Seven Hundred Years to Bethlehem: The Story of the Magi and the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth

By Charles J. Caes

Seven Hundred Years to Bethlehem:
The Story of the Magi and the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth

In his Gospel, Matthew briefly mentions wise men from the east who followed a celestial ray of light to Bethlehem. They were Magi. As in the case of all biblical passages, a little investigation into this one opens brand-new windows of insight into the past, and historians and other scholars regularly climb through these windows to verify truths and uncover new mysteries. They study, analyze, and speculate not only on the significance of scriptural words and syntax but also on the stories that lie hidden between the lines. In his new book, Seven Hundred Years to Bethlehem, Charles J. Caes follows after them to bring together the story of the Magi and their search for a promised savior.

Part 1 draws on lay and biblical stories to present a tribal history of the Magi. It covers the seven hundred years from the time ancient wise men arrive on the Iranian plateau until their descendents spot a strange light in the sky and follow it to a stable-cave in Bethlehem. Part 2 draws from canonical and other sources to tell of events surrounding and including the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Magis arrival in Bethlehem to find the Holy Family, and the special courage of the Magi. A final chapter summarizes the life of Jesus and draws from non-canonical texts and other sources to speculate on what may have become of Mary, Joseph, and the Magi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 23, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462822560

Charles J. Caes

Charles and Karen Caes live in Warrenton, Virginia. They have teamed together to present these Christmas stories to celebrate what Charles Dickens always considered to be the happiest season of the year. Mr. Caes is also the author of books on science, religion, history, and investment. You may also enjoy his Seven Hundred Years to Bethlehem: The Story of the Magi and the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Copyright © 2008 by Charles J. Caes.

2nd printing January 2009

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

PART TWO

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

FOR FURTHER READING

TO KAREN

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is fertile ground—rich in philosophy, history, mystery, and inspiration. It appeals to the mind and to the emotions and provides exciting challenges to those in quest of greater knowledge and understanding. It was written by men of few words and fewer explanations, so its mysteries are never ending. Its passages are often challenged, the purpose of its authors examined, the depth of its secrets investigated.

Whether the reader is an astronomer, astrophysicist, archeologist, chemist, historian, theologian, philosopher, or member of any other profession or intellectual culture that takes him into the greatest depths of lost or unknown truths, he or she is invited or stimulated by biblical passages into never-ending investigations. If they were ever found, think of what questions the original Gospel texts, once translated, would answer and the new insights they might inspire.

In the brief account of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew there is mention of wise men from the east that followed a star to Bethlehem and forever became a part of Christian history, art, and symbolism. They were Magi. Many scholars consider the passages about the Magi merely part of a legend added by Matthew to underscore the significance of the birth of Christ. But as in all passages to be found in the Gospels, there is a great deal more to the story of the Magi. Much has been uncovered about their history and the light in the sky that brought them to Bethlehem between 8 and 4 BCE (Before the Christian Era).

In part 1, this book brings together historical and speculative stories about the Magi from the time they arrived on the Iranian plateau about 700 BCE until shortly after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth seven centuries later. Renowned astrologers and converts to their own unique form of Zoroastrianism that they were, generation after generation of Magi studied the skies for a sign that the first of three saviors, who would cleanse the world for true believers, had arrived.

In part 2, the story of the Magi continues, but takes second place to events preceding and including the Nativity. It was the time of a special census being taken throughout the empire, the reign of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, and the last years of the puppet king of Judea, Herod the Great.

Magi, noted astrologers that they were, still waited for fulfillment of their scriptural prophecies and were led to Bethlehem of Judea by a strange light in the sky sometime after the birth of Jesus. Sharing in the political administration of Judea at the time was the Syrian governor Sulpicius Quirinius.

Ancient histories such as those of Herodotus are always a blend of fact, hearsay, and legend. Historians in his time had hardly the storehouses of knowledge to draw from that we have available to us today. They gathered whatever information they could, thankful to have any source at all, and thinking nothing of using poetic license to fill in the gaps. Often their geography or chronologies are wanting, their stories cannot always be verified because their sources are lost to history, their facts contradict other historical records, or their works are just extracts or rewrites of earlier works.

