The Three Kings Were MAGI-Astrologers?

Dan A. Rodriguez Articles, Books, and Podcasts

For the last few years, I have published this message around this time. I usually wait until after Christmas because Three Kings Day will be celebrated soon by most Latin people. I trust this will bring light to you today in Jesus' Name!

When I was raised in Puerto Rico in the 60's, we celebrated Christmas, but "Reyes" or "Kings" was THE celebration of when the three Kings or Magi came to worship Jesus. The night before Three Kings day celebrations on January 6 were special nights. Children all over the island would leave grass out (generally with a manger built or prepared for the occasion) to feed the camels of the Three Kings, and they in turn would leave presents. Many times, Reyes was a much bigger celebration than Christmas. We loved Reyes!

As you grow up, and begin to follow Jesus, you learn a few things if you will study. For example, the names and the numbers of the wise men that came from the East are never mentioned in the New Testament. Not only that, the word translated as wise men (magoi) is not the Greek word for kings (basileon)! Oops! So much for the tradition of the Three Gentile Kings that came to worship baby Jesus, all based on human invention. None of it is Scriptural!

The above may be disconcerting for the unlearned, but the truth will not oppress you. The truth of God's Word will make you free from the traditions of men, if you will allow it. (John 8:32) Here comes much food for thought.

The Wise Men that Came to See Jesus were Magi - Astrologers?

Does anybody but me have a problem with the tradition that the wise men were astrologers of the Magi caste from Babylon? I hope not. For many years, as a Christian, that “scratched” at me on the inside.

We know from Scripture how much God despises all the pagan practices of idolatry that include sorcery (deals with potions and spells), witchcraft (those that cast spells-incantations and curses and invoke (evil) spirits to get their will done), necromancers (those that attempt to speak to the dead, mediums), soothsayers (fortune tellers, and that includes the Ouija boards of today, tarot cards, divination, psychics), spiritists (those that channel evil spirits to tell your fortune), and astrologers (those that tell of events past, present, and future by “reading” the stars and planets). Here are a few verses of Scripture that put in view God’s perspective:

Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:31 NLT)

I will also turn against those who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community. (Lev. 20:6 NLT)

Men and women among you who act as mediums or who consult the spirits of the dead must be put to death by stoning. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Lev. 20:27 NLT)

And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead… The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things. (Deuteronomy 18:10-11, 14 NLT)

Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire. He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the LORD’s sight, arousing his anger. (2 Kings 21:6 NLT)

God calls these practices evil and wicked in the sight of the Lord, arousing His anger, spiritual prostitution, and a capital offense. He is the same today. He has never changed His mind on the subject. (Malachi 3:6)

Here is one portion in the Scripture that specifically referred to the astrologers of Babylon (Isaiah 47:1-5), the very caste that the wise men that came to worship Jesus were supposed to belong to!

So, disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared. “Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you. All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds. But they are like straw burning in a fire; they cannot save themselves from the flame.” (Isaiah 47:11-14 NLT)

God mocks them! They cannot save themselves from the flame! Destruction was coming to them for their evil and wicked practices.

Yes, these calamities will come upon you, despite all your witchcraft and magic. “You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray, and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’ So, disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared. (Isaiah 47:9-11 NLT)

There are a few references in the New Testament to witchcraft, fortune-tellers, and those practicing the magic arts. The stories of the woman with the evil spirit (spirit of divination) and practiced fortune-telling (which was cast out by Paul- Acts 16:16-18), and Bar-Jesus the magician-astrologer (Acts 13:6-11). Paul called him “full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness!” That, my brethren, is the Holy Spirit’s take on all that practice such things, because it was the Holy Spirit that anointed Paul to then speak a command to blind the sorcerer!

Also, the Apostle Paul mentions sorcery as a desire of the sinful nature, and the fact that those practicing it will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 TLV)

In Revelation, it is written that after devastating plagues hit many parts of the earth:

But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21 NLT)

One more to clench the nail on the back of the board:

But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Rev. 21:8 NLT)

Those Scriptural references just threw off for me all the connection of the wise men to the caste of Magi from Babylon, but let’s read the New Testament text, and move on from there.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men (Gr. magoi) from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:1, 2 NKJV-parenthesis are my addition)

The star that they saw related to the King of the Jews was prophesied by none other than Balaam in his fourth prophecy. (Numbers 24:15-19) Balaam is a whole other problem, but I will summarize it here the best I can. Balaam was a backslid prophet and became a “prophet for hire.” Balaam would bless or curse people for a price. Do we have similar “prophets” today? A few of those covetous and likeminded prophets are roaming around today among Christians. Who are they? They are those that for a fee will send you a personal “prophetic word.” The more money you send, the more personal the “word” will be. They are in the same category as Balaam was, a conniving and money hungry swindler!

