Epiphany: Three King Magi, The Wise Men

In Uruguay, we do not have a Santa on Christmas day. Well, we did not have one twenty years ago when I left my country and came to the USA. Maybe there is a Santa now, but the tradition still stays the same: the children receive their presents in their “shoes” almost two weeks after Christmas day.

The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning Christmas Day. This period is also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide. The Twelfth Night of Christmas is always on the fifth evening of January. The Twelfth Night is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany. “Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos" or “Three Kings Day”, celebrated on January the sixth, is called Epiphany, meaning manifestation of the divinity of Christ to the gentiles to all the ancient peoples who followed Christianity.

The custom of putting shoes on the eve of the Twelfth Night, or the first day of Epiphany, started in the Netherlands.  

In some countries, a child puts shoes instead of stockings. But there are other Latin American countries like Argentina or Puerto Rico that leave grass for the camels in the shoe boxes and the Three Kings leave their presents in said boxes.

Well, by now you must be asking, "Why in the shoes?"

According to legend... two playmates of the child Jesus were sorry to see him barefoot because of the poverty of his family, and they decided to give him his own pair of shoes. The children wanted them to be as clean as possible, so they washed their shoes, and left them on the balcony at night to let them dry, but the next day the shoes were discovered to be filled with gifts and sweets as a reward for their good intentions. The Magi that had been there that night had repaid for the compassion of the two children with candies and goodies. 

"The Three Kings" poem 

by Michael J. Urbonas

Over the desert,

Led by the Star,

Traveled three holy

Kings from afar.

Weary and long the

Way was for them,

Yet, with God's help, they

Reached Bethlehem.

There they found Jesus,

Lovely God-Child,

Mary and Joseph

Saintly and kind.

Here the three wise men

Humbly adored

Their heavenly King,

Savior and Lord.

Then their most precious

Gifts they unfold:

Myrrh and frankincense,

Purest of gold.

Offering all to

Jesus, whose love

Brought Him to earth from

Heaven above.

While preparing the Christmas decorations, my eldest daughter, with much care, started putting the Three Kings, or the Wise Men, in the Nativity set and she was totally surprised when I told her:  “No, don’t do that. Wait. Is not time yet to put them up;  they need to arrive after Jesus is born."

"Why do you say that?" my middle daughter asked.

 I sat and told them of the real history of the “Three Kings.”

We opened our Bible to Matthew 2 since it is the only Gospel that has reference to this episode in the Life of our Savior. At the time that we were looking at that scripture, I told them how I remembered that when I was little, my grandmother did not put the baby Jesus in the manger until Dec 25^th. Here in Memphis I have had the opportunity to work with some Mexicans and they had kept the baby Jesus completely covered and without clothes until Christmas day.

The Bible says

Matthew 2

¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

As you see it says 'After Jesus was born'. All the verbs are in past and they knew the King was born already.

The Magi are popularly referred to as Wise Men and Kings. The word magi is the plural of Latin magus, borrowed from Greek  magos, as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. Greek magos itself is derived from  the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars, and had an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic. Translated in the King James Version as wise men, the same translation is applied to the wise men led by Daniel of earlier Hebrew Scriptures (Daniel 2:48).

The same word is given as sorcerer and sorcery when describing "Elymas the sorcerer" in Acts 13:6–11, and Simon Magus, considered a heretic by the early Church, in Acts 8:9–13.

Why are they called Wise Men? Because, as said above, magi were priests, serving an ancient priesthood, astrologers, interpreters of dreams, and government officials who had the authority to elect the Parthian king. In the context of the times, because they served these roles and had such amazing knowledge of mysteries as these, they were considered to be the scholars of the day.

“Most Jews admired the Magi of the east. This was not only because of their former association with the prophet Daniel, but also because they were not idolaters. Though the Magi believed that the power of the deity was manifested in the natural elements of fire, water, air and earth, these Gentile priests did not set up material images in recognition of him. They were, in one way of looking at it, Gentiles who were leaning toward monotheistic belief”. (The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, art. Zoroastrianism, XII.862–868.

