Questions about the background and personalities of the "wise men" (NOT kings) have fired the imaginations of Christians for over two millennia. Many have shaped new narratives to answer the fundamental question, “Who were the magi?” My favorite, written by Henry Van Dyke in 1895, is called The Other Wise Man.
But much earlier someone—whose identity remains unknown—wrote an apocryphal account of the traditional Christmas story that is attributed to the magi themselves. The Revelation of the Magi has been recently translated into English by Brent Landau, professor of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma, and is preserved in an eighth-century manuscript held in the Vatican Library.
"In the Revelation
of the Magi, there are not just three magi, as often depicted in early
Christian art (actually, Matthew does not tell us how many there were), nor are
they Babylonian astrologers.... Rather ... the magi (defined in
this text as those who “pray in silence”) are a group—numbering as few as 12
and as many as several score—of monk-like mystics from a far-off, mythical land
called Shir.... They are descendants of Seth, the righteous third
son of Adam and the guardians of an age-old prophecy that a star of
indescribable brightness would someday appear 'heralding the birth of God in
human form.'
"When the long-prophesied star
finally appears, the star is not simply sighted at its rising, as described in
Matthew, but rather descends to earth, ultimately transforming into a luminous 'star-child' who instructs the magi to travel to Bethlehem to witness its
birth in human form. The star then guides the magi along their journey,
miraculously clearing their path of all obstacles and providing them with
unlimited stamina and provisions. Finally, inside a cave on the outskirts of
Bethlehem, the star reappears to the magi as a luminous human child—the Christ
child—and commissions them to become witnesses to Christ in the lands of the
east."
