The Twelve Days of Christmas season officially ended
yesterday. The Catholic Church and Western
Christian denominations that borrow
its liturgical calendar observe the Feast of the Epiphany today. It is a fitting wrap-up for our annual Murfin
Winter Holidays Music Festival. In
the United States and some other countries,
the feast is now celebrated on the First Sunday after New Year’s Day which will be January 8 this
year.
Theologically it is a celebration of the revelation to the world of Jesus
as the fully human God the Son. As such it celebrates a facet of the Trinity. Little wonder that my Unitarian Universalists,
who deny the whole Three-in-one God deal, don’t make much
of the day.
There are several components of the revelation. The first is the visit by the Magi to the Child in Bethlehem—the announcement of the Holy presence to the Gentile world. Second is the baptism of Jesus in the River
Jordan by his cousin John, the half-mad preacher. Third is the marriage party in Cana
where Jesus was said to have performed his first miracles—proof of his divine power.
Despite the complexity of the multiple stories, in the West the Feast of the
Epiphany is largely all about those Magi. In fact, in most Latin American countries it is most commonly known as the Feast of the Three Kings, which sort of
diverts attention from the alleged star. On the Eve
the Magi are finally added to Nativity
scenes and on January 6, children
wake up to gifts from the
Kings. It was the main gift giving occasion of the Christmas season,
or at least was until ubiquitous Santa
Claus began invading traditional
cultures.
In Jolly Olde England the 5th was Twelfth
Night of Shakespearean fame. It
was a traditional time for mumming
and the wassail. The Yule Log was left burning until the
6th. It was also a day for playing practical jokes, similar to April Fool’s Day. Thus, all of the foolery in the Bard’s play which was
written to be performed on its namesake.
All of this gayety and mirth, was, of course, squelched
by those pesky Puritans and few vestiges of these traditions are still
celebrated.
Now about those alleged Kings…First,
it they existed at all they were surely not rulers of any sort. What we
know of them comes from the Gospel of
Mathew as described in the King
James Version:
2
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king,
behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in
the east, and are come to worship him.
3
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem
with him.
4
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people
together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
5
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the
prophet,
6
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of
Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
7
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them
diligently what time the star appeared.
8
And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young
child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship
him also.
9
When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw
in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young
child was.
10
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
11
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his
mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their
treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.
12
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they
departed into their own country another way.
Note that they are not identified
in any way as kings. They are said to be
from the East, so it is likely that they were meant to represent Persian priests or Asian astrologers. Nor
is any number set. The early church
sometimes used figures up to twelve.
Eventually the number was settled at three and totally un-Biblical tales sprang up around
them. They even grew names and origin
stories—Melchior, a Persian; Caspar, an Indian; and Balthazar from Arabia—perhaps from Yemen which then had Jewish kings.
The Adoration of the Magi by Carlo Dolci.
There is no reason to believe that
their visit fits neatly into the
later liturgical calendar twelve days after a mid-winter birth. In fact, the kind of Biblical scholars
who try to find historical accuracy
in the Bible think that the visit may have been up to two years after
the birth and that the Holy family
may have been in residence in Bethlehem for
that long. They infer this from
the fact that Herod ordered the massacre of all male children under two years of age, not just infants.
Then there is the issue of the Star. Of course, if you are a literalist,
you believe that an actual star either hovered over the City of David, or actually moved,
leading the Magi on their journey. But
those seeking natural explanations
for the phenomena have proposed various possibilities, most commonly a comet or the appearance of a near-solar system super nova. The
problem with either of these suggestions is that the very careful records
kept by Chinese astrologers make no note of either phenomenon in a five
year window around the time of Jesus’s presumed birth. And they surely would have noted it.
One explanation that has
gained some traction is that the Star was actually a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces, which is known to have occurred in 7 BCE, a little late for
the story but close enough for some. But
contemporary Babylonian records show
little interest in the event, and it does not suggest that the planets
converged closely enough in the sky to create a super bright object.
Then perhaps it was a UFO.
That will probably be a History
Channel two hour special next
year.
Or the Star and the Magi are all pious fiction and poetry meant to inform the understanding of the birth of the Messiah to the Gentile world. No mention of
the Magi can be found in the simple nativity story found in Luke.
Presumably the sudden presence of well-dressed strangers in
the stable would have been noted by those shepherds. And
why did they have to follow a Star when God apparently had no shortage
of herald angels to tell the
travelers just where to go.
But I don’t want to nit-pick a treasured story. After all,
much fiction can be truth in
a broader sense, or at least symbolic of
a truth.
Back to the Feast of the Epiphany. The Copts
and Eastern Orthodox also
celebrate the feast but on different dates dependent on their calendars. They also celebrate the incarnation of God in
Man but build their observances not so much on the Kings. They concentrate on the Baptism as the great announcement.
It was also much more celebrated in
the Medieval Western church as
evidenced by many pre-Renaissance paintings
of the Baptism and concerning Jesus’s relations with his cousin John.
But those virtually disappeared
signaling a change of Christology in
the Catholic Church. Emphasis on John and other earthy relatives of Jesus such as his siblings like James of Jerusalem seemed uncomfortably close to viewing Jesus as a
wholly mortal man, not a partner in
a godhead.
Anyway, there you have it—The Feast
of the Epiphany. Celebrate or not as you
choose.
We Three Kings author and composer the Rev. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
The song most associated with the Epiphany is, of Course, We
Three Kings of Orient Are. It was
written in 1857 by John Henry Hopkins
Jr., Rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He
wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant
in New York City at his alma
mater, the General Theological
Seminary. He published
it in 1863 in his book Carols,
Hymns, and Songs. It was the first American Christmas carol to achieve international popularity, as well as the first to be featured in Christmas Carols Old and New,
the prestigious and influential collection published in Britain in 1916 and was printed in the hymnal of the Episcopal Church.
Mediaeval Baebes, an English all female small chorus specializing in Baroque, Renaissance, and traditional folk styles with punk rock roots.
It has been recorded countless times. Among the loveliest of versions is this by Mediaeval
Baebes from their 2013 album Of Kings and Angels on Queen
of Sheba Records. The Mediaeval Baebes
are a British musical ensemble founded in 1996 by Dorothy Carter
and Katharine Blake and included some of Blake’s colleagues
from the band Miranda Sex Garden, as well as other friends who shared
her love of medieval music. The lineup often rotates from album to
album, and ranges from six to twelve members.
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