Here's more on
Revelation of the Magi from Brent Landau's book (I've previously mentioned it
in a post in this thread).
Landau notes in the book (in the first sentence after the following subsection excerpt), the
Revelation's "narrative complexity matches almost any early Christian writing." [p.12]
Landau, Brent, 2010,
Revelation of the Magi, HarperOne.
.
THE STORY
The Revelation of the Magi, mostly narrated by the Magi in the first person, is a sweeping and imaginative work that begins in the Garden of Eden and ends with the Magi being baptized at the hands of the Apostle Thomas. These Magi are members of an ancient mystical order and reside in a semimythical land called Shir, located in the extreme east of the world, at the shore of the Great Ocean. The Revelation of the Magi says these individuals are called “Magi” in the language of their country because they pray in silence. The story implies that the name “Magi” is thus a play on the words silence and/or prayer, but that implication does not make sense in any of the most common languages spoken by early Christians. Despite this unsolved mystery, however, this description sharply distinguishes the Magi of this story from any of the most common ancient usages of the term magoi: these Magi are not magicians, astrologers, or even priests of the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism.
These mystics, who live in a mysterious, far-off land, as the Revelation of the Magi depicts its Magi, are the descendants of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. Seth was believed by many early Jews and Christians to be extremely pious and virtuous, so it is very fitting for the Revelation of the Magi to trace the ancestry of the Magi back to such an illustrious founder. The Magi inherited from Seth a prophecy of supreme importance for the world: a star of indescribable brightness will someday appear, heralding the birth of God in human form. Seth himself had learned about this prophecy from his father, Adam, since the star originally had hovered over the Tree of Life, illumining all of Eden, before Adam’s sin caused the star to vanish.
Every month of every year, for thousands of years, the order of the Magi has carried out its ancient rituals in expectation of this star’s arrival. They ascend their country’s most sacred mountain, the Mountain of Victories, and pray in silence at the mouth of the Cave of Treasures of Hidden Mysteries, where Seth’s own prophetic books are housed and read by the Magi. Whenever one of the Magi dies, his son or one of his close relatives takes his place, and their order continues through the ages.
All of this lore about the origins of the Magi and their prophecy has been narrated, we are told, by the generation of the Magi that was alive to witness the coming of the star. They have gathered together to ascend the Mountain of Victories, as was their ancient custom, but suddenly the foretold star appears in the heavens. As promised, the star is indescribably bright, so bright that the sun becomes as faint as the daytime moon; yet because the Magi alone are worthy of guarding this prophecy, the star can be seen by no one but them. The star descends to the peak of the mountain and enters the Cave of Treasures, bidding the Magi to come inside. The Magi enter the cave and bow before the star, whose incredible light gradually dissipates to reveal a small, luminous human! This “star-child” reveals to the Magi that he is the Son of God, but—and this is of crucial importance—never calls himself by the familiar names Jesus or Christ. Nor do the Magi themselves ever call him by these names, and the absence of these designations will provide us with a critical clue about the central message of the Revelation of the Magi.
The star-child instructs the Magi to follow it to Jerusalem so that they may witness its birth and participate in the salvation God has planned for the entire world. The Magi descend from the mountain, discussing excitedly what they have just seen. In the course of their conversation, however, they learn that each of them saw the star-child in a different form, with each vision representing a different time in the life of Christ!
They prepare a caravan and supplies for the lengthy trek, but thanks to the overwhelming power of the star, their journey proves to be truly extraordinary. The star removes any and all obstacles from their path, leveling valleys and mountains, making rivers passable on foot, and protecting the Magi from wild animals. The star’s light also relieves the Magi of their fatigue and continuously refills their food supplies. For the Magi, this vast journey from the eastern edge of the world to the land of Judea seems to have transpired in the mere blink of an eye.
The star leads the Magi into Jerusalem, where the city’s inhabitants puzzle at these exotic foreigners. Because the star is invisible to the inhabitants, they presume these visitors to be astrologers of some kind, since the Magi keep looking up at the heavens. The Magi’s encounter with Herod and the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem unfolds almost identically to the narrative of Matthew’s Gospel—one of the rare times that the Revelation of the Magi closely follows the story line of Matthew.
