[Vision2020] 12 Sage Kings and a Star Child

[Nicholas Gier]

Dear Visionaries:

For those who do not take the Daily News, my Christmas column is appended
below.  The full version is attached as a PDF file.

I would expect someone such as Larry Kirkland would say that the Revelation
of the Magi is nonsensical and unscriptural, but the decision to "close the
canon" was primarily political not spiritual.  I celebrate the Revelation
of the Magi as well as the Gnostic Gospels and the Dead Sea Scrolls.  All
of this ancient literature is fascinating to me as a religious scholar.

The title for the next column from The Palouse Pundit is "It was Torture
then, and It is Torture Now."  I start with the Inquisition going forward
and draw some interesting parallels.

For all those on the Vision and Beyond, have a Great New Year,

nfg

*TWELVE CHINESE SAGE KINGS AND A STAR CHILD*

By Nick Gier, The Palouse Pundit


Wait a little while, just under the star! Then if a child comes to you,
and if he laughs, if he has golden hair, you’ll know who he is.

—St. Exubery’s *The Little Prince*


 During part of my 1992 sabbatical in India, I had the great privilege of
sharing food and living quarters with “Saint Thomas” monks. These
Christians trace their lineage back to the Apostle Thomas, who allegedly
came to Southwest India and converted, without any interference from
Hindus, large numbers of Indians.  Until the Portuguese forced their
priests to swear allegiance to Rome at the point of their swords, these
good Christians reported to a patriarch in Syria.

As early as the Second Century, a Syrian Christian penned a remarkable work
entitled *The Revelation of the Magi*. The text relates that the Apostle
Thomas visited the Wise Men in their home country of Shir, “located in the
extreme east of the world, at the shore of the Great Ocean.”

A further reference to Shir “as a place where silk comes from,” leads us to
believe that the Wise Men’s country was China. The New Testament Greek
“magoi” is literally translated as “magicians,” but *The Revelation*
renders it as “those who pray in silence.”  Buddhist and Daoist monks
meditated in silence, and Syrian Christian monks prayed in silence as a
means to induce ecstasy.

*The Revelation* was well known and honored by Medieval Christians. The
great theologian Thomas Aquinas cited its authority in *Summa Theologica*,
and dozens of artists depicted details from the text in their paintings of
the sage kings.

The Gospel of Matthew leaves the number unspecified, but *The Revelation*
states that there were twelve Chinese kings. Matthew does not make the Magi
royalty, but in *The Revelation* they lay down their crowns when they bow
to the Christ Child.

In the *The Revelation* Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, predicted that
“a star of indescribable brightness will someday appear, heralding the
birth of God in human form.” Seth also relates that the star stood over the
Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, but it disappeared when his parents ate
of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Magi has a vision of a redemptive lamb
hanging on the Tree of Life (=Cross).

In China a Star Child appeared to the Magi in a mountain cave, and he told
them that he was to be born in a far away land. Hinting that there was more
than just Old Testament prophecy, the child declares that he will “fulfill
everything that was spoken about me in the entire world and in every land.”

The Magi set out on their long journey and the Star Child protected them
from danger and miraculously restored their provisions. When the Magi
arrived in Bethlehem, the star appeared as the Christ Child in a cave near
the house of Mary and Joseph. The early Church preserved a tradition that
Jesus was born in a cave, not a stable.

            Much ink has been spilled about the Star of Bethlehem as an
actual celestial event.  Was it a supernova or was it a conjunction of
planets? The latter lasts only as long as the planets converge in our
perception.

A supernova would move as the stars do, slowly through the cycle of the
heavens, not offering much specific direction. Furthermore, no heavenly
body stops suddenly and remains over a specific place. We are obviously
talking about myth not astronomical events.

According to modern cosmology, we are all made of star dust, so we are all
star children.  In this season let us adore all children, for as Unitarian
Sophia Fahs says, “Every night a child is born is a holy night.”

            Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of
Idaho for 31 years. Read the full version at www.NickGier.com/StarChild.pdf.
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