When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, many think the wise men who came to worship Jesus were astrologers. We can see this in the way they were portrayed.
(Matt 2:1-2) Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
Who are these wise men?
The same Greek word for ‘wise’ is used in the New Testament in another occasion which is translated as ‘sorcerer’ along with ‘false prophet’.
(Acts 13:6) Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name [was] Bar-Jesus,
This leads many to wrongly conclude that these wise men were astrologers. However, these wise men are neither sorcerers nor false prophets.
(Num 22:7) So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the diviner‘s fee in their hand, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak.
(2Pet 2:15-16) They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the [son] of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
Magi is simply a term used in those days to refer prophets from other lands just like Balaam was referred as a diviner and not a prophet, even though he is a prophet of God.
Even if these words doesn’t convince you, let’s see the Bible once again.
(Matt 2:12) Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
God neither show His signs nor speak in dreams to false prophets. These wise men are the true prophets of God from the East.
Where did they come from?
The very word magi which causes many to identify them with astrologers, magicians is the actual clue.
The meaning of the word Magi is very uncertain and varies from a follower of Zoroastrianism, member of a tribe, priest, magians etc., but one thing is very certain that the word ‘Magi’ is of Persian origin which is exactly at the East of Israel. During the time of Jesus, Persia was ruled by Parthian Empire.
Conclusion
No longer let us call the wise men as astrologers or magicians. Nor does practicing astrology an excuse using these wise men. They were prophets of the living God from Persia, who came to worship Jesus Christ. They could be most likely Jews prophets, descendants of those who did not return to Jerusalem during the period of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Like the Roman Centurio in Matthew and Luke who Jesus praised for his faith, MORE faith Jesus himself said to have experienced in whole of Israel. Or the Roman Cornelius in Acts who had an encounter with an Angel of God. Or the Ethiopian who worshipped the “Jewish” God and was baptized by Philip also in Acts. The Jews are really not that special. God could also had chosen other people to be his prophets or do his works. The Parsism has a prophecy about a Saviour figure to be born from a virgin. We can acount the “Denkart” in which this is written back to the 9th century BCE, while we see when we compare Masoretic and Septuagint Texts, that the Jewish did not even had a canon in Jesus times, were the New Testament cites most Septuagint (for example the Isaiah Verse in Luke 4). The Christian Canon was made already in the third century CE, a first attempt was made in about 130 CE by Marcion who – although he was a Heretic – had already a Evangelion followed by Apostolic letters, like it is today. And this just ONE hundred years after the death of Jesus! This is REALLY exceptional. The Masoretic text was finally fixed 1009 CE – LONG after the Christian Bible. But today the Jews live in the Masoretic text and NOT the better proofed (by the Qumran founds 1947) Septuagint Text. The Temple lies in ruin since 2000 years. The Church of the Nativity was built 326 CE and is still standing 1700 years later. I see nothing special about Judaism. According to Jewish Law applicable to the first century CE, a man must have a JEWISH father to be Jewish. This we can see also in the Genealogies of Matthew and Luke. So Jesus was NOT a Jew. Not at all. Jesus can be a world saviour and Son of God as the creator of the universe without Judaism. It is obsolete for 99% of this world population. We know that killing people or stealing from them is bad without a Jewish Law or Commandment for that. I see nothing special about Jews. Really nothing that makes them so exciting good people. But Jesus was an exciting good person, because of what he SAID and also of what he DID.
It is true that Jews weren’t special. In fact, they were the least of all peoples (Deut 7:7-8). But what makes them special is that, God loves them as in the mentioned verse in Deut. And salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22).
Jesus isn’t Jewish because He didn’t have a Jewish father but God as His father (Luke 2:49; John 5:17-18) is like stating that he isn’t the Son of David which He Himself posed the question to the crowd (Matt 22:45). But we know that He is the Son of David, He is the King of the Jews. It is also like saying Jesus can’t be a priest because He wasn’t from the tribe of Levi but we know He is our High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.