Over the centuries, the story of the Three Wise Men, also known as the Three Kings or Magi, gained a plasticity that did not just make it a theological and iconographic reality far richer than the biblical text, but also catapulted it into a unique place in popular Christian culture.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying: 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 (Matthew 2: 1-2).
Their names were given by Venerable Bede (673-735), who is believed to have systematised various traditions and who stated that Melchior was an old man of 70, with white hair and beard, a native of Ur, like Abraham; that Gaspar was a robust young man who had set o from a distant mountainous region near the Caspian Sea; and that Balthazar came from the Persian Gulf, had a thick beard and was around 40. The scant iconography from this period does not present them as Kings.
The transition from Magi to Kings is thought to have taken place after the reign of Otto II (955-983), Holy Roman Emperor and German King, after the translation of their relics to Europe and, possibly, their canonisation. The posture of adoration, typical in these gures, takes on an ideological slant with this elevation to monarchs: the Kings kneel before the divine gure and, by extrapolation, before the Emperor imbued with its holy power.
The Three Kings have a dual function. On one hand, they help situate the narrative in history by relating it to a monarch, Herod. On the other hand, they allow for the introduction, at the very start of the narrative about Jesus, of the Messianic message and that of the rejection to which he would be subjected. With these Magi, we are told that even pagans would adore the Jewish Messiah, as if a rming the universality of his salvation.
This episode, which sparked his persecution and ight to Egypt, humanises the Messiah, giving him the immense vulnerability of a pursued child, pre guring the martyrdom he would go through. The seemingly innocent dialogue between the Magi and Herod sets Jesus o on the narrow path between Good and Evil; essentially, the concretisation of his function as King, Son of God.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. (Matthew 2: 11-12).
Gold, frankincense and myrrh were the o erings from these Magi to the young King, whose birth had been indicated by a star, a symbol of his royalty. For the Church Fathers, these three elements symbolised: gold, royalty; frankincense, divinity; and myrrh, the passion.
The symbolic centre is, naturally, Light. It is the star that guides these Magi; it is the star that marks the birthplace of He who would bring Light to the world. Coming from afar to pay homage to the new King, the Magi came to receive the Light. This is the theme of the “Christmas” issue presented here, leading us on that vast cultural and religious journey whose value is the cumulation of the image of the search, the path and the Light.
Paulo Mendes Pinto
