Epiphany

Yesterday ended the twelve days of Christmas, so now we turn to a new season. Since the Church year is based off of events in Jesus life, the next one is the epiphany.

What is important about this day is that it is really the manifestation of Christ, who is God, to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. Thus Jesus was "A light to lighten the gentiles" (Luke 2:32), fulfilling the prophecy of the messiah being for all people from Isaiah 42:6.


No one is sure when they came, but Jesus was older than eight days old because he had been named, but less than two years old, due to Herod killing children under two after this. Also, this happened while Jesus and his family were in a house, not the manger, as the Bible states. Who were these Magi though? From Wikipedia we read:

"The word magi is the plural of Latin magus, borrowed from Greek μάγος magos, as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew ("μάγοι"). Greek magos itself is derived from Old Persian maguŝ from the Avestan magâunô, i.e., the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born. The term refers to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained 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, although Zoroastrianism was in fact strongly opposed to sorcery. The King James Version translates the term 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."

The western tradition has there being three wise men (each with their own early church names and legends). The idea that there were three comes from the fact that there were three gifts. However, powerful men, such as these probably would have traveled with an entourage. In the East, the tradition is that there are twelve of them. This is to symbolize the fullness of the gentiles to parallel the twelve tribes of Israel symbolizing the fullness of the Israelites.

All three gifts are ordinary offerings and gifts given to a king and/or a God. Myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable.
The three gifts also had spiritual meanings: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. This idea dates back to Origen in Contra Celsum: "gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God."  There is precedents for this since the Syrian King Seleucus II Callinicus is recorded to have offered gold, frankincense and myrrh (among other items) to Apollo in his temple at Miletus in 243 BC.

These interpretations are alluded to in the verses of the popular carol "We Three Kings" in which the magi describe their gifts. The last verse includes a summary of the interpretation: "Glorious now behold Him arise/King and God and sacrifice." Funny enough, the first line of the famous hymn, "We Three kings of orient are..." has everything incorrect. There were not necessarily three, they were not kings, and they were not from the orient.  Sometimes the gifts are described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.