the name of Christ, and the evidence of a brilliant cultures
are just few to mention. To go into detail of the countless
philanthropic works of Christians is beyond the scope and purpose of this
small article. Were the details to be mentioned, this article would swell
into a book of many volumes.(11)
One of the
most fascinating stories of Christmas took place during world war I.
Out the many touching stories that came out of the darkest days of that war,
the most poignant of them is the story of "Christmas
Truce". On the day of Christmas, the powerful impulse of Christmas
celebration had briefly moved British and German soldiers to leave the
slaughterhouse of their trenches to commemorate together the birth of Christ,
leaving their differences and celebrating the oneness of the human race.(12)
Please
allow me to say few words from the Bible before I stop. As we
commemorate the Birth of Christ, let us remember the poor, the staved, and
the unclothed people in Eritrea. As described above, historically, what
makes Christians distinguishable from others is their giving and their
philanthropic deeds and services to humanity, for Jesus had said these lofty
words to describe His followers: Then shall
the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I
was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I
was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and
ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall
the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed
thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took
thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in
prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall
he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye
gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and
ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall
they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or
sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he
answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one
of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life
eternal.(13) Best
Christmas wishes to all of you! Footnotes: 1.
For example, the national flag parallels to the cross; the national anthem
parallels to the religious hymn; the recital of pledge of allegiance
parallels to the Lord’s Prayer.
Indeed, all social grouping have a form of religious foundation. Even in the modern world, where the tie of
the state and religion is not so strong, there exists some form of
reinterpreted civil religion that must act as a substitute. In Nazi Germany, the civil theology was
based upon a nationalist and racist mythology. Marxism is a civil religion with a civil
theology that also sees itself as leading the world towards social
salvation. In United States it is
'democracy' that is the key doctrine of civil
theology, which is essentially a mythology. 2.
Read my other article "The
mysterious forces of civilizations" from asmarino.com
archives. 3.
Matthew 3:1-2. Moreover, in the Quran, it is revealed: “God announceth Yahya [i.e. John] to
thee, who shall bear witness unto the Word from God, and a great one and
chaste” ( Qur’án
3:39). By the term “Word” is meant Jesus, Whose coming Yahya foretold. 4.
See Mathew 3:11 and Luke 3:16 5.
An apocryphal gospel of Catholic origin, the early Fathers of the Church,
beginning with Clement of Alexandria, circa 600 CE 6.
We are told that Hitler's fascination with Iran made him sent few scholars to
research on Iranian ancient history.
Somehow he named his party Arian nation—Iran means noble 7.
2 Chronicles 36: 22-23; Ezra 1:2; Ester 1:1; 8:9; Isaiah 45:1,14; 49:12 8.
Daniel. 2:48 9.
Frederick Nietzsche rightly asserts, "It is the stillest words which
bring storm. Thoughts that come with
dove's footsteps guide the world."
("Thus spake Zarathustra",
'The stillest Hour', part III, p. 162). The Qur'an also says, "How
oft, by God's will, hath a small host vanquished a numerous
hosts"(2:230). 10.
Although Christianity is the predominant religion in United Stated, a formal
separation of religion and state is laid down in the Constitution. However, in that same Constitution, God is
referred to several times. Indeed, the
whole tone of public life in the United States is soaked in Biblical imagery
and parallels. 11.
For example, all the schools and hospitals in our courtiers and in almost all
other third world courtiers were built by the Churches. Of course,
there are people who go through the history of the church with a waste-bin in
their hands, picking up all the rubbish which has accumulated there: forced
baptism, autodafé, the wars of the Crusades, the
persecution of the Jews, witch hunts, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve
and the Te Deum which followed it, and much more.
These dreadful deeds were indeed committed and they have blackened the annals
of the Christian religion. However, all these selfless works mentioned
here cannot be outweighed by the disastrous misdeeds of misdirected
fanatics. Moreover, the misuse of a thing does not disprove the thing
itself; the misuse of the concept of God and of His religion does not reduce
to absurdity of that which we call God. For further discussion on this
subject, read " The
Imperishable Dominion" by Udo Schaefer. 12.
Although the “Christmas truce” involved principally British and German
soldiers, French and Belgian troops also participated: BBC News, Online
Network Summary of Brown, Malcolm and Shirley Seaton, “Christmas
Truce”. 13.
Mathew 25:34-46 For
complete story of the gospel according to Mathew that relates the story of
the three wise men, read: http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=MATT+2&language=english&version=KJV For the
brief history of Zoroastrian prophecy of Christ's birth by Father Gregory
Ace's latest article on the history of the Nativity. Father Gregis is
from St. Margaret Mary Church in Woodbridge Ontario, Canada. http://www.nativities.com/history.asp The
history of "Zoroasterianism" search the
Encarta Encyclopedia: For more
information on the meaning of magi http://www.farsinet.com/wisemen/magi.html http://www.encyclopedia.com/articlesnew/07858.html http://www.encyclopedia.com/articlesnew/13946.html http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/p_greetham/wisemen/magi.html |