Isaiah 60:1-7 is a prophecy of the wise men since it speaks of kings coming to "the brightness of your rising" (60:3) and gifts of "gold and frankincense" (60:6). Others have viewed Psalm 72:10 as referring to the magi.

“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

"The key reason that took the Magi to Jerusalem was 'his star.' What star or heavenly body could this have been? As for the years of 5 and 4 B.C. there was nothing of astronomical importance that would have impressed anyone to journey to Jerusalem. But in 3 and 2 B.C the whole heavens burst forth with astronomical signs and wondrous displays. It may well be, that the celestial occurrences in this latter period of time were the very ones that prompted the Magi to go to Jerusalem.

It was one 'star' that intrigued them, though it must have been in some unusual relationship or aspect with other celestial bodies. The Magi were so impressed that they made their long, difficult journey to Jerusalem with costly gifts to present to the new king. After hearing their account, King Herod and all Jerusalem were equally persuaded that the “star” was significant.” (http://www.askelm.com/)

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

 It was clearly supernatural. For, according to Matthew 2:9, the star moved ahead of them until it was directly over the house where Jesus was and then stopped.

¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.

"So how old was Jesus then?"-- my daughters ask me. 

The Biblical information to direct us:

From Luke (2:21) we know that Jesus was circumcised at eight days old and from Luke 2:22-24, that when the forty days days of Mary's "uncleanness" had passed (Leviticus 12:14)  when they presented Jesus, their first born son in the temple in Jerusalem, according to God's Law (Exodus 13:2)

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Herod requests the Magi when they had first seen the star (Matthew 2:7) and on this basis later killed all of the male children in Bethlehem, age two and under (Matthew 2:16).

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

 ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

 The Wise Men came during the reign of King Herod, who died in 4 BC so Jesus was between 41 days and 2 years old when the magi arrived. The magi had to have come after Jesus' presentation in the temple, that is, after Jesus was 40 days old. Why? Because, Matthew's Gospel tells us that after the magi departed, an angel warned Joseph to flee to Egypt, since Herod would seek to kill Jesus. According to Scripture, Joseph left that very night and went to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15). This would have left no time or opportunity for the presentation in the temple, which we know happened. 

Are you putting gifts out for the family? Where did Epiphany gift giving come from? If we go back to the first Christmas story when God sent Jesus to earth, we know  that Jesus was given three gifts by the three wise men or Magi, which serve as the inspiration for our entire Christmas gift giving today.

The Magi ( the plural of magus)  offered Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts were prophetic for they spoke of our Lord us  King, Priest, and Savior.

GOLD:  It's a gift fit for royalty. It says to the Christ child, you will be a King.

FRANKINCENSE: The name for this resin likely comes from incense of Franks is also known as olibanum, which is derived from the Arabic al-lub ("the milk") a reference to the milky sap tapped from the Boswellia tree. Today we call it incense. Ancient people burned frankincense, believing it to take their prayers to heaven. Its use as incense shows  His role as our Priest.

MYRRH: This is perhaps the most mysterious of the Gifts. It is a resin produced by a small, tough, tree that rises in desert of North Africa and the Red Sea. Myrrh is an Arabic word for bitter, and it is considered a wound healer because of its strong .But its most distinguished use to them was that of an preservative used in Egyptian mummies as an embalming balm. It signified that He was born to die for the humankind. In fact, Myrrh was one of the burial spices of Jesus when you read John 19:39.

So the Wise Men came to Jesus with presents after his Birthday but they were not late. You are not late to give the most precious gift to Jesus: your heart.

If you have not done it yet, it is like a Christmas Party gift. Be “Wise" today.


Many people do not know is that the Epiphany marks the end of the true Twelve Days of Christmas, maybe you want to check the rest of the story.


12 twelve-days-of-christmas-rest-of-story.html

365prayingforyou@gmail.com  or to 365 prayer@famemephis.net


Maria P