(gr. "Magoi", from the old Persian "Magav", "great").
Name given to the wise men who came from the East to worship the baby Jesus (Mt. 2:1).
The Magi were a large priestly caste, which constituted one of the six Median tribes (Herodotus 1:101). When the Persians subdued the Medes, the Magi did not lose their influence. They tried in vain to seize the throne, suffering a horrendous massacre, but they soon regained their great influence (Herodotus 3:79).
The magicians worshiped air, earth, water and, above all, fire, whose worship was generally celebrated under roofs, where night and day they kept the sacred flame alive. The corpses could not be burned or buried, nor left in the water, nor exposed to decomposition in the open air, which would have contaminated one of the elements of their cult.
It is for this reason that they were abandoned to wild beasts or birds of prey (cf. Herodotus 1:140; Strabo 15:3, 20). The magicians raised towers, called towers of silence, equipped at the top with cross bars as perches, on which vultures and crows would perch, fulfilling their sinister function.
The priestly vestments of the magi consisted of a white robe and a tall felt turban with two pieces that hid the cheeks. They proclaimed themselves mediators between God and man, and they offered sacrifices (Herodotus 1:132; 7:43), and they interpreted dreams, omens, they claimed to be able to foreshadow the future (Herodotus 1:107, 120; 7:19, 37 , 113).
They diligently sought to kill all animals that came, according to them, from an evil creation (Herodotus 1:140). The foreigners paid less attention to their doctrines and their ceremonial than to their incantations. Little by little, the Greeks came to call any fortune teller who used the methods and spells of the East a "magician."
The Jew Barjesus was a magician (Acts 13:6), the same as that Simon who had deceived the Samaritans for a long time (Acts 8:9).
As for the wise men of Mt. 2:1, it is impossible to determine their number by the mere mention of their threefold gift; Nor can they be called kings applying Ps. 68:30-32; Isaiah 49:7; 60:3,10.
The question also remains whether they could have been of Persian origin, as a strict use of the term "magi" might indicate, or whether they could have been Chaldeans from Babylon, as a broader use of the same term might indicate.
The expectation, on the part of the Jews, of the Messiah called to reign over the entire world, was at that time known throughout the East; It is possible that this was what led some pagan astrologers to travel to Jerusalem after seeing a prodigious sign in the sky.
Meaning of MAGI
The Magi were a large priestly caste, which constituted one of the six Median tribes (Herodotus 1:101).
