Frank’s well-researched book on the ministry of the Magi
Those three Wise Men in the typical nativity scene are not what they seem. They were actually tough and courageous men of faith who overcame their own fears and doubts. outsmarted their scheming enemies, and survived the perils of a thousand mile journey. The arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem, just hours before the angel warned Joseph to flee to Egypt, was no coincidence. And their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh financed the family’s escape to Egypt.
At the time of Christ’s birth, the Holy Land was as unstable and unsafe as it is today, and the King of the Jews would find opposition from both his own people and their Roman rulers. Rome was indeed incredibly wealthy and powerful. Over the course of several hundred years, they built towering aqueducts to move water to their cities, and paved 50,000 miles of highways around the Mediterranean basin and across Britain, giving birth to the saying, “All roads lead to Rome.” If you doubt this, you may still hike some of these ancient highways today, over 2,000 years later.
In spite of Rome’s success, they were not the only world power. The truth is that Israel was merely a tributary state, the prize in a constant tug-of-war between two warring empires. You may have learned from your history books that Augustus Caesar, following his defeat of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, established his Pax Romana, a period of enforced peace and stability throughout the empire. And local Roman governors, like Pontius Pilate, were tasked with maintaining Augustus Caesar’s “Roman Peace,” even if it meant wiping out the populations of entire subject nations, as they ultimately did to Israel in 70 AD.
Rome faced the hatred of the Jews as well as possible invasion from their powerful enemy to the east. That may help explain King Herod’s determination to destroy any possible contender for his throne at Christ’s birth. And Pontius Pilate’s later behavior was also politically motivated, an effort to pacify and befriend the recalcitrant Jews over whom he was supposed to rule. Pilate’s desire to befriend the Jewish leaders, and his fear that the growing tumult might result in a Jewish rebellion, help explain his attempt to wash his hands of the matter during Jesus’ trial, ultimately surrendering the Lord to the Jews for Roman crucifixion.
Contrary to what most of us were taught in school, Rome did not dominate the entire world. Caesar ruled from the Holy Land for 1,500 miles west to the Britain Isles, while the mighty Parthian Empire dominated the lands eastward for 1,500 miles, all the way to the Indus River in India. In fact, Parthia conquered Palestine several decades before Christ’s birth, driving Herod out. And Parthia, not Rome, ruled the Holy Land until just 37 years before the birth of Christ, when Rome returned Herod to power.
Jesus was born at the eastern end of the Roman Empire in September, 4 BC, during the period that Augustus Caesar was the supreme leader of Imperial Rome, and his subordinate, Cyrenius was ostensibly governor of Syria. The second chapter of Luke tells us that a Roman named “…Cyrenius (Quirinius) was governor of Syria,” but in fact his control went no further than the Holy Land because most of Syria was ruled by Rome’s bitter and longtime enemy, Parthia. And Parthia had defeated Rome’s mighty legions in two major battles, the last just decades before the birth of Jesus.
One of those battles was fought at ancient Carrhae only 53 years before the birth of Christ. Rome’s seven legions were commanded by a general named Crassus. Known as “the richest man in Rome,” Crassus had been a political and financial patron of Julius Caesar, and played a key role in transforming the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Crassus was unscrupulous, and legend has it that he began acquiring his wealth by founding the first fire department in Rome, then having his firemen stand by while a man’s home or business burned, refusing to let his men fight the fire until the owner sold him the property for a pittance.
Crassus was an early governor of Roman Syria, and it was from from there that he launched his military campaign against the Parthian Empire. In the most crushing defeat in Roman history, the Parthian horsemen, who were outnumbered four to one, nearly wiped out the Romans. According to the historian, Ovid, it was one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history. Many of the sacred “Eagles” that were carried by the Roman legions were captured by the Parthians. They killed 20,000 legionaires, captured 10,000, and 5,000 took flight, with many of those dyiung from wounds and thirst. The Parthians captured the sacred Eagles that served as the battle flags of the legions, and Crassus himself was killed while trying to negotiate with the Parthians. The few that survived literally kissed the ground when they reached safety.
The Parthian cataphracts that terrorized the Romans formed the core of their army. They were horse archers, or cavalry, and they were the nemesis of the Roman legions. In fact, the Romans only began putting troops on horseback in an attempt to counter the Parthian supremacy. The Parthians were marvelous horse soldiers and were lethal with their bows and arrows. At Carrhae, for example, the Parthian General Surena just 1,000 cataphracts armed with lances, and 9,000 horse archers to stand against more than 35,000 men in seven Roman legions.
Then, eighteen years later, and just thirty-five years before the birth of Christ, Marc Antony also led an invasion of Parthia, but was forced to retreat after a series of humiliating disasters. It would be another 150 years before Trajan successfully invaded Parthia but only held Macedon for a brief period.