Because Balaam was backslid, he was a false prophet whose teaching was despised by the Lord Jesus. The Lord denounced those who followed the doctrine of Balaam because it led to eating things sacrificed to idols and to committing sexual immorality. (See Revelation 2:14, Numbers 31:16.) Yet, in all the prophet’s madness, the Spirit of the Lord spoke through Balaam’s mouth, and a grand prophetic word from the Lord came forth about the future King-Messiah.

You may be wondering how could God possibly use a “false prophet” to bring a real word from the Lord? He anointed a heathen king to help Israel. His name was Cyrus! (See Isaiah 43:1-10, Ezra 1). There are numerous examples in the Scripture of the Lord using pagans for his purposes. So, in the case of Balaam, the Lord anointed him to speak prophetically on a certain occasion. That does not mean he was right or accepted before the Lord, but that God used him on a selected occasion to express a prophetic utterance from the Lord.

Here is the prophetic Word that the wise men followed into Israel in search of the King-Messiah.

…The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, and the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened; The utterance of him who hears the words of God and has the knowledge of the Most High, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open: I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel… (Numbers 24:15-17 NKJV)

The wise men saw the star rising out of Jacob or Israel and followed it from the East. Their point of origin was in the East, presumably from Babylon. Why Babylon? The word used for “wise men” is the Greek word magos (magoi- in the plural form indicating more than one “wise man”). In Spanish, no bones are made about it, and the three kings are called the three magician kings, "los tres Reyes magos." That is really a mess in my estimation, but the tradition runs deep.

The Complete Word Study dictionary of the Bible (coded to Strong’s Concordance numbers) indicates (G3097) that the word magoi is of foreign origin from the Hebrew (H7248); a Magian, that is, Oriental scientist; by implication a magician: - sorcerer, wise man.

Notice what Thayer’s Greek- English Lexicon says about the same word: the name given by the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, and others, to the wise men, teachers, priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreter of dreams, augers, soothsayers, sorcerers, etc. It goes on to say that the oriental wise men (astrologers) who, having discovered by the rising of the remarkable star that the Messiah had just been born, and that therefore thy came to Jerusalem to worship him. (1)

The acclaimed and scholarly Bauer’s “A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature” (BDAG) basically says the same thing as the other two dictionaries mentioned above. So, there is a case for the magoi(plural)- wise men to have been of this caste of astrologer-soothsayers.

There is also the fact that magos was used referring to the false prophet Elymas (Bar-Jesus) in Acts 13:8. Also, God has at times used the ungodly for His purposes. Yet, all that doesn’t sit right with my spirit and the witness of the Holy Spirit concerning the story of the wise men that visited Jesus. Could there have been something else going on that has been ignored for centuries? In my heart, to believe that the magoi that visited Jesus were soothsayers- astrologers sounds like this:

“Wait a minute! Do you mean to tell me that astrologers and soothsayers (practitioners of witchcraft or wizardry) came to worship the Messiah because they saw the star of the Messiah-King manifested in the sky? How did they know anything about that prophetic word in Number 24:17 and that it was a messianic word from the Lord? Does that sound right to you? Do you mean to tell me that Joseph and Mary (strict Jewish followers of Torah) would have received heathens from hell that were astrologers, soothsayers, and served false gods? Would they have received myrrh, frankincense, and gold from these pagans?” Knowing something about Judaism in the first century, I would have to say emphatically, “No way!”

The first foreign dignitaries to visit the child Jesus were magicians (wizards) and astrologers from Babylon? Yuk! The idea makes me throw up a little in my mouth because I know all those other Scriptures that I gave you above, where God rejects (and detests, hates) all forms of witchcraft and sorcery, including astrology! Scripture should be primarily interpreted with other Scripture. I think the story of the wise has been interpreted without reference to other Scripture that should have made us reassess our conclusions. That time is here and now!

If these magoi were pagan devils, they would never have been received by Joseph or Mary or anybody of the Jewish faith that was present that day. Jews had strict laws concerning receiving pagans into their home or going to visit pagans and coming under their roof. It was considered a violation of the law of Moses and ritual impurity. Jews did not associate with pagans!

Did you know that Jesus’ first followers and converts after the day of Pentecost were ONLY Jews and their half-brothers, the Samaritans? There were no Gentiles among the believers for at least ten years after Pentecost. Read Acts chapters 2-10 as a reference. It took a supernatural vision coming to the apostle Peter in Acts 10 to open the way for salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be preached to the Gentiles. Until then, it was taken for granted that association with the Gentiles was verboten, and the gospel message was only for Jews.

Again, there was a separation of the Jews from pagans until salvation and the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and all his house as Peter preached to them. (Acts 10).

