E20 “The Three Wise Men: Who Were They?”

What if everything you thought you knew about the wise men was incomplete? The nativity scene is iconic, but the story behind those mysterious visitors is far more profound than most realize. Who were they really, what did they believe, and why did they travel so far to worship a newborn king? This episode peels back layers of history and theology to reveal a perspective you’ve likely never heard from the pulpit. 

Episode 20 of “Spiritual Hot Sauce” by Chris Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  

Transcript

Chris Jones: 0:00

Think of any nativity scene you've ever seen in your life. When did you not see the three wise men displayed? And if the display did not include the three wise men, did you feel like it was a scaled down version? Just a gesture? What if I told you the wise men didn't show up for twelve to twenty four months after the fact? And it doesn't say three wise men, it just says wise men. That when we put the nativity scene together, we use the archetypal number of three, the number of completion and synthesis. But all of that is just a minor footnote compared to who were the wise men. Welcome. I'm Chris Jones. This is where believers and skeptics alike are invited to embark on a journey of faith, philosophy, and life from a different perspective. Whether we are joined by an insightful guest or we just jump into the deep end, this exploration promises to challenge us all. Are we getting it right? This is Spiritual Hot Sauce. I listened to somebody speak one time and they were giving their hypothesis of who they believed the wise men were. Now they believed that because Daniel had been captive in Babylon, modern day Iraq, under King Nebuchadnezzar, that he was teaching and speaking about Jesus who was coming, the Messiah, and that there were people there that heard this and believed this, which started a movement that people were waiting for the Messiah. And then once Jesus was born, there were these wise men, part of that movement, that made the journey, the trek to go see the Messiah. But I gotta be honest, I don't think that's the way it happened. That just seems really unrealistic. I mean, I get why we would like a story like that, but I don't think Nebuchadnezzar would have ever tolerated such movement. Besides that, it says in the original Greek, magi. Now we often think of them as kings, but they weren't kings. They would have been a high-ranking class of priests and scholars from the East, likely Persia or Babylon, which is modern day Iran and Iraq. They would have been experts in astronomy and astrology, dream interpretation and ancient prophecies. Powerful men and kings would have surrounded themselves with these magi. In fact, our root word magic comes from magi. But don't kid yourself, they weren't doing card tricks and party favors. They were a combination of scientist, priest, and royal advisor all in one. To kind of help you get an understanding of what these guys were like, if you remember the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers, now he would have to go through a lot of terrible things and endure some wrongdoings, and ultimately he would end up in a prison. However, he had an amazing gift God had given him of interpretation of dreams and understanding what they meant, and he had given him wisdom. When the Pharaoh of Egypt found out about this, he was promoted to second in command. He was the prime minister who answered only to the Pharaoh. That kind of gives you an idea of who they are. These magi would have been the highest order of priest, and they come from a certain religion. And it's not Judaism. At that time, one of the most popular religions would have been Zoroastrianism. Now, Zoroastrianism is a very old religion. It's only two to five hundred years, though that number is debated by historians, younger than Judaism. Today, it's estimated that only 100 to 200,000 practice the religion worldwide. What once was the state religion of Persia is now endangered of going extinct. Now here's the challenge. I'm going to share some stuff with you that you're probably never going to hear in a church, but I think it's important because if the Bible is painting Zoroastrians, Zoroastrian priests in a positive light, what does that mean for our faith? And in addition to that, these are not the only Zoroastrians that appear in the Bible and that are spoken highly of. So most historians agree that King Cyrus was a Zoroastrian. And King Cyrus was prophesied in Isaiah that he would come and free them from being enslaved, which is strange because when he prophesied that they weren't enslaved yet. Isaiah calls him a Messiah, the anointed one, a savior. And in fact, King Cyrus would free them from the Babylonians. He would send them back to their homeland, and he would decree that their temple be rebuilt and restored. Now, though they never found the Ark of the Covenant, they did start building the temple, as decreed by King Cyrus. Now he wasn't able to finish it, but one of his successors found the decree and decided to honor it. That was King Darius I, and he would finish it and complete the second temple. The Bible speaks exceptionally highly of him, portraying him as the finisher of the temple project, a king who used his absolute power to protect and fund the worship of God. He is also a Zoroastrian. So I think it's important that we know who are these Zoroastrians and what do they believe? So it actually starts in another religion with a priest named Zarathustra, and sometimes people refer to him as Zoroaster. But he is a priest in this other religion, and