MAGI. This name has come to us through the Greeks as the proper designation of the priestly class among the Persians (Herod., i. 132, 140 ; Xenoph., Cyrop. viii. 1. 23 ; Plato, Alcib. i. p. 122 ; Diog. Laert., Frozen:. I, 2 ; Cicero, De Divin. i. 41 ; Apul., Apol. p. 32, ed. Casaubon, p. 29o, ed. Elmenhorst ; Porphyr., De Abst., 1. iv. ; Hesych. in verb. Bldryos). It does not appear, however, that Magism was originally a Persian institution ; and it may be doubted if in its original form it ever existed among the Persians at all.
The earliest mention extant of the Magi is in the prophecies of Jeremiah (xxxix. 3, 13), where men tion is made of Rab-mag, a term which, though regarded in the A. V. as a proper name, is a com pound of n and =, and signifies chief Magus, after the analogy of such terms as (chief eunuch), ric)V-z, (chief butler), etc. The mag of Jeremiah is the same as the col-Chakinzin (mpn n) of Daniel (ii.
48) ; the re;3v lEpe419 61" 1011l.46TaTOS OCS PaPathP101. KaXoOos XaMalous of Diodorus Sic. (ii. 24) ; and the cimuci-yos of the later Greek writers (Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. i. 13). This indicates the existence among the Chaldans of the Magian institute in a regular form, and as a recognised element in the state, at a period not later than 60o years B. C. In Jer. 1. 35, it is evidently the same class that is referred to under the designation of the `wise men of Babylon.' In the time of Daniel we find the institute in full force in Babylon (Dan. ii. 2, 12, 18, 24 ; iv. 3, IS ; V. 7, 8). From him we learn that it comprised five classes—the Chartummim, expounders of sacred writings, and interpreters of signs (i. 20 ; ii. 2 ; v. 4) ; the conjurors (ii. to ; v. 7, II ; comp. xlvii. 9, is) ; the phim, exorcists, soothsayers, magicians, diviners (ii. 2 ; comp. Is. xlvii. 9, 13 ; Jer. xxvii. 9) ; the Gozrinz, casters of nativities, astrologists (ii. 27 ; v. 7, II); and the Chasdim, Chaldean in the rower sense (ii. 5, to ; iv. 4 ; v. 7, etc. ; comp. Hengstenberg, Beitra:ge, i. p. 343, ff. ; Havernick,
Comment iib. Daniel, p. 52 ; Gesen., Thes., in voce.) So much was Magism a Chaldxan tion, that the term Cita/dawn came to be applied as a synonym for the class (Diod. Sic. ii. 29, ff. ; Strabo, xvi. p. 762 ; Diog. Laert., Proam. 1; Cic. de Divinat. i. 1; Curtius, Hist. iii. 3. 6; Joseph. De Bell. 7nd., ii. 7. 3 ; Aul. Gell., xv. 20. 2 ; Apul., Asia., ii. p. 228, etc.) Whether Magism was indigenous in Chaldma, and was thence carried to the adjacent countries, or was derived by the ChaldLeans from Assyria, it is impossible now to determine with any cer tainty. In favour of its Assyrian origin it has been urged that the word an is found as the name of the Assyrian Fire-priest (Movers, i. 64, 240), and that the priests of the Assyrian Artemis at Ephesus were called Meg-Abyzi (Strabo, xiv. p. 641). But on this nothing can be built, as we find the syllable Meg or Mag occurring in names and titles belong ing to other peoples, as illag-Etser (fire-priest), the father of Artemis among the Phoenicians ; Teker the Magus (on a Cilician coin), etc. When it is considered that the Chaldzean was the older nation, and that the Assyrians derived many of their religious beliefs and institutions from the Chaldmans (Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, i. p. 308 ; ii. 228), the probability is that they derived the institution of the Magi also. That the institu tion was originally Shemitic, is further confirmed by the Phcenician tradition preserved by Sanchu niathon (ap. Euseb., Prap. Evang., i. 10), that Magos was a descendant of the Titans, and, with his brother Amynos, made men acquainted with villages and flocks. It must be confessed, how ever, that the word has more obvious affinities in the Indo-Germanic than in the Shemitic tongues (comp. Sansc. mah, Zend megh, Pehl. mog, Pers. mugh, Gr. katty-as, etc.) ; but this can hardly be allowed to weigh much against the historical evi dence of the existence of the Magi in Shemitic nations anterior to their existence among those of the Aryan stock.