Scripture presents the gift of God’s Son as a historic fact that demands a response. The coming of the Magi fulfilled ancient prophesies: “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Is. 60:3).  Matthew’s record of their interaction with Herod the Great roots the birth narrative in secular history. The second Person of the Trinity has surely come to earth as a complete Savior of his people.

By around the fourth century, the Christian church began commemorating (around January 6) the visit to Jesus by the wise men recorded in Matthew 2:1–12. The festival was called Epiphany (Greek, “revelation”), since it is in this text that we see Christ’s glory revealed to the world. Despite Luther’s attempt to retain the festival—to emphasize Christ’s baptism (and Christian baptism in general), Epiphany faded from a greatly pared-down Protestant church calendar by the end of the sixteenth century.  Regardless whether we pair the story of the Epiphany with a church holiday early Christians were right to find it significant.

To understand the story, we need to know that Matthew wrote his gospel of Jesus to a mainly Jewish audience. His genealogy traces Jesus’ lineage from Joseph through David to Abraham, demonstrating that Jesus is the Seed of blessing God pledged to the fathers (Gal. 3:15–18), the Son of David who would always sit on his throne (Ps. 132:11).  Jesus’ birth fulfilled Old Testament prophesies: “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1.23; Is. 7:14). In very brisk and sparse prose, Matthew confirms that Jesus is the promised Savior of God’s special people, so the sudden intrusion of gentile scholars into this Jewish story is deliberately jarring.

The Greek text calls them magi (NAS; NIV), eastern scholars who specialized in astrology and astronomy. Persia, Babylon, or Arabia are commonly suggested as their homeland. Daniel frequently refers to the Magi of the Babylonian Empire (1:20; 2:2; 4:7; 5:7); his word is alternately translated as enchanters, conjurers, sorcerers, or astrologers.[i]  In Matthew’s account Jesus’ first worshippers were Gentiles, not Jews.  But, rather than spoil the story, the Magi’s surprising visit confirms God’s old plan: through Abraham’s Seed “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3; 22:18), advances God’s story of world-wide flourishing and can shape how we worship Jesus today.

The Story of the Magi’s Visit

When Jesus was born, Israel was ruled by Herod the Great, a selfish and paranoid king who killed his favorite wife and two sons to protect his reign.

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