Biblical Magi Italian "presepio" or Nativity crèche. Further reading Biblical Magi The biblical Magi ( or ; singular: magus), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, were, in the Gospel of Matthew and Christian tradition, a group of distinguished foreigners who visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They are regular figures in traditional accounts of the nativity celebrations of Christmas and are an important part of Christian tradition. Matthew is the only of the four canonical gospels to mention the Magi. Matthew reports that they came "from the east" to worship the
Biblical Magi priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term "Magi" to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term "magic", although Zoroastrianism was in fact strongly opposed to sorcery. The King James Version translates the term as "wise men"; the same translation is applied to the wise men led by Daniel of earlier Hebrew Scriptures (). The same