Thematic articles

The Three Kings

The Three Kings, Fact or Fiction?

Keywords: Magi, Melchior, Epiphany 
According to tradition and religious art, three wise men were guided by a star to the place where Jesus was born. The visit of the Magi is celebrated on January 6, Epiphany. This festival takes many forms throughout the world and in several European countries, we share that day the galette. These representations of the Nativity they fall tradition or what the Bible really teaches? 

  
The Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi MI 523
  GIOVANNI DI FRANCESCO
Florence about 1459
  Denon 1st Floor Room 3
The Magi are mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew. This is not one of the kings, does not give them names and did not specify their number (Matthew 2: 1-12). The Greek word does not mean Magoi kings but "those who know the secrets of astrology." Strong circumstantial evidence shows that it was astrologers.
Justin Martyr, Origen, and Tertullian gave all the sense of the word. Modern Bible versions render it 'astrologers' in Matthew 2: 1,7 (The New Testament, Farrel edition, An American Translation, TMN). 

The Magi are mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew

The New Testament of Charles Williams translated
this term as "star gazers" and put this note: "that is
to say those who study the stars in relation to
the events of the earth. "And the Bible in French Exp,
they are" scholars who studied the stars. "

The Greek word does not mean Magoi kings
but "those who know
the secrets of astrology."

No numbers, no names, and not Kings

1810 registered the oratory walls of a villa located in the Litta family in a suburb of Milan named Greco Milanese, but in which there is little documentation, these three Luini frescoes are probably around 1520-1525.
Rigor and austerity of their spatial organization characteristic of the Lombard painting of the late fifteenth century, combine with an influence of Leonardo who
Luini must sweetness
expressions of his figures
and the delicacy of light.
Adoration of the Magi     MI 714 Bernardino LUINI
Luino?, 1485
Painted for a chapel Greco Milanese,
near Milan
Denon 1st Floor Duchâtel Room 2  
The Adoration of the Magi
 MI 592
BERNARDINO DA Parenzo
1475
H. 0.38 m. ; L. 0.56 m.
Entered the Louvre in 1863 Element of the predella an altarpiece which included
The Taking of Christ from
the former collection Borromeo. The arms, very worn, could not be decrypted.

Denon 1st floor living room 4 

According to Herodotus, who lived in the V th century av.n. these Magi were members of a Persian priestly class. They had the supernatural gift of predicting the future based stargazing. Matthew reports that these Magi came from the East. They could belong to one of six nations that formed the nation of the Medes. Subsequent investigations tend to Babylon central magism at its peak. Over time the word "Chaldean" became virtually synonymous with "astrologer". - Daniel 4: 7; 5: 7.11 
It is Origen (185-245) in his Homilies on Genesis,
who first fixes the number of mages three
based the three present offered. Many Fathers of
the Church, whose first Tertullian attributed
to the Magi the title of king.

It is Origen (185-245) who first fixes the number of mages three, based on the three gifts offered.

Number Three : Origen (185-245)

This is the reference to verses of Isaiah and the Psalms predictions (72: 10-11) that definitively establishes the tradition. Traditional names Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar appear for the first time in a manuscript of the VI th century. 
  Adoration of the Magi
   MI 316
  Charles de PIT Paris, 1636 - Paris, 1716 Sully 2nd Floor Room 33
This vast composition, marked by the memory of Veronese and Rubens, was painted for the decoration of the choir of Notre Dame, executed between
1715 and 1717.
  The complex, dispersed, still included a Nativity La Fosse (Louvre), and other scenes of the Virgin of life, by Claude-Guy Hallé, Jean Jouvenet, Louis de Boulogne, Antoine Coypel.
Adoration of the Shepherds
 inv 4988 1525 John GOURMONT Carquebut, around 1483 Richelieu 2nd Floor Cousin and Caron Room 9
Formerly described in the chapel of the castle Ecouen, built by the Constable Anne de Montmorency.
Burning a Nativity, bearing the monogram of Jean de Gourmont and the name of the city of Lyon, allowed to attribute this table and date it between 1522 and 1526 during his Lyon stay
In the iconographic tradition Gaspard, with Asian features, offers incense, Melchior, represented as an old bearded white, gold and Balthazar, willingly or effeminate black skin, myrrh. The visit of the Magi is celebrated on January 6, the day of the Epiphany. Everything suggests that the choice of that date was also influenced by a pagan birthday, that of Aion, god of time and eternity, of which Alexandria was celebrated the anniversary on the night of January 5 to 6

The day of the Epiphany, influenced by a pagan birthday ?

The biblical account does not indicate that the wise men found baby Jesus in a manger, as Christmas imagery wants. Matthew 2:16 reveals that their visit took place maybe a year or more after the birth of Jesus. Verse 11 states that they saw the child in a home, not in a stable (Chouraqui, Thompson, Osty). These representations of the Nativity therefore exceeded the fiction and the tradition of the biblical narrative.