Yet we owe them much for taking the first steps in compiling what information was available, whether myth, legend, or fact. However, in drawing from these ancient authors, such as Herodotus, I have sometimes had to override their literary license and rework their stories so that they are far more plausible to 21st century understanding and in accordance with the storehouses of knowledge that have multiplied over the millenniums.

Biblical texts also provide a challenge. Catholic and Protestant scholars readily agree that the stories of the birth of Christ contain a mix of legend and sometimes draw upon speculative doctrine. Current research, for instance, brings questions of just where Jesus of Nazareth may actually have been born. Perhaps, one debate goes, he was born in a very small village in Galilee called Beit Lechem Haglilit (Bethlehem in Galilee) located six miles northwest of Nazareth instead of the larger Bethlehem of Judea (now Palestine). Scripture is always under challenge as scholars seek to verify its historical and theological foundations.

While biblical passages are always subject to continuous scrutiny, I continue to respect them as the best accounts from their time of people and events that would otherwise be lost to history. In so doing, I nevertheless expect that the inspired genius of the authors would find it necessary to use symbolism, midrash, and other prosaic and poetic techniques to bring us the greatest story ever told.

PART ONE

History and Legends of the Magi

CHAPTER 1

The Sixth Tribe of Media

If you were to travel from Baghdad to Tehran in the Middle East country of Iran, you would come upon a fertile plain through which the Qareh Su River flows. Beyond the plain is a mountain reaching three thousand feet toward the sky. At the northeastern base of the mountain is a city called Hamadan. Most of the world knows it as a manufacturing center for rugs, luggage, and copper merchandise; but its many bazaars and mosques reveal more of its true Persian traditions. Scholars know it as the site of the ancient city of Ecbatana, and they anxiously await the treasures and knowledge that may one day be found not too far below its modern foundations.

They may have to wait forever, for, even if allowed, Ecbatana can never be fully excavated. After all, a modern city rests upon it. Yet while its mysteries lay beneath the sand and concrete of a modern-day world, scripture and other ancient writings teach us about the city and its people.

Ecbatana was the capital of an ancient kingdom called Media. And Media was at times known as Mada. The Medes, or Medians, as the people of Media were called, were possibly the second wave of Indo-Iranian migrations to the Iranian plateau as early as the fifteenth century BCE. These people came from the eastern banks of the Indus River, which is born of Himalayan glacial streams before destiny sends the river on a northwest course between the Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains and eventually south through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. The Medes settled in the northwest part of the Iranian plateau; and another group of people, the Persians, whom the Medes came to dominate, settled in the south.

The Medes controlled the area from the Caspian Sea to the Zagros Mountains. They were well-known by their neighbors for their ferocity, excellent fighting abilities, and skilled horsemanship. The tribes that made up the kingdom were not only often at odds with neighboring kingdoms and empires but also with one another. While warlords had no easy task trying to keep the peace, they quickly joined forces when they found a common enemy. Great and courageous fighters that they were, they were not so lucky when they fought the Assyrians; and from about 835 BCE until about 715 BCE, they were forced to become subjects of the Assyrian Empire. Never pleased to have to pay homage to foreign kings, they waited patiently for the right time to rise in revolt.

By the latter part of the seventh century BCE, there were six tribes that made up the kingdom of Media; and they all vied for political power and military superiority while, at the same time, trying to maintain a united nation. In some ways, Media was very much like modern-day tribal cultures.

The primary tribes of Media were the Busae, Paretaceni, Struchates, Arizanti, and Budii. They tolerated a sixth tribe consisting of a people who seem to have been relatively new to Media, but who wielded a political and religious power that made the other tribes jealous and fearful of them.

From where this new tribe came, no one knows. But they were Magi and the ancestors of the Three Wise Men in Matthew’s Gospel. After their arrival, Media gained a reputation as the home of great magicians, for the Magi had an ability to interpret dreams, advance the healing arts, predict the movement of some of those lights in the sky, and apply that pseudoscience called astrology. Having such knowledge was a sure way to win the respect or fear of the other tribes and, thereby, acquire an inordinate amount of power.It also often stirred up a great deal of jealousy.

