Where are the gifts of the Magi? How do the gifts of the Magi look? The relics of the Magi. The Magi are ...

The Synodal translation of Scripture, in particular the New Testament, introduces some confusion about the term "Magi". On the one hand, we are talking about people who came to worship the newborn Jesus Christ. They are mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (second chapter), and they are certainly positive characters. On the other hand, in the Acts, in the eighth chapter, it is told about a certain Simone who was engaged in the Witchcraft. Seeing that the indulgence of the Holy Spirit on a man allows him to do great miracles, he brought the apostles money, asking them to sell this gift. Since then, trade in church positions is called simony. Thus, the Magician, mentioned in the Acts, is a warlock trying to impersonate someone as great. In a word, a charlatan. So what does the "Magi" mean, what is the etymology of this word?

Holy Scripture and Church Tradition

Let's first clarify the complexity of the translation. If we look at the original of the Gospels written in Greek, the magov referred to in Matthew, the "Magi" - is Wise men, astrologers, interpreters of dreams, priests. The Hebrew translation is more severe: they are sorcerers, fortune tellers. Both Greek and Judaic interpretations converge in one: those who came to worship the Infant were not alien to magic and astrology. Therefore, they were led by their star, which appeared in the east. The Gospel does not mention either the exact number of delegations or their names. All this information relates to the church Tradition, and therefore can be questioned. But the witching of Simon mageu / w is also translated as "witchcraft", "casting", "casting spells." Do you feel the difference: wise men and a crook? Let's see what exactly brought the history of the worship of the Magi Tradition of the Church.

Story of Matthew

The evangelist is rather stingy for information. "Sages from the East" came to Herod and asked: "Where is the king of the Jews, because we saw His star?" Hearing about a possible competitor, Herod became agitated. He gathered a consultation from knowledgeable Torah scribes and people's sages, so that they pointed to the exact birthplace of the Child. They, having studied books and prophets, pointed to Bethlehem. And the wise men went there. They followed the star and found the baby in the manger and his mother. They bowed to them and brought Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came into this world, incense, gold and myrrh. Being warned in a dream by an angel, they did not return to Herod, but went to their lands another way. Everything, the end of the story. Why are these characters mentioned only in Matthew, and nowhere else? Biblical scholars claim that the message of this Gospel is directed to the Jewish population of the Roman Empire. It most frequently mentions the Prophets, and the entire first chapter is devoted to the genealogy of Jesus, although all Christians know that He is the son of the living God, and to Joseph of the family of David has nothing to do. In Matthew, the "eastern wise men" are the experts of the Hebrew Scriptures, who calculated according to the movement of the luminaries when the Messiah comes to earth.

Beautiful Christmas fairy tale

Christian tradition reinterpreted the Jewish myth of the coming of the King of Israel. First, the Church accepted that there were three wise men, according to the number of gifts. Further, she decided that the Magi were the three sides of the world that had abandoned paganism and had accepted the light of a new faith. Despite the fact that Matthew mentions mages from the East (Persia, Mesopotamia), the European tradition insists that together with Asia the Black African and Europe bowed to the Child. It is also believed that the new faith is subject to people of all ages. In many pictures depicting the adoration of the Magi, an African looks like a young boy, a European is a middle-aged man, and an Asian (sometimes he is portrayed as a resident of the Near East) is a gray-haired old man. This somewhat contradicts the Sacred Tradition of the Church itself, which in the eighth century decided that the sages were kings. One was owned by Arabia, the second by Persia, and the third by India.

The tradition of the Slavic nativity scenes is close to the biblical story. Some characters of this semi-Christian-semi-pagan theatrical performance are engendered by the folk original culture (Shit, Death, Jew), and some reflect the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (Herod, a soldier representing the royal army, an angel). Sometimes the whole action seems somewhat politicized (remember, at least, a den in the Kyiv Maydan in 2014), but always cheerful and with a happy outcome. Among the characters there are always biblical magicians who symbolize wise people of goodwill.