Immediately after the Magi hear the Jewish prophecy about the birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem, the star reappears to the them and leads them to a cave in the environs of the village. Just as upon the Mountain of Victories, the star enters the cave and beckons the Magi inside. Here the star transforms into a luminous, talking infant, whose “birth” is accompanied by unseen angels singing his praises. In a lengthy speech, the infant tells the Magi that their ancient mysteries have at last been fulfilled and commissions them to become witnesses to him and his Gospel for the people of their homeland.
As the Magi exit the Bethlehem cave, rejoicing at the fulfillment of their ancient prophecy, they are met by Mary and Joseph, who have suddenly appeared on the scene. In a very odd exchange, Mary accuses them of trying to steal her newborn infant, but the Magi assuage her concern by explaining that the child is actually the savior of the world and can be in many places simultaneously.
The Magi then begin their journey back to Shir, a trip that, through the awesome power of the star, transpires for them as quickly as did their travel to Bethlehem. The star’s light refills their food supplies even more abundantly than before, and when the Magi eat of these provisions, they again see their guide in a multitude of different forms. When they reach the borders of their homeland, crowds of their family members and kinspeople come out to meet them, marveling at the appearance and health of the travelers.
The Magi relate the story of their miraculous encounter with the star and subsequent journey to the people of Shir. They conclude their story by revealing to the people that they, too, can come to experience the presence of the star-child, whom the Magi claim is still with them—since he is, in fact, present throughout the entire world. The Magi present the people with the overflowing bags of food that the star has produced for them and invite them to partake. Those people who eat immediately see visions of the heavenly and earthly Christ, and thus many in the land of Shir accept the faith proclaimed by the Magi.
Thus far, the Magi’s age-old prophecy has been fulfilled: they have journeyed with the star, witnessed the birth of Christ, preached his Gospel to their kinspeople, and now remain in the light of Christ’s eternal presence. This would seem like a most fitting and fulfilling way for this story to conclude, yet the only copy of the Revelation of the Magi that we possess does not end here.
In a concluding episode that may not have been part of the original story (more on the reasons for this later), the Apostle Thomas comes to the homeland of the Magi on a missionary journey—presumably after many years have passed. The Magi hear of his arrival and come to meet him, telling him of their experience of Christ’s coming. Thomas recognizes that they have indeed had contact with Christ, and he relates to them his own memories of the ministry of Jesus. The Magi rejoice at what Thomas has said, and they ask him to initiate them into the Christian fellowship. When Thomas baptizes them early on Sunday morning, the heavenly Christ descends and administers the Eucharist, first to the apostle and then to the Magi. Thomas then commissions the Magi to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world, and the Revelation of the Magi ends with the Magi performing miracles and preaching.
Landau, Brent. Revelation of the Magi (pp. 8-11). HarperOne.
[Later, Landau notes] "the Thomas section is not at all concerned to avoid the name “Jesus Christ,” using it almost twenty times! Because of these reasons, I believe that the Thomas episode was a later addition to the Revelation of the Magi." [p.17]
.
" ... even if we were to grant that Matthew’s story of the Magi was based on an actual historical event, the Revelation of the Magi would not be a very strong candidate to have been written by the Magi themselves. True, the author of the Revelation of the Magi has carefully crafted this story and added levels of detail such that one might believe it to be the work of the Magi themselves. Once we closely inspect the story, however, it becomes clear that the author has used written sources—such as the letters of the Apostle Paul, the Gospel of John, and the Book of Revelation, to name a few ...
"In fact, the author not only used many of the earliest Christian writings in the New Testament. He seems to have used a rather obscure apocryphal Infancy Gospel that was likely written in the mid- to late-second century, a Gospel so obscure that it lacks an agreed-upon name!19 For the sake of (some) clarity, let us call it Infancy Gospel X. In Infancy Gospel X, the Magi come to visit the child Jesus at a small house[?]* outside the village of Bethlehem. Joseph—the main actor in Infancy Gospel X, as opposed to the narratives in Matthew and Luke, where he never says a word—proceeds to question these strange visitors about how they knew of the child’s birth."
Landau, Brent. Revelation of the Magi (pp. 18-19).
19 The Infancy Gospel that the Revelation of the Magi has used is preserved in medieval Latin and Irish manuscripts and is a lengthy expansion and harmonization of the materials found in the canonical infancy narratives, plus a number of traditions not found elsewhere
.
* in a couple of paragraphs Landau refers to the "Magi’s brief appearance
[in Infancy Gospel X] at the Bethlehem cave, not spread throughout the narrative as in the
Revelation of the Magi," ie. not at a house.
