1956-12-15 — Page 5

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THE · CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1956.

WHO WERE Who

were

THE WISE MEN?

By LES ARMOUR

ERTAIN wiso men St Matthew does not even tell prophet and founder of one of St Matthew was alone in record- how many of them there the East's major religions) who, ing the appearance of the wise of the East, fol- us

1yet'o

they or what it was they though

indre men. Surely it is natural that, lowing a star, and

brought with them. Clearly, astrologers, were highly thought long after the event, stories of bearing gifts.....

they had came to do homage to of as scholar and as disciples strange and almost miraculous Christ, But where had they of a noble religion,

the birth of Christ, come from? East must mean, at

"and it would not have been un- least, cast of the Jordan; though,

usual for compone in St Mat- at that time, "east" was taken

thew's position to have mistaken to include even Arabla,

a harmless myth for fact.

St Matthew records their Bethlehem appearance at simply, factually, without embroidery. But he tells us nothing else about them.... except that they were Magi,

And there

of the great mysteries of history begins,

one

There are no other contem- records of their appear- parry affee. St Lafe, despite the mu

detall of

in bla report Christ's birth, does not mention them.

of

The fret that they were Magi is not much help, however, bo- cause the term by then Wad the Throughout ambiguous. Roman capire it had come designate a band at fraudulent fortune-telling astrologers,

to

that

NARTHER Cani, however, it

meant

wise Dert in clples of Zorounter (a Femian

He concluded that St Matthew couldn't have been taken in by of a myth, because the myths the period were all clearly dis- tinguishable as such. They were,

occdhould have grown 'highly

tip

Scholars take it that St Mat-

referred to the latter thew

meaning because he obviously spoke of them with respect and renders to did not intend his take them to be frauds or even simple fortune-tellers. Ho im- plies, though he does not say,

they were

men of sub-E scholars, however, do not agree with the seepiles. The stance and integrity,

They also take it, therefore, Roy. Edward Hayes Plumpire, that "cast" meant somewhere in Prótemor of Divinity at King's the last College, London, in the direction of Persia,

There, however, they feel half of the nineteenth century, obliged to drop their specula- went into the subject thoroughly tions on St Matthew's text. and became the acknowledged expert on the mysterious wise

And there the scepties step in. Surely, they say. It is strango men. -

MERRY CHRISTMAS

•

cmbroidered," fanciful tales full of miraculous · occur- rences and togical absurdities.

Beside them, St Matthew'n salghtforward, unvarnished, zeemunt stands out sharply.

years

rather than to repeat what Mat- Euphrates, they left behind thew had written,

4,000 of the men and proceeded with the other 1,000 Įto Jerusalem.

But what about later tradi- tion, which holds that the wise

men were three .n number, that they were oriental kings, that their names were Caspar, Mel chlor and Balthazar, and that they brought gold, frankincensa und myrrh?

Prof. Plumptre, and all the scholars who have followed, were scoptical,

There the three went on olone, Becking advice from Herod, and ultimately arriving

at Bethlehem.

Thay

Page

were then taken to Cathedral for safety. Having paid their thomage, Cologne they went back to await further There they remain, to this day. word. And, it is believed they had left the bulk of their army is simply that the contemporary The dimculty about this story on the banks of the Euphrates, evidence which satisfied Pope When the disciples of Christ Julius and Eustorgius died with

gospel,. St

the new preach

Furthermore, he says, there aro reasons for Cho TOT- appearance of the report in any Most of the

An exhaustive search through were sent out info the world to its possessors in Constantinople. other history,

the annals of Weslorn Chris- Thomas headed East," records of the last, tumultour

of Herod's reign were tanily didn't help very much, destroyed. And St. Luke, the The number three may have come by extension From the other historian in whose work one would expect to and the

doctrine of the Trinity. The reference, probably saw Mat- names first appear in the works thew's chronicle before he wrote his own. There is evidence that he endeavoured to supplement

by GILES

"When a poor man came in sight

Gathering winter fu-el."

Western tradition is incomplete, because neither Julius ΠΟΤ Eustorglus poems to have mada any careful note of the ovidence, .Eastern

Orthodox tradition is mainly verbal,

of the Venerable Bede many TN Chalden (a part of modern venturies Inter. In Bede's day, I Iraq and traditionally Uio The scholars, therefore, refuse however, at least four other sein birth-place of Abraham), he en- to

commit themselves, Prof. of names were current.

countered the Magi, whom he Plumptre, for instance, WR bapillaed. As for the gold, frankincense the first Gentiles to become

Allegodly, they were, cleaffy sception), and myrrh of the, Christmas Christians and, after the bap carol, Prof. Plumptre thought in, they went forth to preach they were symbolic: they the gospel.

symbolised Christ's royalty, the bitterness he was to experience, and, finally, his death.

On the other hand, Eustorgius, who undertook many com- plicated missions, was noted for his sagacity. He is unlikely to This story was passed on by have been taken in, and he word of mouth, and no fa arrived in Constantinople not so A similar search through the al evidence substantiating It very long after the bodies had appears until the fourth century, been found. Relic-sellers would traditions of the Easter

when church leaders in Con- have received short shrift from Orthodox Church and So stantinople became interested him. avidence from the Roman in the matter. Catholic Church did, however, throw more light on the ques- tion

MASTERN tradition is much

more explioic,

The wise men were three and they were oriental. They were high priests of Zoroaster, and

they were three of twelve who warned in a writing

been

They caused a search to bo

ST

mada and bodies of the three CT Matthew mosi be assured Wero found and brought to Constantinople. The churchmen

to have written

what ha

of the time soem to have been took to be the truth. Religions men from the Estat whom he Astisiled that the identification

was sound because the bodies described as Magl were simort certainty priests of Zoroaster and, if no they would have taken their mindan veriously,

were reburled tinople church.

Conatan- Iri a

In the same century, Eus.. torgius, a clerical diplomat of considerable repute, visited Constantinople,

when be WAB appointed Bishop received permission Milan

and

that bore the name of Seth to expoct the birth of a great spiri. tual king. The twelve had been have the bodies taken there.

set to stand woich near a great wah stone in the desert and to watch day and night until a star ap- peared which would guide them. The tradition does not say, but since the priests would have been astrologen, it is reason- able to suppose, that the star would have appeared" in an astrological sense.

Ultimately the star. did ap- pear. The chosen three were given an army of 7,000 men, With them they set out lon, two-year march do the wake of the alar. On the banks of the

They might well have waited 30 years in Chalden for

nar- ther word. There is no indication In the story of how long the of twelve priests had watched by

the rock in the desert, but the implication is that was a very long time. Another thirty years would not have seemed too much.

to

he cor-

As for St Thomas, THE matter weems to have, tolaly did meet with success. 1 come lo the attention of Pops Julius, who made his own id- quiries and was apparently also satkatd. m any 1382. he Inaugurated them.feant of The Three Wise Men in 336 A.D.

1

Thero is other evidenza togag= gest that he had help from men of considerable authority. What more likely than that that help dit come from the Magi of St Matthew? Perhaps, of course, i was not the original Magi ho mot, but their later disciples. No one can say,

The bodies remained in Milan until 1102 when Frederick Barbarosa, Emperor of Ger- many and later Holy Roman Somehow, thought, 'the 'story Emperor, threatened the city. tias the ring of truthangal

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