Rites of veneration

The celebration of Christmas in Western Europe and among us, the Eastern Slavs, differs not only in time (December 25 and January 7), but also in ceremonialism. The tradition of the Roman Catholic Church does not forget about the adoration of the magicians, whom she renamed "kings". Thus, three ordinary people began to symbolize the peoples of different continents who adopted Christianity. The Church came up with the names of the wise men who came to Jesus. They are Baltazar (an African youth), Melchior (a European in his prime) and Caspar, or Gaspar (an Asian of old age). In the early days of the year, in different European countries, people remember these three characters and are trying to recreate the gospel story of the coming of the Magi.

Especially it should be mentioned how the day of the Three Kings is celebrated in Spain. In all cities and towns of the country there are large or small street costumed processions. Melkhior, Kaspar and Balthazar, surrounded by a large suite, on horseback, greet the crowd and shower it with candy. On this day it is customary to give presents to all children, especially the smallest ones. Christmas Magi with a special scope are revered in Germany. And this is not surprising - after all, the relics of these three wise men, as the Church assures, rest in cancers in the Cologne Cathedral. But these processions consist of only children. They go from house to house, and everywhere they are generously endowed with sweets. And in gratitude, small petitioners scoop the mysterious letters "B + C + M" over the school door , supplementing this inscription with the indication of the year. The hosts do not erase it for many years, until there is no place left over the hospitable threshold. After all, the inscriptions mean that Baltazar, Kaspar and Melchior were under the roof of this house and met here with the most cordial welcome. For this dwelling received the blessing of the saints.

Gifts of the Magi - what is this?

Now let's talk about what the sages brought (or, as they are called, kings or magicians) to the Child Jesus Christ. The Evangelist Matthew indicates what these gifts were: first, a precious metal like gold, and secondly, aromatic resins - incense and myrrh. It is clear that all three gifts have a symbolic meaning. Otherwise, it becomes incomprehensible why a newborn baby needs all this. The meaning of the gifts of the Magi is also revealed in the Church Tradition. According to him, gold is a symbol of royal glory. Matthew is silent in what form the magi presented this precious metal - in bars, in the form of coins or some other. But Christ is the Heavenly King of all earthly rulers, and this is the fact that sages from the East wanted to mention.

Well, incense and myrrh are other gifts of the Magi? What does this mean? Aromatic resin incense was burned in pagan temples. In the symbolism of the people of that time, this incense was identified with something divine, not of this world. Presenting incense to Jesus Christ, the Magi made it clear that they perceive Him not only as the King of Glory, but also as the Son of the Living God. In Ethiopia and Arabia, trees grow, the bark and resin of which, after appropriate processing, is also an aromatic lapping. The very kind of plants is called "rosy incense", but the incense obtained from it is myrrh or myrrh. In the Judeo-Hellenistic tradition, this substance was used to mute the dead before burial. It was believed that this helped people traveling to another world. Gift of peace to the infant symbolized the future sacrifice that Christ will bring for people.

What happened to the relics then?

Despite the fact that neither Matthew nor any other evangelist mentions what happened to the magi after they returned to their land (in Mesopotamia), the church tradition did not think to forget them. The cult of veneration of the remains of saints, martyrs and saints appeared in the fourth century and developed extremely in the Middle Ages. The more relics, the larger the flow of pilgrims, and hence the greater the amount of donations. Guided by this simple logic, the Church undertook to develop a cult of the Magi and everything that is associated with them. It was proclaimed that sages from the East received baptism from the apostle Thomas and later took a martyr's end in their countries. Not surprisingly, the relics of the Magi were soon discovered. They found the empress of Byzantium Helena of Constantinople, as it usually happened to her, in a dream.

