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    Journey To Bethlehem. New York: Harperone, 2010. X + 157 PP

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    Alessandro Mazzucchelli
    This document provides a book review of Brent Landau's Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem. The review summarizes the contents of Landau's book, which presents an English translation of an apocryphal text called the Revelation of the Magi. The Revelation of the Magi is part of a larger Syriac chronicle known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin. The review provides background on the Chronicle of Zuqnin and discusses previous scholarship on the Revelation of the Magi. It also analyzes and summarizes the key elements and narrative of the Revelation of the Magi text.

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    Journey To Bethlehem. New York: Harperone, 2010. X + 157 PP

    Uploaded by

    Alessandro Mazzucchelli
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    This document provides a book review of Brent Landau's Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem. The review summarizes the contents of Landau's book, which presents an English translation of an apocryphal text called the Revelation of the Magi. The Revelation of the Magi is part of a larger Syriac chronicle known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin. The review provides background on the Chronicle of Zuqnin and discusses previous scholarship on the Revelation of the Magi. It also analyzes and summarizes the key elements and narrative of the Revelation of the Magi text.

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    This document provides a book review of Brent Landau's Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem. The review summarizes the contents of Landau's book, which presents an English translation of an apocryphal text called the Revelation of the Magi. The Revelation of the Magi is part of a larger Syriac chronicle known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin. The review provides background on the Chronicle of Zuqnin and discusses previous scholarship on the Revelation of the Magi. It also analyzes and summarizes the key elements and narrative of the Revelation of the Magi text.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    100 views5 pages

    Journey To Bethlehem. New York: Harperone, 2010. X + 157 PP

    Uploaded by

    Alessandro Mazzucchelli
    This document provides a book review of Brent Landau's Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem. The review summarizes the contents of Landau's book, which presents an English translation of an apocryphal text called the Revelation of the Magi. The Revelation of the Magi is part of a larger Syriac chronicle known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin. The review provides background on the Chronicle of Zuqnin and discusses previous scholarship on the Revelation of the Magi. It also analyzes and summarizes the key elements and narrative of the Revelation of the Magi text.

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    The passage discusses a book reviewing Brent Landau's work translating and presenting the Revelation of the Magi, an apocryphal text found within the Chronicle of Zuqnin. It provides background information on the Chronicle and discusses Landau's presentation and interpretation of the Revelation.

    The Revelation of the Magi is an apocryphal text found within the Chronicle of Zuqnin, a Syriac chronicle. It recounts the journey of the Biblical Magi to visit the infant Jesus in Bethlehem.

    The text describes the Magi being guided by a celestial light to Jesus, sharing their miraculously replenishing supplies upon returning home which induce visions, and their preaching after being commissioned by Judas Thomas.

    Book reviews 294

    Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’’s
    Journey to Bethlehem. New York: HarperOne, 2010. x + 157 pp;
    hardcover. $22.99.

    KRISTIAN S. HEAL, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY


    This book presents an annotated English translation of a New
    Testament apocryphon. Landau’’s title, taken from the first words
    of the text’’s opening formula, is certainly more evocative than
    Witakowski’’s preferred Story of the Magi, which is based on the
    concluding formula, ““the Story about the Magi and their gifts is
    concluded”” (†ÌÙæÁ„ Íø áî† ¾üÍÅâ áîƒ ¿ÿÙïüš ÿãàü).1 The
    introduction to the volume (1––34) is cast as a personal story of
    discovery, a useful rhetorical device for presenting abstruse material
    to a popular audience.2 The conclusion (89––98) is followed by an
    appendix that gives a translation of the relevant portion of the
    related Opus Imperfectum in Mattheum (103––105). All in all, Brent
    Landau and his publisher have done an admirable job of turning a
    piece of philological research (Harvard ThD dissertation, 2008)
    into a book with broad and popular appeal.3
    The Revelation of the Magi is one of the many sources that
    comprise the well known (at least to readers of this Journal)
    Chronicle of Zuqnin, misattributed for much of its recent history to

    1 W. Witakowski, ““The Magi in the Syriac Tradition,”” pages 809––43


    in Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone: Studies in Honor of Sebastian P. Brock, edited
    by George Kiraz. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2008: here citing from page
    810.
    2 For example, in the introduction Landau relates how in his search

    for ““early Christian legends of the Magi …… [he] happened upon an article
    that mentioned the Revelation of the Magi. [He] asked around and was
    surprised to find that none of [his] colleagues had ever heard of it”” (7).
    That this may well say as much about the need for a Syriac specialist on
    the Harvard Divinity Faculty as it does about the obscurity of the text in
    question is not the issue. The strategy contributes to the successful
    creation of a compelling narrative.
    3 The thesis can be accessed at: http://ou.academia.edu/Brent

