In many early images, they appear to point or gaze at a star overhead. The magi advance in a line toward the child seated on his mother’s lap. It is difficult to discern the presents in the faded catacomb painting, but usually in art one of them carries a wreath and the others a bowl, jug or box-shaped object. 1 As in almost all the early images of the magi, they are shown as three men, identical in size, dress (although the color of their clothing varies in the catacomb painting) and race. The earliest extant portrayal (see photo of fresco from the Catacomb of Priscilla) of the magi, dated to the mid-third century, appears above an arch in the Catacomb of Priscilla, in Rome. Then they leave, having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, who has hatched an evil plot that will lead to the slaughter of innocent children, the weeping of their mothers.Īs shown in this photo, the painting appears above an arch in the oldest section of the catacomb, the Capella Graeca, which is lined with benches-perhaps for ancient funerary meals. Entering the house, the men pay homage to the babe and offer him gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Instead, the first gospel focuses on the journey of these eastern emissaries, who see an unusual star rising, interpret it as an omen that they should investigate, and follow its path first to King Herod of Judea and then to Bethlehem, where it appears to stop above a house in which a child had recently been born. In vivid contrast to Luke’s gospel, a Matthew omits any mention of Mary and Joseph’s trip to Bethlehem to be registered, a crowded inn, a sheltering manger, or watching shepherds startled by an angel’s announcement of the messiah’s birth. So opens the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the only biblical account of this nocturnal visit. “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the East came to Jerusalem asking: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we have observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” To understand how the earliest Christians interpreted the message of the magi, we must look to early Christian literature (theological treatises, sermons and poetry)-and art. The artistic evidence suggests that the early church attributed great theological importance to the story of Jesus’ first visitors-an importance not overtly stated in this enigmatic gospel account of omens and dreams, astrological signs and precious gifts, fear and flight. In art, the adoration of the magi appeared earlier and far more frequently than any other scene of Jesus’ birth and infancy, including images of the babe in a manger. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, the legend of the magi has fired the imagination of Christians since the earliest times. Sentiment gives way to awe, perhaps even fear. The background music changes from major to minor. The sweet domesticity of mother and child and the bucolic atmosphere of shepherds and stable are disturbed by the arrival of these strangers from the East. The magi lend an exotic and mysterious air to the Christmas story. The magi proffer precious gifts: a fine Chinese porcelain bowl filled with gold coins a censer (for frankincense) made of Turkish tambac ware (an alloy of copper) and a green agate vessel, presumably filled with myrrh. Joseph, Mary and the three magi gaze at the newborn babe in Italian artist Andrea Mantegna’s “Adoration of the Magi” (c.
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