Reading the Bible Badly. Karl Allen Kuhn

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СКАЧАТЬ and myrrh were indeed valuable commodities, but Matthew does not indicate the amounts that were gifted to Jesus. The gifts could represent the collective wealth of this group of magi and further underscore the sacrifice implied in their journey.

      Just as strangely, we (including the NRSV translators!) have commonly regarded the magi as wise men, even though there is nothing in Matthew’s gospel that tells us that they were wise, or that they were all men.

      Really.

From what we can piece together from surviving historical evidence, it appears that magi were astrologers and interpreters of dreams, especially in Eastern cultures that had been influenced by Persian customs.28 They were not kings themselves, but some of them served in the courts of kings, functioning as advisors, like the “magi” (NRSV: “magicians”) described in Daniel 2:1–11. It is likely that most such advisors were men, but some could have been women. After all, in ancient Persia women served as priests and astrologers, and even in Israelite tradition women served as prophets. There is also evidence suggesting that some magi may have been itinerant, traveling in large groups, including their families—like roaming gypsies.

By Gentile folk, some magi would have been regarded as wise. But to others, especially Israelite folk, this was not likely the case. We can find no ancient Israelite text that presents the magi as wise persons. In fact, in every surviving Israelite text of the time, including two that would have been widely known by Israelites in Jesus’ day, the magi are regarded not as wise, but fools!29 As surprising as this may be, it makes perfect sense. How do you discern the will of God if you are a faithful Israelite? By reading the Torah and Prophets, not the stars, not by magic!

Accordingly, it is very likely that most recipients of Matthew’s gospel—most of whom were likely Israelite Christians—would not have held the magi in high regard. Rather, they and most early Christians would have heard this story very differently than how many Christians hear and tell this story today. For first-century Jesus folk, this is not a story about the wisest, wealthiest, and most discerning among the Gentiles coming with great reverence to honor the Israelite King. Instead, they would have heard it as an almost comical, puzzling tale, about a bunch of silly, Eastern astrologers who are led by a star to see Jesus. “What was God up to?” many of the original recipients of Matthew’s gospel would have asked. “Why, of all people, them?30

      Note too that if we carefully attend to Matthew’s account, we are not encouraged to regard the magi as all that astute. Just the opposite. While in the East, the magi see the star rising and follow it to Judea. Yet even with the guidance of the bright and luminous star, the magi still get lost! So they stop off in Jerusalem and ask for directions. Eventually, King Herod gets wind of this and secretly summons the magi (vv. 7–8). He sends them off to Bethlehem, saying “Go ahead, find the Christ child, and then come back and let me know where he lives, so that I too can go and worship him” (camera cue: focus in on Herod as he turns aside, rubs his hands, and laughs evilly under his breath). But the magi are oblivious to Herod’s ulterior motives, and to the fact that he has just gained information from them that puts Jesus at great risk (see Matt 2:16–18). The magi then head off to Bethlehem and the star leads them to the very place where Jesus lives. Finally, the still clueless magi need to be warned in a dream not to return to Herod (v. 12).

      The Magi as Faithful Fools

      If we read this story without the assumption that the magi are three discerning, wise men, then we can see how this story may have been understood differently by those who first told it and first heard it. Then we too might ask concerning the silly magi, along with the earliest tellers and hearers of this tale, why these folk? What was God up to?

      Asking these questions can help us to recognize another important element of Matthew’s gospel that is in view here already in its opening chapters. As we will see later on in the narrative, Jesus picks fishermen, sinners, rebels, and tax collectors—basically a bunch of nobodies and no-goods—to be his disciples (4:18–22; 9:9). For this he is upbraided by the Pharisees, to whom he responds: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (9:10–13). He commends a Canaanite woman for her great faith (15:21–28). He tells his disciples, “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave” (20:27). He defines righteousness as concern for the least among us (25:31–46), and emulates that in his own miracles of healing.

      Then at one point, Jesus proclaims regarding his followers, “I praise you Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children” (11:25).

      In short, through this story and others to follow, Matthew is concerned to tell us that those whom the world often finds silly, naïve, trashy, powerless, and childish are more likely to open their hearts and minds to Christ. The saving reign of God makes little headway among those who hoard their riches, who seek to preserve their privileged positions, who celebrate their status at the expense of others, who so trust in their own manner of “wisdom” that they are blind to the way of blessing God is making known in plain sight before them. The kingdom of heaven comes to the ones “foolish” enough to set the lies of this world aside, and rest their hearts in the truth and love of God made known in Emmanuel.

      The Magi through the Centuries

      Very few Christians throughout history have celebrated let alone remembered the foolish and childlike character of the magi as Matthew presents them. It seems likely that as the telling of the magi story moved from an Israelite to Gentile cultural context, those hearing it simply assumed that magi were wise. This interpretive tendency is still alive and well among American Christians today. Yet before discussing how the magi are most often viewed in our American context, it may be illuminating to explore how over the centuries Christians have told the magi story differently from how it is told by Matthew. In his book, The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story, Richard Trexler traces the various forms of the magi story as they appear in Christian literature and art from the opening centuries of Christianity until the beginning of the modern age. As we might expect, the story—and the magi themselves—have been presented in a number of different ways.

      Early Christians of means often associated themselves with the magi in burial art adorning their tombs. A prominent motif in these settings was the generous gift-giving of the wealthy and wise magi and their subsequent reception of Christ’s salvation. Presumably, the wealthy Christians interred in the tombs displayed this depiction of the magi to emphasize their own wise and generous giving to Christ’s church and expectation of salvation. As Trexler summarizes,

The Christians who paid for these representations wanted to show that, like the magi, they had made gifts to Jesus through his church. This fundamental association between what had launched the church—the magi’s gifting of Jesus—and the salvational giving that was a consequence expected of all Christians will be one leitmotif of this work.31

      Later, after Constantine’s adoption of Christianity as one of the unifying forces of his empire, a new motif was added to the portrayal of the magi. Funeral art and other sources depict the magi as legates or client kings submitting themselves to the authority of Jesus. In some of these depictions, the magi seem to represent the devotion and submission of the Roman emperors and leaders to Jesus and the church. Others associate the authority of Roman and later Byzantine emperors with that of Jesus. In these scenes, the image or example of the magi is used to depict the powers of the world presenting themselves to Christ and to the Christian emperor. Some depict the magi as members of Jesus’ royal court, as the child Jesus sits on a throne and receives the homage of foreign kings and the offerings of the nations. In both cases, the magi, Trexler points out, function as figures that legitimate not only the worship of Jesus, but also the authority of the emperor and empire, and their reception of tribute!

As we move into the early medieval period, many of these same depictions continue, including the use of the magi story to celebrate and legitimate elite power. СКАЧАТЬ