    Landau/Papers. A useful summary can be found in Brent Landau, ““The


    Revelation of the Magi in the Chronicle of Zuqnin.”” Apocrypha 19 (2008): 182––
    201.
    294
    Book reviews 295

    Dionysius of Tel-Mahre (d. 845). This important chronicle survives


    in a single manuscript, which was purchased for the Vatican
    Library in 1715 from Deir es-Suryan. Originally part of the
    Assemani collection, it is now found in the main Vatican Syriac
    fond as manuscript 162 (an opening of the manuscript adorns the
    endpapers of the Landau’’s volume).4 The Chronicle of Zuqnin is
    readily divided into four periods or parts, and not unsurprisingly it
    is the latter two of these, covering the period 488––775 CE, that
    have received the most scholarly attention (notably from Witold
    Witakowski and Amir Harrak). The first period covered in the
    Chronicle, from creation to Constantine, is comprised of extracts
    from a number of literary sources, including the Chronicle of
    Eusebius, the Chronicle of Edessa, the Life of Alexander the Great, and
    the Cave of Treasures. Amongst these quite well known texts is found
    the Revelation of the Magi (fols. 17r––25r).
    The first part of the Chronicle of Zuqnin was published by
    Otto Tullberg in 1851, and again in 1927 by Chabot (CSCO 91;
    Scrip Syr.43), with the Latin translation following in 1949 (CSCO
    121; Scrip Syr. 66). Though the composite nature and several of the
    sources that comprise the first part of the Chronicle are mentioned
    in the standard histories of Syriac literature, it is not until de
    Urbina’’s Patrologia Syriaca (§151) that the text on the Magi is
    mentioned specifically, most probably thanks to Monnert de
    Villard’’s 1952 study that incorporated an Italian translation of the
    Revelation of the Magi by G. Levi Della Vida.5
    Despite the secondary literature produced on this text in the
    past 60 years the Revelation of the Magi is still a very nice find for a
    scholar working in New Testament apocrypha, since it is entirely
    unnoticed in the standard handbooks of that field. Moreover, the
    text has a respectable claim to antiquity. The recent studies of
    Witakowski and Brock cautiously suggest that Monnert de Villard’’s
    early sixth century dating may be pushed back to the a fourth
    century, based largely on a single use of the feminine gender for the

    4 The Chronicle is treated in BO II.98––116, with most attention being


    given to a summary of the fourth part, and is briefly described in
    Assemani’’s Vatican catalogue (I.iii.328––29).
    5 Le leggende orientali sui magi evengelici. Studi e Testi 163. Vatican City:

    Biblioteca Apostolica Orientalia, 1952.


    296 Book reviews

    Holy Spirit in Thomas’’s prayer over the baptismal oil.6 Landau’’s


    own dissertation research suggests that the earliest strata of the
    work can claim a second or third century date——an assertion that
    certainly needs to be argued more rigorously if it is to receive
    universal acceptance.7
    The text itself is of considerable interest. After some prefatory
    material (Chapters 1––2), introducing the Magi, their names, their
    peculiar form of silent devotion and their homeland (Shir), the text
    transitions into a first person narrative in which the Magi reveal
    that they are heirs to prophetic sources that were transmitted from
    Adam, through Seth and Noah (3––4). These texts, kept in the Cave
    of Treasures on the Mount of Victories (4:1),8 prophesy of the
    appearance of a light, like a star, which will, sometime in the future,
    settle over the Cave of Treasures and lead those present to God
    incarnate. This tradition was passed down from generation to
    generation, partially through a series of rituals which are described
    in the text (5). Several chapters are then devoted to a long speech
    by Adam to his son Seth (6––10).
    The marvelous, visionary appearance of the Star to the Magi, is
    described in some detail. A pillar of light, brighter than the noon-
    day sun, descended and entered the Cave of Treasures, then
    concentrates into a human form (Jesus Christ), who then instructs
    the Magi——though they each recount a different vision after the
    event (11––14). After the Father announces the Son (15), the Magi
    are led by the star to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem (16-18). The
    infant Jesus converses with the Magi, telling them he was the light-
    figure they saw in the cave. 9 An angelic theophany (20) is followed
    by the infant Jesus blessing the Magi (21). The Magi talk with Mary
    and Joseph (22––23), then Jesus talks with and blesses Mary (24––25).

