Post on "Who Were the Magi?" for Daily Episcopalian

This past month, before Christmas and up to an including last week, the Magi have been in the headlines. I had no idea that for some they shore up masculine images in scripture. Wouldn't everybody agree that their focus is on the baby as the object of their journey and not themselves? Aren't they in Matthew to indicate the significance of Jesus for the Gentile world and to provide a contrast to Herod both in demeanor and actions? Anyway, here's my post for the Feast of the Epiphany 2008.



To complement the post on Episcopal Cafe, here are examples of multiple Magi from East and West: the first is an Adoration of the Magi from the Hastings Hours 1470, published/produced in the Netherlands and the second is an Armenian illustrated manuscript of the Nativity originally published/produced in Kharbi, 1317 both from the online collection of images from the British Library.