Advent: The Magi and Marco Polo

In my last post, I took apart the Advent story of the magi, and that same day asked some friends if they had any insight into them.

My friend Holly, a former missionary to Gambia, sent me the following information about the three magi, which I thought worth sharing. It’s novel and informative and shares several ideas:

One thing, which I [Holly] have never heard in a sermon, is that their coming seems to have been in fulfillment of a prophecy. I love to read Isaiah during the Advent season, and I always notice Isaiah 60, which begins, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come”, especially verse 6:

The multitude of camels shall cover thee,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
all they from Sheba shall come:
they shall bring gold and incense;
and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord.

G. K. Chesterton suggested, in The Everlasting Man, that the Magi represented the subjection of pagan philosophy to Christ.

They also seem to symbolize both the fulfillment and the foreshadowing of the prophecy that the Gentiles would be saved through the Messiah. Listed as a cross-reference for Isaiah 60:6 is Psalm 72:10, “…the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts”, so perhaps the title of “We Three Kings” is more accurate than we give it credit for being.

Holly also noted another fascinating story:

The Magi and Marco Polo

Marco Polo apparently inquired about the Magi when he traveled through Persia, as related in The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian:

Marco Polo travelling, Miniature from the Book “The Travels of Marco Polo” (“Il milione”)

“Of the Great Country of Persia; With Some Account of the Three Kings.”
Persia is a great country, which was in old times very illustrious and powerful; but now the Tartars have wasted and destroyed it.
In Persia is the city of Saba, from which the Three Magi set out when they went to worship Jesus Christ; and in this city they are buried, in three very large and beautiful monuments, side by side. And above them there is a square building, carefully kept.The bodies are still entire, with the hair and beard remaining. One of these was called Jaspar, the second Melchior, and the third Balthasar. Messer Marco Polo asked a great many questions of the people of that city as to those Three Magi, but never one could he find that knew aught of the matter, except that these were three kings who were buried there in days of old.However, at a place three days’ journey distant he heard of what I am going to tell you. He found a village there which goes by the name of Cala Ataperistan, which is as much as to say, “The Castle of the Fire-worshippers.” And the name is rightly applied, for the people there do worship fire, and I will tell you why.They relate that in old times three kings of that country went away to worship a Prophet that was born, and they carried with them three manner of offerings, Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh; in order to ascertain whether that Prophet were God, or an earthly King, or a Physician.For, said they, if he take the Gold, then he is an earthly King; if he take the Incense he is God; if he take the Myrrh he is a Physician.So it came to pass when they had come to the place where the Child was born, the youngest of the Three Kings went in first, and found the Child apparently just of his own age; so he went forth again marvelling greatly.

The middle one entered next, and like the first he found the Child seemingly of his own age; so he also went forth again and marveled greatly.

Lastly, the eldest went in, and as it had befallen the other two, so it befell him. And he went forth very pensive.

And when the three had rejoined one another, each told what he had seen; and then they all marveled the more.

So they agreed to go in all three together, and on doing so they beheld the Child with the appearance of its actual age, to wit, some thirteen days. Then they adored, and presented their Gold and Incense and Myrrh.

And the Child took all the three offerings, and then gave them a small closed box; whereupon the Kings departed to return into their own land.

Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“How the Three Kings Returned to their Own Country”

And when they had ridden many days they said they would see what the Child had given them. So they opened the little box, and inside it they found a stone.

On seeing this they began to wonder what this might be that the Child had given them, and what was the import thereof.

Now the signification was this: when they presented their offerings, the Child had accepted all three, and when they saw that they had said within themselves that He was the True God, and the True King, and the True Physician.

And what the gift of the stone implied was that this Faith which had begun in them should abide firm as a rock. For He well knew what was in their thoughts. Howbeit, they had no understanding at all of this signification of the gift of the stone; so they cast it into a well. Then straightway a fire from Heaven descended into that well wherein the stone had been cast.

And when the Three Kings beheld this marvel they were sore amazed, and it greatly repented them that they had cast away the stone; for well they then perceived that it had a great and holy meaning. So they took of that fire, and carried it into their own country, and placed it in a rich and beautiful church.

And there the people keep it continually burning, and worship it as a god, and all the sacrifices they offer are kindled with that fire. And if ever the fire becomes extinct they go to other cities round about where the same faith is held, and obtain of that fire from them, and carry it to the church.

And this is the reason why the people of this country worship fire. They will often go ten days’ journey to get of that fire.

Such then was the story told by the people of that Castle to Messer Marco Polo; they declared to him for a truth that such was their history, and that one of the three kings was of the city called Saba, and the second of Ava, and the third of that very Castle where they still worship fire, with the people of all the country round about.”

Michelle says: I found the stories Holly dug up interesting. Marco Polo, of course, related many extraordinary tales about his trip from northern Italy to China and back in the fourteenth century, many of which defy rational thought.

Are the stories related here true?

Who can say?

But that Christ child’s followers have performed extraordinary acts ever since his astonishing birth more than 2000 years ago!

January 6, by the way, is the feast of the three wise men, Epiphany!

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