How did it happen that the remains of people who left Bethlehem to the East suddenly appear in the Byzantine (now Turkish) city of Sheva? Matthew does not mention exactly where the native lands of the three magicians were, but an indication of this is contained in the Old Testament. The prophecy of Isaiah (60: 6) says: "All of them will come from Sava, and will announce the glory of the Messiah, bringing the gift of incense and gold." And in the Psalter (71:10) something else is written: "The kings of the islands and Farsia, Sava and Arabia will pay tribute to Him; And all nations shall worship him. " As you can see, the native lands of the wise (or the kingdoms of the three kings) lie far from Sheva. But the sacred tradition found a way out. There was a legend that at the age of one hundred and fifty years, every three of the three sorcerers met in Sheva to honor the memory of Our Lord. There they settled in peace. But the Christian community preserved the bones of the Magi and transferred them to Constantinople.

Journey of the relics

In Constantinople, the remains of the saints did not last long. Already in the V century they were worshiped in Mediolan, the capital of the Duchy of Lombard (modern Milan in Italy). In the twelfth century, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa conquered this territory and brought relics to Germany. Preserved written evidence that the relics were donated to Archbishop Cologne Reinald von Dassel, who in 1164 brought them from Italy first on carts, and then on a vessel on the Rhine. It is said that the construction of the highest Gothic cathedral was sanctioned by the desire to create a majestic "ark" for the imperishable remains of the three kings. And now the relics of the Magi rest in the reliquary, created by skilful master Nikolai Verdensky, in the altar part of the Cologne Cathedral.

But what then saw Marco Polo, who was in the late thirteenth century in Savva, a city south of Tehran? In his notes the traveler informs that he visited three nearby standing and beautifully decorated tombs of the Magi. The bodies exhibited there were not at all affected by the decomposition. This circumstance Marco Polo particularly stressed: "Like the recently deceased, with beards and hair." Unfortunately, these relics from Sawa were completely lost. And in Cologne, only the bones are stored. They are shown to the crowd only from a distance during the celebration of the day of the "Three Kings" (the sixth of January).

Where are the gifts of the Magi?

If with the relics of the three magicians everything is so ambiguous and questionable, then with their gifts the picture looks simpler. According to the legend, the Most Holy Mother of God preserved gold, incense and mira, presented to Her Son. Even before the Assumption, she gave these gifts to a small community of Christians in Jerusalem. When the apostles decided to go preaching to the Gentiles in all lands, the relics were transported to Constantinople. The frame for them was St. Sophia - a great temple, a sample of Byzantine architecture. But in the fifteenth century, Turks conquered Constantinople. Tsarina Mara, daughter of Prince of Serbia Georgy Brankovich and stepmother of the great conqueror Mehmed the Second, took out Christian relics from the Ottoman Empire and transported them to Athos. She wanted to hand them to the monks with her own hand, but on her way the Virgin appeared and asked not to violate the strict monastic regulations forbidding women to climb the holy mountain. Mara obeyed and handed the relics through her guard. There they are buried to this day, at the local monastery of St. Paul. And in place of the apparition of the Theotokos, a chapel was built.

The gifts of the three wise men are unquestionable sacred objects for all Orthodox Christians. Not all pilgrims can come to Greece to worship relics. On the holy Mount Athos there is a ban on visiting women monasteries and monasteries. Therefore, relics themselves make travel to their believers. For example, in December 2013 the Athos monastery complex, where the gifts of the Magi are preserved, blessed Father Nicodemus to accompany the shrines in their travels through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. There is a natural question about whether an ordinary metal, even precious, as well as incense, can work miracles of healing? In response, the monk Nicodemus refers to the passage from the Gospel (Matthew, chapter nine, Mark's fifth, and Luke's the eighth), which refers to a woman who recovered only by touching the edge of the Savior's garment. If such a force is possessed by the usual fabric of vestments, what power do they radiate from objects that were once touched by the hands of Jesus and the Blessed Mary?

How the gifts of the Magi look, all Muscovites and guests of the capital could see first hand. The relics were put on Christmas holidays for worship in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Things directly related to the earthly life of Our Lord are in ten precious, ornately decorated ark. They are twenty-eight gold plates of triangular and square shape. Each of them is decorated with a unique ornament, filigree. The relic is also a silver thread, on which are strung sixty-two beads, each the size of an olive, made from a mixture of myrrh and incense.

