Three kings not Jewish

They came. They saw. They gifted.

That’s about all we know of the foreign visitors who traveled to Bethlehem to see the infant Jesus.

The scene ingrained in the public imagination – a stately procession of three kings in turbans, crowns, elaborate capes and fancy slippers, with an entourage of servants and camels trailing behind – isn’t from Scripture.

In fact, there’s no evidence in the Gospels that the Magi were kings, or even that there were three of them, much less that they sidled up to a manger on dromedaries exactly 12 days after Jesus’ birth.

Only the Gospel of Matthew mentions “wise men from the East” who follow a star to Bethlehem. In the original Greek, they were called magoi (in Latin, magi), from the same root that gives us the word magic. It’s been posited they were astrologers or members of a Persian priestly caste.

But what matters more than their exact number and status, say historians and Biblical scholars, is the fact that they were not Jews.

“For Matthew, the magic star leading the wise men to the place of Jesus’ birth is his way of saying what happened in Jesus is for the Gentile world as well,” says Marcus Borg, professor of religion and culture at Oregon State University and co-author of the new book “The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth” (HarperOne, 272 pages, $22.95).

After being warned in a dream to avoid the murderous King Herod, the Magi returned home “by another road.”

Metaphorically, that suggests they were transformed by their experience. While Matthew doesn’t say they converted to Christianity, popular legend holds that they were baptized by St. Thomas and died in Armenia in 55 A.D.

Their kingly designation echoes biblical passages in Isaiah and the Psalms, in keeping with the belief that Jesus’ birth was predicted in the Old Testament.

Prophecies foretold gifts of gold and frankincense, two of the three gifts the Magi brought. The third, myrrh, was a burial spice, which some believe foreshadowed Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Some scholars portrayed the wise men as representatives of the three races of man as descended from Noah’s sons – Semitic, Indo-European and African – which is why one is sometimes pictured as a black man.

In the sixth century, a Latin document recorded their names as Gaspar (or Caspar), Melchior and Balthazar, though different names exist in other languages.

By the time their relics arrived at the Cologne cathedral in 1164, the Magi were venerated as saints, and festivals sprang up to honor them.

A 14th-century report of an Epiphany play described costumed “kings” riding through Milan on horseback with a large retinue, similar to contemporary three kings parades in Latin America and in Latino communities in the United States.

In American culture, they play an integral part in the Christmas story, cropping up in songs and often stealing the show in pageants.

William Studwell, a retired professor at Northern Illinois University and an expert on Christmas carols, chose “We Three Kings of Orient Are” as one of two “Carols of the Year” for 2007 to mark its 150th anniversary.

He recalls his own Magi days fondly.

“It’s one of the only things I remember about third grade,” he said, “being one of the kings.”