    6Sebastian P. Brock, ““An Archaic Syriac Prayer over Baptismal Oil,””


    Studia Patristica 41 (2006): 3––12, esp.
    7 Landau, ““Sages and the Star Child,”” 218. A terminus ante quem of the

    late fifth century was established by Monnert de Villard based on the


    dating of the Latin epitome found in Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum.
    8 There is no literary connection with the sixth century text known as

    the Cave of Treasures.


    9 Landau finds of the fact that Christ is not specifically identified as

    the Magi’’s celestial guide until after his birth to be especially significant
    (28––34).
    Book reviews 297

    The Magi return home, guided by the omnipresent light of Christ,


    and led by miraculously replenishing supplies (26). Once home, the
    Magi tell of their journey and share what’’s left of their supplies,
    which induce visions for all who eat them (27––28). Finally, we are
    told of the ministry of Judas Thomas in the land of Shir, preaching
    (29), blessing the baptismal oil (30), then baptizing the Magi and
    commissioning them to preach (31).10 The text concludes with the
    preaching of the Magi.
    This publication is an earnest of things to come. Perhaps the
    most important contribution it makes is to show that the Revelation
    of the Magi deserves to be liberated from the relative obscurity of a
    composite Syriac chronicle and allowed to stand on its own
    terms.11 The text certainly deserves closer study. In particular, it
    needs to be better situated within the context of early Syriac
    literature, not only with respect to the abundant corpus of Syriac
    apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and rewritten and dramatized biblical
    narratives, but also with respect to the works of the fourth, fifth
    and sixth century homilist that drank deeply from the early Syriac
    imaginative tradition (cf. the memre on the Magi by Jacob of Sarug
    and Isaac of Antioch, editions and translation of which are in
    preparation).12 Further work needs to be done on situating the

    10 I would argue that the generic use of the term ‘‘crucifiers’’ for the
    Jews in this last section suggests a fifth century dating (31:6), since I have
    only found the term used generically of the Jews in fifth century texts,
    such as Ps. Narsai, On Joseph, II.52, 63. References to ¾ÁÍߖ in the
    Ephrem corpus appear in Sermones III, II.445; III.209; Nachträge V.257;
    and Sermones in Hebdomadam Sanctum V.1105; VI.721, 1105; VII.341.
    However, none of these memre is considered to be genuine. This term is
    also used in the works attributed to Isaac of Antioch and Jacob of Serugh,
    as indicated by Murray (Symbols of Church and Kingdom, 41).
    11 Thus doing for this text what Martin (1876) and Wright (1882) did

    for the Chronicle of Ps. Joshua the Stylite, likewise extracted from the Chronicle
    of Zuqnin.
    12 Most of the relevant material is admirably surveyed on pages 111––

    117 in C. Jullien and F. Jullien, Apôtres des confins. Processus missionnaires


    chrétiens dans l’’empire iranien (Res Orientales 15; Bures-sur-Yvette / Leuven:
    Peeters, 2002). See also, Muriel Debié, ““Suivre l’’étoile à Oxford, inédits
    sur la venue des Mages,”” pages 111––133 in George A. Kiraz (ed.),
    Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone: Studies in Honor of Sebastian P. Brock,
    Piscataway, NJ : Gorgias Press, 2008.
    298 Book reviews

    work within an Iranian context, not only in terms of distinctive


    Iranian elements, but also in terms of the literature of Iranian
    Christians.13 Brock’’s interesting suggestions of Manichean
    influence also need to be fully explored.14 Finally, serious
    consideration needs to be given to the dating of the text. Careful
    analysis of a variety of linguistic, thematic and text critical issues
    need to temper the natural desire to date a text as early as
    possible.15
    I look forward to Landau’’s promised edition and translation of
    the Revelation of the Magi due to appear in the Corpus Christianorum
    Series Apocryphorum, which will doubtless prompt further work on
    this fascinating and important text.

    13 Cf. G. Widengren, Iranische-semitische Kultubegegnungen in


    parthischer Zeit. Cologne, 1960: 71––83.
    14 Brock, ““An Archaic Syriac Prayer””, 12, esp. n. 26.
    15 I echo David G.K. Taylor’’s note of warning in his careful

    discussion of the dating of the Himyarite Martyr texts (““A Stylistic


    Comparison of the Syriac Himyarite Martyr Texts Attributed to Simeon
    of Beth Arsham,”” in Le massacre de Najrân: Religion et politique en Arabie du
    Sud au VIe siècle, edited by Joëlle Beucamp, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet,
    and Christian Julien Robin. Paris, 2010).

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