12 Chinese Sage Kings and a Star Child

12 Chinese Sage Kings and a Star Child

By Nick Gier | FāVS News

Wait a little while, just under the star! Then if a child comes to you,
and if he laughs, if he has golden hair, you’ll know who he is. 

St. Exubery’s “The Little Prince”

During part of my 1992 sabbatical in India, I had the great privilege of sharing food and living quarters with “Saint Thomas” monks. These Christians trace their lineage back to the Apostle Thomas, who allegedly came to Southwest India and converted, without any interference from Hindus, large numbers of Indians. Until the Portuguese forced their priests to swear allegiance to Rome at the point of their swords, these good Christians reported to a patriarch in Syria.

As early as the Second Century, a Syrian Christian penned a remarkable work entitled “The Revelation of the Magi.” The text relates that the Apostle Thomas visited the Wise Men in their home country of Shir, “located in the extreme east of the world, at the shore of the Great Ocean.” 

A further reference to Shir “as a place where silk comes from,” leads us to believe that the Wise Men’s country was China. The New Testament Greek “magoi” is literally translated as “magicians,” but “The Revelation” renders it as “those who pray in silence.”  Buddhist and Daoist monks meditated in silence, and Syrian Christian monks prayed in silence as a means to induce ecstasy.

Medieval Text: 12 Kings Came to Bethlehem

“The Revelation” was well known and honored by Medieval Christians. The great theologian Thomas Aquinas cited its authority in “Summa Theologica,” and dozens of artists depicted details from the text in their paintings of the sage kings. 

The Gospel of Matthew leaves the number unspecified, but “The Revelation” states that there were 12 Chinese kings. Matthew does not make the Magi royalty, but in “The Revelation” they lay down their crowns when they bow to the Christ Child.

In the “The Revelation” Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, predicted that “a star of indescribable brightness will someday appear, heralding the birth of God in human form.” Seth also relates that the star stood over the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, but it disappeared when his parents ate of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Magi has a vision of a redemptive lamb hanging on the Tree of Life (=Cross).

Star Child Guides Kings from China

In China a Star Child appeared to the Magi in a mountain cave, and he told them that he was to be born in a far away land. Hinting that there was more than just Old Testament prophecy, the child declares that he will “fulfill everything that was spoken about me in the entire world and in every land.”

The Magi set out on their long journey and the Star Child protected them from danger and miraculously restored their provisions. When the Magi arrived in Bethlehem, the star appeared as the Christ Child in a cave near the house of Mary and Joseph. The early Church preserved a tradition that Jesus was born in a cave, not a stable. 

Much ink has been spilled about the Star of Bethlehem as an actual celestial event.  Was it a supernova or was it a conjunction of planets? The latter lasts only as long as the planets converge in our perception. 

Star Dust Links All Children to Sacred

A supernova would move as the stars do, slowly through the cycle of the heavens, not offering much specific direction. Furthermore, no heavenly body stops suddenly and remains over a specific place. We are obviously talking about myth not astronomical events.

According to modern cosmology, we are all made of star dust, so we are all star children. In this season let us adore all children, for as Unitarian Sophia Fahs says, “Every night a child is born is a holy night.”