But believers from Ukraine were not fully able to make sure with their own eyes what the gifts of the Magi look like. They were delivered to Kiev in the second half of February this year, after they visited Belarus. The relics were displayed for public viewing in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (owned by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate). But in those days the Ukrainian people were just involved in the revolutionary events in Kiev, so not all were interested in the shrines from Mount Athos.

Difficulties of translation

The Synodal exposition of the New Testament brought confusion to the consciousness of ordinary Orthodox Christians. Mentioned in the Acts, Simon is a negative character who wants to buy with the money of the Holy Spirit to perform great miracles than he did before with a sorcery. Why, then, should we honor the magicians who came to worship at Bethlehem? The very word "vlhv" in the Old Slavonic dialect means a magician, a magician, a witch. Let us not go into the etymology of this term. Whether it happened from the word "hair" or "vlessni" (to speak vaguely, to mumble) - it is not important. Let's take a closer look at who were the wise men of Ancient Rus.

Not only on our lands, but also in other parts of the world, pagan religions revered "knowledgeable people". They were well versed in herbs, black and white magic, astrology, they knew how to predict the future. It was a special caste of priests who were engaged in conducting religious rituals, fortune-telling, prophesying, and drawing potions and treating patients. We can say that the Celtic tribes of the Magi were called druids. Representatives of this peculiar spiritual caste occupied a rather high position and enjoyed great prestige among the people. For their advice, as well as prophesies, the Grand Dukes came (remember, for example, the Prophetic Oleg or Gostomysl). What's there to say! Some of the princes of the Polovtsian dynasty also owned the gift of magic. Bryachislav Izyaslavovich defended pagan priests from the persecution of Yaroslav the Wise. And his son, Vseslav Bryacheslavovich Polotsky, was born of a sorcery. He spent his entire life wearing the "veil" in which he was born as a talisman. If you believe "The Lay of Igor's Host", Vseslav was a werewolf, possessed methods of obsession and knew how to guess.

With the adoption of Prince Vladimir by Christianity, the Slavic Magi began to undergo repression. Particularly zealous was the Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav the Wise. Around 1010 he destroyed the temple of Veles. In his place the prince built the city of Yaroslavl. Gleb Novgorod and Jan Vyshatich also took up arms against the Magi. Doctor of Historical Sciences I. Ya. Froyanov believes that in this struggle the opposition of the old pagan beliefs of the Slavic people and the new religion is visible. After all, Christianity was "descended from above," imposed by secular authorities. Written sources mention wizards until the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, in particular in Pskov and Novgorod. But gradually the meaning of the word "Magus" is transformed. In the days of trouble, churchmen called religious dissidents, heretics, attributing them to magic, communicating with demons, causing crop failure and loss of livestock. In peacetime, the magicians were called folk healers, healers.

Modern Neopaganists

At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, after the discrediting of the Orthodox Church, many people appeared in our country who ranked themselves among the neopagans. These wise men of Russia actively conduct preaching and publishing activities. They are religious authorities and priests of their communities of believers. At the same time, in the pages of magazines and newspapers, you can read a lot of announcements about sorcerers and sorcerers who drain wax, remove the crown of celibacy and the like. The Russian Orthodox Church regards the activities of both of them as objectionable to God, since all the enchantments and magic are warlocks. But let's be lenient. If you analyze historical sources, and take into account the opinion of art historians, then the holy gifts of the ancient Magi carefully preserved by the monks on Mount Athos are nothing more than a fiction. Why?

Written testimonies do not mention the gifts of the Magi as relics until the eleventh century. Around 1200 the Archbishop of Novgorod Antony visits Constantinople and writes that in St. Sophia there are golden vessels that "brought the Lord with the gifts of the Magi". The first mention of the present form of gold - as we recall, gold plates - refers only to the fifteenth century. Having studied the ornament and the technique of filigree performance on them, art historians came to the conclusion that they once constituted one ornament - a belt adorned with post-Byzantine scandium. The time for making jewelry is the 15th century.