Scholars cannot be sure, but it appears the Magi were never quite as integrated into Median society as were the other tribes. Indeed, they may have been part of the first settlers in or around Media, but more likely they joined the kingdom after the ninth century BCE and probably as late as the seventh century BCE.

True it is that the Magi were semi-nomads and like other Medes could be recognized by their Indo-Iranian language and, possibly, by their short hair, curly beards, and sheepskin coats; but in every other way, the Magi were different from other Medes. They were not of the same stock. They were taller, thinner, differently complexioned, and not as thickly boned. They were highly educated in the earth sciences, mystical, secretive. They believed in the fair treatment of all men and women regardless of their place in society.

Unlike the Persians and neighboring cultures, the Magi did not worship many gods or the stars, though they were indeed astrologers of world renown. They believed there was only one true god, whom they symbolized by a great torch they kept lit day and night, and before which they performed their religious ceremonies.

They were said to have worshiped fire, but the truth is that fire to them was only a symbol of the power of the one true force that gave birth and meaning to all things in the universe. Unlike the priests among other great powers of their time—the quasi-empires of Egypt, Lydia, and Chaldea—they believed in one supreme god and professed a religion similar in some ways to that of the ancient Israelites after the time of Moses.

It was their religion and magic that helped the Magi gain a powerful presence in Media. They worshipped in open-air temples or wherever they could prepare a great fire around which they could chant, pray, and sacrifice any animal except the dog. In many ways, they used the mystery and ritual of religious theater to instill fear in those who were not of their tribe.

They read the stars as though each tiny dot were a message from the gods. This was how they predicted the future of men and nations and won the confidence of kings and queens. They knew the very earth itself as well as a fortune-teller knew the palm of his hand; this was how they found the herbs that could cure, poison, or put someone into a trance. They could look into the mind by reading dreams, which they believed were stories of destiny as well as hidden desires and fears; this was how they won the confidence of kings and commoners alike. Of course, such readings depended upon knowledge of the cultures, histories, persons, and current events of the times. This means the Magi had to be keen observers of the world about them.

The source and extent of their knowledge of earth and sky remains a mystery even until this day. There is a legend that Plato, the Greek philosopher who lived from 427-347, had longed to visit the Magi to learn what he could from them; however, it was the time of the great Greek wars and this meant his visit to Media would be filled with peril, so he never chanced the journey. But a student of his did. This student was none other than the great Greek scientist and philosopher Aristotle (384-322).

No one can be sure when Aristotle visited Media or who may have accompanied him. Born in 384 BCE, he studied under Plato from 366-347 and, four years after Plato’s death, went to Persia to tutor Alexander the Great. It was likely after this seven-year assignment that he journeyed to Media to live with and learn from the Magi. Little did Aristotle realize that Alexander would one day wreck havoc on this mysterious tribe whose knowledge Aristotle so eagerly sought. In fact, when Aristotle returned from his stay in Media, Alexander was probably the most eager of all to hear or read about what Aristotle had learned, especially about the military capabilities of the Medes. He would one day send his armies against them.

It was Aristotle’s intention to compile a book on the beliefs, findings, and teachings of the Magi. It seems incredible that the Magi would share their great secrets with anyone, but legend says that the book was indeed completed. It remained in one of the great libraries at Alexandria until these libraries were first destroyed during Julius Caesar’s invasion of Egypt about 30 BCE. Some speculate copies of the book may have survived the Roman scourge and could again be found in Alexandria’s libraries when they were rebuilt. In this case, they would have met destruction in 270 CE after another Roman invasion, this time led by the Roman emperor Aurelian (212-275). The city was again sacked and the libraries razed.

Then again, perhaps a copy of the book still survives—hidden in some forgotten library or ancient cellar, or buried in some cave waiting for some lucky archaeologist or other historian to uncover it. Perhaps a copy lies buried in a stone casing below the city of Hamadan.

No one knows what happened to the book. No one knows what secrets were spelled out on its pages.

CHAPTER 2

Rise of the Magi

While ancient writings place the Magi in Media as early as the eighth century BCE, these books record nothing of their origins, their way of life, their early beliefs, or how they came upon their great knowledge. They appear here and there in Persian, Greek, or Bible history; and they always seem to appear in passages indebted to myth and legend as well as to fact.

In the time when written history first finds them, the world was very