Three Wise Men Revisited

A CHRISTIAN GEOGRAPHER's VIEW

OF THE THREE MAGI

During this Christmas Season, it occurred to me that the Story of the 3 Wise Men is still a mystery with
many of the most basic questions left unanswered. Who Were the 3 Wise Men? Where did they come
from? Where did they meet? What was their Religion?
To get to the core of the Geography mystery one only must ask, " How did men who started East of
Jerusalem arrive in Bethlehem by following a star in the East By combining knowledge of biblical history
with scriptures and a little detective work I believe it is possible to address each of these questions. By
blending what we already know with what we can reasonably surmise, we can finally tell the whole
Christmas Story.

Let us take Mathew (2: 1-4) at his word and agree that the 3 Magi were from lands East of Jerusalem.
During the Middle Ages, it was commonly thought that they came from Babylon, India and Pakistan and
that they were Persian Scholars. In truth, it is likely that they traveled along the routes of the Silk Road
which essentially came into being from the 1st century BCE, following the efforts by China to consolidate
a road to the Western world and India, The Silk Roads were a "complex network of trade routes" that
gave people the chance to exchange goods and culture.
These trade routes along with the scientific knowledge of the Magi could largely be responsible for their
great wealth as shown by the exotic and rare gifts of great value. Many estimate that at that time,
translated into modern money, gold was about $200 an ounce, frankincense would have cost $500 per
pound and Myrrh would have cost $4,000 per pound.
As for their religion, they could not have been Jewish or Jewish scholars or they would have known that
the Messiah was to Come from the House of David in Bethlehem. They journeyed 500 years before
Mohammed so they could not have been Muslim. They could not have been Christian, at least not yet.
So, what great religions of that time are left? They were monotheists so that rules out Buddhism.
Another clue comes from the word Magi itself. Magi (Latin plural of magus) is a term, used since at least
the 6th century BCE, to denote followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster. It is the term from which we
derive the words magic or magician and may have been referenced by the name of the heretic in the
New Testament called Simon Magus.
Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, in Latin Simon Magus, is a religious figure whose
confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts 8:924. Accounts of Simon by writers of the second century
exist, but are not considered verifiable.
According to Acts, Simon was a Samaritan magus or religious figure of the 1st century CE and a convert
to Christianity, baptized by Philip the Evangelist, who later clashed with Peter. In apocryphal works

including the Acts of Peter, Pseudo-Clementines, and the Epistle of the Apostles, Simon also appears as a
formidable sorcerer with the ability to levitate and fly at will.
The word appears to come from Persia (Iran) and was used to describe astrologers who practiced the
ancient widespread religion of Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic
religions. It was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) in ancient Iran approximately 3500
years ago. The Zoroastrians shunned the mesmerizers and revered those who studied nature and the
motions of the stars. In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to "be among those who renew the
world...to make the world progress towards perfection." Recent estimates place the current number of
Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million, with most living in India and in Iran.
However, many have forgotten that the Zoroastrian center of learning in the Christian Era was the
famous library in Alexandria, Egypt, one of the largest and most significant in the ancient world. The
Library at Alexandria was in charge of collecting all the world's knowledge, and most of the staff was
occupied with the task of translating works onto papyrus paper. This library was established in the 3rd
Century BC and at its height around 50 BCE is said to have contained nearly a half million scrolls. As a
research institution, the library filled its stacks with new works in mathematics, astronomy, physics,
natural sciences and other subjects. All ships visiting the city were obliged to surrender their books for
immediate copying. The owners received a copy while the pharaohs kept the originals in the library
within their museum. Other than collecting works from the past, the library served as home to a host of
international scholars, well-patronized by the Ptolemaic dynasty with travel, lodging, and stipends for
their whole families. The Great Library caught fire when Julius Caesar set fire to his ships during his civil
war in 48 BCE but much still remained when it was destroyed by Emperor Aurelian in 270 CE.
During his reign of the eastern part of the Empire (4030 BCE), Mark Antony plundered the second
largest library in the world (at Pergamon) and presented the Royal Library collection (possibly as many
as 200,000 scrolls) as a gift to Cleopatra as a replacement for the books lost to Caesar's fire. Alexandria
was considered the worlds center for sciences and literature between the 1st and the 6th centuries AD,
which depended to a large extent on the presence of these two libraries. Here the Zoroastrians would
go to study not only their own texts but those of the other major religions as well. Since forecasting the
birth of Kings was a principle pursuit of astrologers this required knowledge of astronomy as well.

So now that we have all the pieces in place, we can assemble the components to see the Beauty of the
Christian Child story in a new light as follows.

Three Zoroastrian scholars and scientists departed from their home countries, the great empires of the
ancient world, and traveled along the Silk Road routes to study at the Royal Library of Alexandria. The
journeys to Egypt may have taken as long as 3 months. They probably met in Alexandria and began
sharing knowledge of prophesy about the birth of kings. They would have read the early Jewish
scriptures about the coming King of the Jews. About this time, a celestial phenomenon could have
appeared in the Eastern Sky of Egypt. This could have been a Supernova, a conjunction of planets or a
comet. The 3 Magi would have set out immediately for the city of Jerusalem which they knew from

scripture. The city of Jerusalem is due east of Alexandria, Egypt at a distance of about 500 miles. A
camel can travel about 25 miles per day, so the journey to Jerusalem may have taken about 20 days.

These Zoroastrian scholars may have known enough to go to Jerusalem, but not being Jewish, they
would not have known where to find the child Messiah. Naturally they would have inquired from King
Herod who told them to go to Bethlehem. He requested that they report back to them after they found
the baby. Bethlehem is just 6 miles South of Jerusalem and the Magi could have made that journey in a
couple of hours at most.
The Magi were already told the distance and direction, but how would they know how to find the stable.
Astronomically, this would have required a different occurrence; Perhaps a meteorite, a fireball, or
maybe just an angel.
So, the surprising insight of this story is that it brings together all the empires of the ancient world to
bring us our savior. Babylon, India, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Rome, Greece and China; they are all
necessary to the Christmas Story.
Another lesson is that all of the terrorist hotspots of our world worked together to support the Prince of
Peace. Consider that Jerusalem, Palestine, Cairo, Kandahar, Peshawar, Delhi are all in turmoil now but
they enjoyed relative calm and prosperity when Jesus was born. We must all remember that each
civilization and religion plays a role in our future and we must all pray for PEACE ON EARTH.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
David Lincoln
Dec. 24, 2016