Sunday, February 20, 2022

George van Kotten on the Independence of the Magi Narrative in Matthew 2 and Isaiah 60:1-6

  

. . . the independence of the magi story from Isaiah’s description of foreign kings and presents in Isaiah 60:1-6 can be attested as follows. According to this Isaiah passage, foreign kings (βασιλεις) and nations are said to start walking “by the light” (τω φωτι) of Jerusalem (Isa 60:3) and has now dawned (60:1). The author doesn’t say that these kings come to Jerusalem, but that they follow its example. After he remarks that Jerusalem’s exiles will return to Jerusalem (60:4), it is stated that, apparently in their wake, “the wealth (πλουτος) of the sea and of nations and of peoples shall change over “to Jerusalem” (60:5). Examples of this transfer of wealth are then given, and consist in the arrival of herds of camels (καμηλοι) (60:5-6), which are probably primarily the mode of transport used in this transfer, and the actual bestowal of gold (χρυσιον) and frankincense (λιβανος), brought by people who come from Saba (Σαβα)  (60:6). (George van Kotten, “Matthew, the Parthians, and the Magi: A Contextualization of Matthew’s Gospel in Roman-Parthian Relations of the First Centuries BCE and CE,” in The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Experts on the Ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman World, and Modern Astronomy, ed. Peter Barthel and George van Kooten [Leiden: Brill, 2015], 614)