Ok, if the magoi couldn’t have been pagan, astrologer, devil worshippers that came to worship the King-Messiah, and I have presented Scriptural evidence that would contradict the notion that they were, what and who were they, and can it be proven?

Do you remember that I stated above that The Complete Word Study dictionary of the Bible says (G3097) that "the word is of foreign origin from the Hebrew (H7248)"?

H7248 in Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew- English Lexicon gives us these foreign words, and I transliterate them from Hebrew, rab-saris(H7249) and rab-mag. (2) The words are of Assyrian or Babylonian influence and “titles of As. -Bab. officers (that) are prob. loan words in Hebrew.” (3) Rab-mag could be a chief soothsayer (and I think that is the point that confused scholars), but BDB states this is equal to rab-mugi (chief of princes). OK, that gets me thinking in another direction, so here we go! BDB further states that rab-sarisis usually in Babylon chief of eunuchs, but it is equal to rabu-saresi, chief of the heads (the principal men). So, both titles could refer to government dignitaries that had little to nothing to do with astrology-sorcery.

Hmm! Are you beginning to get some light about this?

Chief of eunuchs (rab-saris) was also a minister or officer of the state, such as a general, governor, or prince. See the reference to the master or prince of eunuchs (sar-saris) (4) responsible for teaching a few selected children of Israel in all the learning and the tongue of Babylon. They, and Daniel was among them, were to be skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. (See Daniel 1:1-21.)

From that alone, we could surmise that the magoi from the East that came to visit Jesus could have been governmental leaders like the Hebrews that were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and later exalted to governmental positions overseeing his realm.

Do you remember that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream he refused to tell the magicians and sorcerers? He wanted someone to tell him the dream AND the interpretation. God gave Daniel the dream and its interpretation, something only God could do. With that supernatural event, proving that Jehovah God was the one and only true God, Nebuchadnezzar exalted Daniel and made him chief (rab) of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel 2:48)

It would make perfect sense that these magoi from the East were Hebrew dignitaries from the eastern lands where Babylon and many other cities existed during the time of Jesus. That could satisfy our search.

Did you know that there was a robust Hebrew or Jewish presence in those towns and cities of the East?

Though the info is relatively sparse compared to other timeframes, some kings, queens, and whole areas seemed to have converted to Judaism. See references to the conversion to Judaism from paganism of the Adiabene kingdom in the first century. In the account of the ancient historian Josephus in his writings the Antiquities of the Jews (Book XX: Chapter 2), it shows that there was a substantial Jewish population in the kingdom. It led to the establishment of a prominent rabbinic academy in Arbela.

There were Jews in many cities of the Parthian (Arcesid) empire. One prominent city with many Jews was Babylon. We know that not all Jews left Babylon after the return to the land of Israel under Ezra and Nehemiah. Synagogues and academies were established in many cities under the Parthian and Armenian Empires. This trend of an increasing Jewish population in the Eastern lands continued for centuries. The largest rabbinical academies were in the East. I am emphasizing this because students of the Scripture in rabbinic schools would have read and understood the prophetic Word about the star of the Messiah-King rising out of the land of Israel. It would have signaled the coming of this Anointed one, and the Jews would have sent their most able and learned leaders to investigate the matter.

Now, that makes complete sense to me, especially when you begin to see that the title rab was given to especially gifted rabbinic leaders or chiefs. Rab was the title of the Babylonian sages who taught in the Babylonian Jewish academies. The titles "Rabban" and "Rabbi" (the root word being rab) are first mentioned in first through fifth century Jewish literature in the Mishnah and the Talmud. The term was first used in the Mishnah for Rabban Gamaliel the elder, Rabban Simeon his son, and Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, all of whom were patriarchs or presidents of the Sanhedrin in the first century.

The word rabbi occurs fifteen times in the New Testament (in the NKJV) speaking about Jesus or others. Jesus was called rabbi in the first century, or I would say, THE Greatest of the Great Rabbis! That is important because, again, the root word of rabbi is rab.

All that leads me to believe that the magoi were not devil worshipping astrologers, but they were the most honored Jewish religious leaders from the East that knew the prophetic Scripture and came to worship the King-Messiah Jesus! Now that agrees with my heart in the Holy Spirit! That I can believe! I can now understand how the strict Jewish family of Jesus and all the Jews of Bethlehem saw nothing wrong with visiting Jewish religious leaders from the East worshipping the King-Messiah. It was all good!

Be blessed!

Notes:
(1) I downloaded this from Thayer's through the Mantis Bible Study app.
(2) BDB p. 916, 7248-49.
(3) Coded to Strong’s Concordance numbers, p. 913, and see 7227 for both rab-mag and rab saris.
(4) Daniel 1:3, 7 and look up the two tiles rab-saris and sar-saris in CWS. Rab-mag and rab-sarisis also found in Jeremiah 39:3, 13. These titles referred to Babylonian princes.
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