Epiphany

Luke 2:30-32 - Revised English Bible:

I have seen with my own eyes the deliverance you have made ready in full view of all nations;
A light that will bring revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.

I just love Epiphany, and indeed consider it a season unto itself whether or not the new calendar would. :) It speaks to me on many levels - a sense of awe, a thrill at 'revelation to the Gentiles' (and how incredibly extensive that would become within a short time after Jesus' lifetime), an indulgence of my taste for symbolism and for the exotic. I believe that Raymond E. Brown was one of the greatest scripture scholars of the 20th century, and have gone through his work on The Birth of Christ on many occasions, always enriching ones. Yet I do hope that he is mistaken about the tale of the Magi being expressive only of the greater truth (revelation to all) rather than an historical account. My intellectual side tells me, of course, that the theological truth is what really matters. Yet I'm sure that I am not alone in loving the images of wise men following a star.

My concentration in theological studies (and in my humanities degrees) was largely mediaeval and renaissance, though I fell in love with the patristic these past 10 years or so. I naturally love not only the tale of the Magi, but the embellishments in the apocryphal books, art, popular imagination. The idea that the 'three kings' came from Babylon, Persia, and Ethiopia, with 'dromendaries' carrying them at incredible speed, so that homage from ancient (pagan) nations could be given to the true King of Kings, is magnificent. Naturally, I love the symbolism of the gifts - to the prophet, priest, and king.

As was typical of my generation (baby boomer), I dabbled a bit in astrology during my young adult years. It is easy to forget, when one was of an era where ... princesses hired astrologers to help them plan their diaries and avoid problems, that, for ancient man, there was a terror of cosmic powers. Astrology was not a means to have romantic and 'protective' insights (as it would be for us latter day temporary Gnostics). The stars might be a source of knowledge, but they also 'ruled' - there was a concept of tyranny of cosmic powers which (as is clear in Colossians and some of the letters of Paul, as well as other very early Christian writing) it would take Jesus of Nazareth and the True God of Israel to dispel.

Given the tale of the 'three kings,' and I'm sure you'll excuse my indulging my literary fancy, I love this image of the 'old gods' taking the last moment of glory to lead the kings of great and ancient civilisations to the newborn Saviour. (That, within a few centuries, Rome would bow the lowest of all is another topic for another day.)

Sometimes, I need to shelve my intellectual emphases, just to become lost in adoration. I know that the chances of the visit of the Magi being, literally, exactly as Matthew presents this are about even with those of my winning a lottery. I doubt the Magi could have passed through Bethlehem or Nazareth unnoticed. The 'slaughter of the innocents' I could believe - even if Josephus did not mention this, Herod had often shown he was capable of such an action. Yet Herod was far too conscious of his own power to have let the Magi slip off to visit a rival king - unobserved, en route or afterward. (I'll confess that the implication that the Star led the 'kings' only to a general area, and that they assumed the kinglet must be Herodian, has an undertone of the rich, broad, Semitic humour one often finds in the Old Testament. Powerful though he was in a limited sense, Herod was far too unimportant in the larger scope of things for the heavens to take time to point to him - he had little taste for either the God of Israel or the 'old gods' - and I doubt Herod needed the cosmos on his side when he was so close with Marc Antony.)

The images are very powerful - I believe I'll rest in them for awhile, not understanding, merely offering praise.