What is the Three Kings really come from during the birth of Jesus?
Matthew, the only source for the story, never mentions kings, nor does he ever say how many there were. He simply says “magoi apo anatolön” which means “magi/magians out of the East.” The “Magi” (magoi) are not easily identified with precision. Several centuries earlier the term was used for a priestly caste of Medes (a people from northern Iran around the base of the Caspian Sea) who enjoyed special power to interpret dreams. Daniel (1:20; 2:2; 4:7; 5:7) refers to magoi in the Babylonian Empire. In later centuries down to NT times, the term loosely covered a wide variety of men interested in dreams, astrology magic, books thought to contain mysterious references to the future, and the like. Some Magi honestly inquired after truth; many were rogues and charlatans (e.g., Acts 8:9; 13:6, 8; cf. R.E. Brown, Birth of Messiah, pp. 167-68, 197-200; TDNT, 4:356-59). Apparently these men came to Bethlehem spurred on by astrological calculations. But they had probably built up their expectation
