The announcement by a star of the promised Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem was a celestial event for the world to see. Matthew’s account of the visit of the Magi introduces several important themes that appear later in his gospel.

In the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the characters who bear the title names were making every effort to escape from the posse led by lawman Joe Lefors and an Indian tracker called Lord Baltimore. Despite their best efforts, every time they looked back the white hat of Joe Lefors would appear on the horizon. When it did, Butch would turn to Sundance and say, “Who are those guys?”

We might be tempted to ask the same question about the men described in chapter 2 of Matthew’s gospel who came seeking the “one who has been born king of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2). They arrived in Jerusalem from the East, most likely from the Parthian Empire in Persia, and began their inquiry in King Herod’s court. Their arrival was doubly dangerous—it was dangerous because Jerusalem was the eastern edge of the Roman Empire and Rome and the Parthians were at war. It was doubly dangerous because King Herod was notoriously ruthless and murderous toward any contender for his throne. These “wise men”—rather unwisely, it would seem—came to Herod asking about the birth of the king of the Jews, saying, “We saw his star when it rose and (we) have come to worship him” (Matt. 2:2).

Who are those guys known as the wise men? One Christian tradition says there were three; another says there were twelve of them. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which may be the basis for the Western church’s tradition of three. They were not kings—this is a tradition that probably came from reading Psalm 72:11 into the account: “May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!” As Christmas traditions developed over the years, the Magi acquired names and later a song with a boy and a drum. These are familiar and comforting traditions, but they are not found in the text in Matthew, the only gospel that contains the account.

We do know something about “these guys” from Matthew’s gospel. Matthew calls them “Magi,” a Greek word from which our English word magician is derived. But they were not sleight-of-hand tricksters, which is what we tend to think of when we hear the title magician. Instead, these men were scholars of the priestly caste in ancient Persia and were well respected throughout the pagan world for their knowledge of astrology, medicine, and dream interpretation.

One member of this priesthood, who predated “these guys” by more than a thousand years, was the renowned Balaam of Pethor in Persia. His story is found in Numbers, chapters 22-24, near the end of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Balaam was widely known as a powerful diviner and seer, two ancient crafts steeped in astrology and the dark arts. Diviners like Balaam were employed to access the domain of the gods to request blessings and curses in the physical realm. Balak, King of Moab, hired Balaam to curse the Israelites who were poised on his eastern border attempting to enter Canaan.