Elizabeth Hicks, age 11, of Brockport, N.Y., for her question:
Who were the three wise men?
Their stately story has been handed down through the generations for almost 2,000 years. The Wise Men of ancient cultures were the priests and scholars of their day. They studied nature and the laws of nature and were history's first scientists.
Suppose you came from a backward world where the wonders of modern science were unknown. Radio, the telephone, TV and even trains would seem like works of magic. The history of our civilization began when a few members of an ancient tribe took time to think about and study the world of nature around them. They charted the starry heavens and learned to predict dramatic events, such as solar eclipses. The ordinary people thought their wise men performed tricks of magic.
The Three Wise Men of the Bible are sometimes called the Magi. And the word Magi is related to our words magic and magician. The Magi of old were the priestly caste of ancient Persia. Around 3,000 years ago they lived and studied in what is now Iran and the Middle East. To the scholars of the ancient world the most fascinating field was the study of the heavens, and the Magi were great astronomers.
Many early cultures sprang up in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean, and their Wise Men were within traveling distance of each other to visit and exchange ideas. The science of astronomy most likely began in Mesopotamia to the east of Palestine. The Wise Men of ancient Babylon mapped and charted the stars and planets through thousands of years before the dawn of modern history. They figured out the sequences of solar and lunar eclipses and many other natural events.
The Magi of Persia inherited the knowledge of the Babylonians and added some thoughts of their own. They were interested in people and the concepts of right and wrong that cause happiness and unhappiness in their lives. They looked and hoped for a time when people would seek their highest happiness by trying to live good lives. These were the Wise Men who sought a king to lead mankind to his highest hopes.
Through the years, even astronomers have been puzzled about the star in the famous story. Like most of us they tended to think of it as the magic of the Magi. Then our astronomers discovered some new facts. We suspect that Halley's comet, that star like wonder, paid one of its rare visits at the right time and in the right place to guide the Magi.
The Wise Men of early history thought of many things, though a lot of their thinking was confused and incorrect. But many of them were patient observers, and their records were accurate. It took thousands of years of patient, accurate recording to chart the movements of the heavenly bodies. These old records were needed by Copernicus and Galileo to figure out the true picture of the solar system. They were needed for Newton to solve the laws of gravity so that someday mankind could launch his spacecraft into the starry heavens.