Biblical Magi their authenticity. In the Eastern churches, Ethiopian Christianity, for instance, has "Hor", "Karsudan", and "Basanater", while the Armenian Catholics have "Kagpha", "Badadakharida" and "Badadilma". Many Chinese Christians believe that one of the magi came from China. The phrase "from the east" (ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν), more literally "from the rising [of the sun]", is the only information Matthew provides about the region from which they came. The Parthian Empire, centered in Persia, occupied virtually all of the land east of Judea and Syria (except for the deserts of Arabia to the southeast). Though the empire was tolerant of other religions, its dominant
Biblical Magi separate scenes of the Adoration of the Shepherds on the birth night and the later Adoration of the Magi to be combined for convenience. The single biblical account in Matthew simply presents an event at an unspecified point after Christ's birth in which an unnumbered party of unnamed "wise men" ("μάγοι") visits him in a house ("οἰκίαν"), not a stable, with only "his mother" mentioned as present. The New Revised Standard Version of – describes the visit of the Magi in this manner: The text specifies no interval between the birth and the visit, and artistic depictions and the closeness