Falling originally into violent conflict with the doctrine of Zoroaster, the Magian system came gradually to be incorporated with these doctrines, and Zoroaster himself came to be reverenced as, if not the author, the great reformer of the Magian order. From the first Magism seems to have had two sides, one scientific and one popular—the for iner directed to the pursuit of natural inquiry and moral speculation, the latter to the practice of the arts of the soothsayer and thaumaturgist (comp. Herod. i. 103, 120 ; vii. 19). It had thus a side on which it could find affinity with the theosophy and ethics of Zoroaster ; and to this it owed its chief strength and fame. The Magi became erelong a powerful body in Persia. Zoroaster had. claimed for the teachers of theology a place in the first rank along with kings and judges ; and when the Magi became identified with the teachers of theology, they assumed the place which had been allowed to them. They were divided into three classes—Her beds or learners, ./Wabeds or teachers, and Destur Mobeds or perfect teachers, a division which is re ferred to Zoroaster " They were the councillors of the sovereign, the administrators of justice, the viceroys of the king in his absence on any expedi tion, and to them was intrusted the education of the heir-apparent to the throne. It was, indeed, incompetent for any one to occupy the throne who had not been trained in the discipline and science of the Magi (Cicero, De Divin., I. 41 ; Plato, Ai d& p. 122 ; Philo Jud., De spec. legibus, p. 792, ed. Hoeschel ; Dio Chrysostomus zn Bery sten ; Agathias, Hist. ii., sub init.) But whilst Magism presented a side which linked it to speculative thought, its other side tended ever to degrade it to the level of vulgar superstition and interested trickery. Philo, who in one of his writings (Quad omnis probus tuber, p. 876) speaks of the Magi as investigating the works of nature from a desire of knowing truth, and as devoting leisure to the study of the divine perfections, and to the initiating of others therein, in another place (De special. legg., p. 792), after exalting them as the companions and councillors of kings, goes on to say, that from the corruption of their art pro ceeds that KaKorexpia which begging priests and conjurors practise to the delusion and injury of the more susceptible and ignorant portion of society. It was under this more debased form that Magism chiefly presented itself to the Jews and to the Greeks and Romans. Hence, in the Rabbinical writers, the Magus appears almost invariably as a person whose arts are to be denounced and avoided, and whom to follow is to incur the most serious risk (Otho, Lex. Rabbin. l'hilol., p. 402) ; whilst, by the classical writers, with the exception of those who could appreciate the speculative side of their pursuits, the Magi are invariably spoken of as de ceivers, mischievous and abominable (Sophoc. Oed. Tyr., 387 ; Hesych. sub vote; Tacit. Ann., ii. 27 ; xii. 22 ; 59 ; Plin., Hist. Nat., xxv. 9 ; xxvi. 4 ; xxx. 2, etc.) These considerations will prepare us to find the term Magus used, sometimes with an honourable and at other times with a discreditable reference. In the LXX. we find it used for the Heb. conjuror, magician, and also for ?ill, an inter preter of sacred things. In the N. T. we have it also in both references ; in the latter in the case of Barjesus and Elymas (Acts xiii. 6, 8), to whom may be added Simon, who is described as using sorcery (Acryei;wv), and as putting the people beside themselves by his magical arts (res p.cryetals radvat ain-ok, Acts viii. 9, r) [See under these names] ; in the former in the case of ' the wise men' from the east, who came guided by a celestial luminary [STAR IN THE EAST], to pay their homage to the infant Saviour (Matt. ii. t, ff.) That these Magi were men occupied in the observation of the heavenly bodies may be inferred from their being attracted and guided by the star ; that they came from a considerable distance is probable from the length of time they appear to have spent on their journey (comp. ver. 16) ; and that they were sincere searchers after truth, and men on whose minds divine revelation had, through some channel, shed some of its rays, seems clear from the fact of their having engaged in such a journey at all. Be
yond this, however, little can be said with any certainty regarding them. Whence they came, what was their precise object in coming, and at what time their visit was made, are questions which have been variously answered. From the usage of the term draroX-4 or dvaroXal, as a local term, nothing can be concluded, for we find it, both in the LXX. and the N. T., used not only with re ference to different countries (comp. Num. xxiii. 7 ; Gen. x. 3o ; Job i. 3) ; but, in the most general way, for the portion of the world lying to the east of Judma (Matt. viii. 11 ; xxiv. 27). The fact that the terms Magi and Chaldmi are sometimes used as synonymous has led some to fix on Babylonia as the country whence these Gentile worshippers came ; others, observing that the gifts they pre sented consisted of Arabian products, have con cluded that they came from Arabia ; others sup pose them to have been Persians ; others Bactrians ; and there have even been found some to contend tor their having been Brahmins from India, a supposition in favour of which some very plausible arguments may be adduced. As nothing certain, however, can be advanced, the subject is best left in that indefiniteness in which the evangelist has stated it. As to the object which induced these Magi to undertake this journey, some have sup posed that they were Jews living in the east, who were waiting for the hope of Israel, and came to Jerusalem to offer their homage to Jesus as the Messiah ; but this view has not found many fol lowers. From their inquiring for the newly-born king of the Jews, and from the whole tenor of the narrative, as well as from the fitness of the case, most interpreters regard them as Gentiles, who appeared on this occasion as representatives of the Gentile world, to hail with fitting worship the ad vent of Him in whom all nations of the earth are to be blessed. The expectation of the Jews, that from their nation should go forth a world-king, was sufficiently known throughout the East to ac count for searchers after truth like these Magi setting out on such a quest as that which brought them to Jerusalem [JESUS CHRIST]. With respect to the time when their visit was paid, we must place it either immediately after the birth of Jesus, or on the occasion of one of the annual visits which Joseph and Mary were wont to make to Jerusalem after their return to Nazareth (Luke ii. 41). The narrative of Matthew, taken by itself, leads to the former conclusion ; but when we compare it with that of Luke, a difficulty arises, from his statement that after the presentation in the temple, Mary and Joseph returned to Galilee, to their own city Naza reth (ii. 39). As the presentation took place when Jesus was but a few days old, and as immediately after the visit of the Magi his mother and her hus band fled with Him into Egypt, it is certain that either the visit of the Magi could not have been paid at this time, or Joseph and Mary could not have returned immediately after this to Nazareth, as Luke says they did. The only satisfactory outlet from this entanglement is to suppose that the visit of the Magi was paid on the occasion of the first or second visit of Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem after their return to Nazareth. This falls in also with the statement that Herod caused all the children of two years old and under to be destroyed, which would have been a piece of needless cruelty if his object had been to secure the death of an infant only a few days old.
In the legends of the church these Magi are re presented as kings, and as three in number ; the former representation being founded on an arbitrary application of Ps. lxxii. To and Is. xlix. 7, the latter on the number of the gifts they presented. Other equally unauthorised and vain additions grew up around the narrative of Matthew during the middle ages, of which the reader will find an ac count in Smith's Diet. of the Bible, s. v. (Stanley, Hist. of Philosophy; Creuzer, Symbolik u. Mytho logic der Alien Pother; Midler in Herzog's Encyk., viii. 675, ff.)—W. L. A.