Our story, Saving Jesus, begins as the Apostle Matthew tells us, in the east, with the appearance of a fantastic star. The empire to the east, of course, was Parthia—formerly the Media-Persian Empire, and before that the Babylonian Empire. It was the appearance of that star that set in motion a chain of events that inspired the Wise Men to travel nearly a thousand miles, from the capital of Parthia all the way to Bethlehem, where they ultimately were used of God to help save the baby Jesus.
Perhaps the humble carpenter Joseph wondered at the Wise Men’s gifts of gold, and myrrh, and frankincense, but it surely became clear to him the very same night of their visit, for Matthew tells us, “When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up!’ he said. ‘Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.’ ” (Matthew 2:13). It was surely a miracle that the Wise Men delivered that wealth into the hands of Joseph just in time to save his family.
Did you ever wonder what happened to the Magi who, “…having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, … withdrew to their country by another route” (Matthew 2:12)? There were only two caravan routes back to Parthia, one to the north around the Fertile Crescent, which they had traveled to reach Bethlehem, and the other to the south and around the north end of the Persian Gulf. It would have been foolhardy to expose themselves to Herod’s wrath by traveling back through Jerusalem to return via the fertile crescent.
Which leads us to the question, “How much of this book is fact and how much conjecture?”
I have sought to frame this book around well-attested historical characters and events, but it remains a work of fiction.
Yet, Matthew’s accurate Biblical account inspires us to ask one question, a question which is at the heart of this novel:
“Why didn’t some faithful Jew who lived in Palestine provide the gold needed by the Messiah’s surrogate family to flee Herod’s wrath and make their escape to Egypt?”
Would non-Jewish wise men make a dangerous journey of nearly a 1,000 miles to worship the Jewish Messiah? If I interpret the New Testament Book of Matthew correctly, those wise men were used of God to save the Christ child’s life. For in bringing their gifts, they also provided the means that Joseph would require to escape with his family that very night, and to sojourn for years in Egypt.
The names of our three wise men—Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar—are a matter of legend or tradition, so it seemed suitable to use them here, but there were very likely more than three of them, and they would have traveled with a large caravan for safety.
The major historical characters behaved pretty much as I have described them. Most people have heard that Herod the Great ruled Palestine at the time that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Herod was not even a Jew but an Edomite, and the quality of his reign is still debated today. But his character should not be, for we know that he murdered many baby boys in an attempt to kill Jesus Christ.
King Phraates IV, of Parthia was little better. He murdered all of his brothers to secure the throne of that vast empire, and he was still ruling it in 4 BC at the birth of Jesus. And as I relate, Augustus Caesar, did indeed send Thea Musa—a former serving girl and concubine—as a gift to Parthia’s King Phraates, and Phraates was obviously so taken with her charms that he married her. She then induced him to send his four sons to Rome as hostages, which conveniently positioned her own son, by an earlier marriage, to become the next king. About the time of Jesus’ birth, Thea Musa murdered her husband, King Phraates, and married her own son. They served as co-regents for four years, but were ultimately deposed and fled to Rome.
The Book of Matthew tells us that the Magi, or Wise Men, came from the East. That suggests that they came from east of Jerusalem, from Parthia, for that is where the Magi had settled centuries earlier. Five hundred years before Christ, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had appointed the prophet Daniel ruler over all those wise men of Babylon, and I believe that the Wise Men who visited little Jesus were descendants of Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, advisers to the King Nebuchadnezzar.
I have the Magi come from the city of Tusbun, in the very heart of the old Media-Persian empires. Tusbun, also known as Ctesiphon, was the winter capital of Parthia, and its ruins lie about thirty miles north of the ruins of ancient Babylon.
If you are able to travel to the ruins of Ctesiphon (Tusbun), you may still view the huge arch which was part of the Taq Kisra Palace, the structure which my character, Melchior, feared to approach.
The caravan with which my wise men traveled from Tusbun to Jerusalem was relatively small by first century standards. You can read of actual caravans that had over 100,000 camels. The caravansarai, or caravan palace, was the Holiday Inn Express of that day. They were built along the trade routes from the Mediterranean to China. You may view photos of some of the more elaborate on the Web.
I have taken liberties, but this is a work of fictions, and much about that period is unclear and even disputed. All in all, I’ve attempted to provide you with an accurate historical background over which I’ve endeavored to paint my fictional characters, including Ben Hadad, Zimri, Darius, and, of course, Miriam and our three Wise Men—Belthazar, Melchior, and Gaspar. I trust that this well-researched fictional account of the Wise Men and their journey to the Holy Land will charm and inform every reader, and makes a great Christmas gift!
Saving Jesus is available at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
