If, like the wise men, you travel to Bethlehem for Christmas, you’ll be confronted by a political minefield. Bethlehem is in Palestinian territory, and the Israelis, like Donald Trump, wanted a wall. The difference is, they went ahead and built it.
The wall snakes through the middle of Bethlehem, confining the Palestinian population, restricting their movement and forcing them through passport control and security checkpoints.
While the names of the players may have changed, the political tensions in the region are as old as the Old Testament. You may remember from your Bible stories that David went out with his brothers to fight the Philistines. Some linguists believe the word “Palestinian” is descended from the same root as “Philistine.” If you like, the descendants of David and Goliath are still at war.
At the time of Jesus’ birth, the political situation in the area was just as tumultuous as it is today. At the turn of all time, Rome controlled the area through their puppet king, Herod the Great. The Romans had to keep the lid on a pot boiling with radicalism.
The Zealots were a Jewish sect intent on military insurrection while the religious Pharisees and members of the ruling Sanhedrin fomented rebellion subtly behind the scenes — hating both the Romans and their fake Jewish king Herod.
Meanwhile, across the Jordan to the East, King Aretas IV had just snatched the Nabatean throne. (The famous “treasury” at Petra is actually his tomb.) Aretas ruled over the immensely wealthy Nabatean realm covering most of the Arabian peninsula and therefore controlling the lucrative trade routes linking India and China to the Roman Empire.
To defend his territory, Herod had erected a secure border between the Southern tip of the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. Aretas IV’s trade caravans had to go through Herod’s customs posts and pay heavy tariffs to continue to the port of Gaza and from there to the rest of the Empire.
A few decades before the birth of Christ, Herod had waged war on the Nabateans and had been troubled ever since by bands of Nabatean bandits raiding across his Northern frontier. This political situation illuminates who the Biblical magi may have been.
In my book, The Mystery of the Magi – The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men, I show how — just at the time of the birth of Christ — Herod the Great and Aretas IV had both fallen into the emperor’s bad books. They sent an envoy to Rome who repaired Herod’s friendship with Caesar Augustus, but Aretas IV remained out in the cold.
Hearing from his stargazing advisors that there was a newborn king of the Jews — and assuming the child was a grandchild of Herod — Aretas IV would have had every motivation to send a diplomatic mission to Herod’s court at Jerusalem.
Who better to send than the sages and advisors from his court in Petra? Laden with luxurious gifts for the royal child, the successful mission would have restored good relations with Herod, made up with Caesar in Rome and opened the way for continued access across Herod’s territory to the port of Gaza.
It seemed to work, because Caesar reconciled with Aretas and within five years, Herod’s son married the daughter of Aretas.
According to the evidence, the wise men were not mystical magicians from Persia or beyond. By that time, the Parthians were in charge in Persia and the ancient sect of the Magi were a spent force.
At the same time, their power had grown in other kingdoms across the ancient world, and their religion (which was a blend of arcane Babylonian astrology, Arabian monotheism and Hebrew traditions) had become influential in the Nabatean kingdom.
The gospels were written in the culture and context of the same sort of religiously fueled political tumult that we see in the Middle East today. The story of the wise men was not originally a fairytale about wise wizards on a spiritual quest but about hard-headed diplomacy and shrewd political posturing mixed with religious fervor.
The magi would have come through the same tight border that still exists between Jordan and Israel and tiptoed through the same tensions, trigger fingers and saber rattling that echoes in Bethlehem today.
The magi must have arrived in Jerusalem from the neighboring Nabatean court with their servants, their entourage and their military escort. Their arrival was a major event and Matthew recognizes this. His gospel reads, “Herod was greatly disturbed at their arrival and all Jerusalem with him.”
No doubt the famously paranoid Herod wondered if they were, in fact, spies from Aretas IV or agents of some other potential usurper. That he plotted against them and they outwitted his plans indicates that the magi were well aware they were playing a dangerous game.
What is the moral of the story?
Perhaps at Christmas, we can lay aside the exotic fairytales about the magi and allow a more historical and gritty tale to take their place.
We also might just try to see that the Christ child is the Prince of Peace and that somehow, the infant in the Bethlehem manger may still hold the key to peace in the Middle East, if we will only be wise and humble enough to take the risks to seek him out and pay him homage.
Dwight Longenecker is a priest and the author of The Mystery of the Magi- The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