he has a lot of problems with the religion that he's in. He sees the priesthood that he's a part of as serving itself instead of serving God. They're getting drunk, they're just kind of roaming the streets and expecting everyone to take care of them, and they're not really doing anything for anyone else. Well, he is getting ready for this ceremony, which means he has to go down to the river and collect water for this ceremony. And while he is at the river, he is encountered by a nine-foot shining being. We would probably refer to him as an angel. His name was Vohu Manah, which means good mind. Now, this isn't a regular visit. This has meaning. This is a purpose. Zarathustra is being tested Vohu Manah. And Vohu Manah asks two questions. Number one, who are you? And number two, what is your deepest desire? Now, how he responds is going to totally affect the outcome of everything. And Zarathustra answers. He replies, he is an enemy to the lie, and he is a friend to the truth. He stated that his deepest desire was to know the will of God, so he could help heal the world. Because Zarathustra answered from a place of good thought, Vohu Manah took him up where he received the visions that would become the Gathas, the holy hymns of the Zoroastrianism. Now Vohu Manah tells Zarathustra that he's going to introduce him to basically God in the Holy Assembly. But he tells him he's going to have to leave his physical body behind, that his body can't enter that plane. So he takes Zarathustra with him, and there he will meet Ahura Mazda, which is the supreme creator or supreme God who sits head of this council. Now there are six other beings that sit with Ahura Mazda. They are called Amesha Spentas, which means bounteous immortals. Now, while he is there, I think he comes into council one more time with Ahura Mazda, but he is given visions and prophecies of things to happen and what's happening with the world and what life is like in the afterworld. In Zoroastrianism, they believed in an afterlife, and they believed in heaven, and they believed in hell. Now there is another immortal called Angra Mainya. Now, Angra Mainya is constantly trying to get people to be deceived. He is trying to bring chaos and lies and disorder. He doesn't like humanity, and he's doing everything he can to get people to go to hell. Now he has created other demons to help him spread the deception, the chaos, and the lies, because again, he absolutely hates humanity and wants to see it suffer. How it works is like this. After you die, you go to what's called the Chinvat Bridge, which is also known as the Bridge of Judgment. Beneath the Chinvat Bridge is hell. If you make it across the Chinvat Bridge, you go to heaven. Now Chinvat Bridge isn't like a physical bridge that's there that you have to cross. Chinvat Bridge is exclusive to each person, and it's comprised of your good works, your good thoughts, and your good deeds, your good actions. So the idea is to create enough good works in life that once you get to the afterlife, you can create a bridge over hell to get to heaven. So as you walk on this bridge, it becomes narrower and narrower until you can't make it across and you fall into hell. So if you have enough good works, you're going to make it into heaven. But if you fall short, you're going to go to hell. And yeah, it is hell with fire where you cannot die. It is everlasting punishment. However, it's prophesied by Zarathustra that there is one coming named Saoshyant, and he will be born of a virgin. Now Saoshyant means he who has benefit or world savior. Now it's prophesied that he is going to come and he is going to defeat Angra Mainya, the evil one, and free all the souls from the hellish states that they're in. In other words, no matter if you didn't have enough to get to heaven and you went to hell, he frees everyone at the end and he puts the world back to being correct. He restores order and he sets it up for humanity where they are connected back to God as it is supposed to be, and he frees everyone from this everlasting punishment. So what does this mean? It means when they came to worship Jesus, they were coming to worship the Savior of the world. See, this is not them just going to pay tribute to who the Hebrews believe may be their Messiah. This is the foundation of their whole religion and their faith and their belief. This is everything to them. This is what they've been waiting for. It starts taking on a different meaning, doesn't it? Just from my perspective, I think sometimes we forget just how important Jesus is to so many different faiths and so many different religions, how so many people outside of Christianity see Jesus as the one. I think sometimes we get so hyper-focused on the religion that we forget the message. When you see in Matthew, where he writes about these magi, these Zoroastrian priests, this high order, they are coming from a far distance following the star that is leading them to the one that they have been waiting for, to recognize and pay tribute to Jesus as Saoshyant, the prophesied one that restores and reconciles us back to God. So the next time you see a nativity scene and you see those three magi, remember he's not just the Christian's savior, he's the world's savior. Thanks for joining me here on Spiritual Hot Sauce. I'd love to hear from you. So please reach out with questions, comments, and or concerns. And don't forget to like, subscribe, and review us. You can follow us on Facebook for updates and information. And if you enjoy the flavor of the sauce, then please share it with others. I would appreciate that. We'll see you next time.