Episode 124 - Unpacking The Armenian Infancy Gospel And The Magi’s World

A star that vanishes in Jerusalem, three emperors commanding twelve kings, and a caravan of twelve thousand soldiers converging on a baby in Bethlehem—this is not your mantelpiece nativity. We open the Armenian Infancy Gospel and find an ambitious attempt to harmonise early traditions about the Magi, weaving sources that echo the Infancy Gospel of James and the Revelation of the Magi into a single, vivid narrative.

We break down the hierarchy that reconciles “three” and “twelve,” showing how a trio of regional rulers—Persia or Central Asia, India, and Arabia–Ethiopia—could travel with subordinate commanders and vast retinues. That lens makes sense of Matthew’s note that “all Jerusalem” was troubled: a multinational procession at the city gates would rattle any court, especially Herod’s. We explore why Balthazar often appears as an African king, how Caspar maps to the Indo‑Parthian ruler Gondophares, and why Melkon’s origins may point east toward China and Tibeto‑Burman peoples remembered in Armenian and later travel lore.

Along the way, we examine the striking claim of a sealed testimony—traced from Seth through Noah and Abraham to Melchizedek, then via Cyrus to a chamber of treasures—revealing how early Christians anchored the Magi’s quest in a chain of guardians over sacred knowledge. We also touch on the Melchizedekians, whose concrete view of divine presence shows how wide the early imagination ran. The climax in Bethlehem overturns our quiet crèche: trumpets, songs, and disciplined crowd management as Joseph protects Mary while royalty kneels before the child.

If you’re ready to replace cosy myths with a panorama of empires, archives, and a star that leads and hides with purpose, this conversation is for you. Listen, subscribe, and leave a review—what part of the Magi story will you never see the same way again?

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Armenian Infancy Gospel
• 2:59 How Early And Why It Matters
• 6:59 Three Emperors And Twelve Commanders
• 12:59 Sources: James, Papias, Hegesippus
• 18:33 Identities Of Balthazar And Caspar
• 25:03 Melkon’s Origins And China Link
• 31:03 The Caravan That Shook Jerusalem

Transcript

Rev Dr PRB: 0:30

Well, welcome to the Christ Center Cosmic Civilization as we're continuing to examine the Magi. And this week we're going to look at something called the Armenian Infancy Gospel. And it's not perhaps quite as early as the revelation of the Magi. But PJ from the Global Church History Project is going to tell us why this. Well, how early is it? What translations of it do we have? Is it worth paying attention to, or is it just a later fabrication? So it only exists in an Armenian translation from the 6th century. So that's as late as it could possibly be. So that's kinda yeah, it can't be any later than that. So anything that's in here that people often think, oh, this is a very late medieval sort of idea, that has been pushed back a lot. So there's definitely that. It draws on it. What it tries to do is find as many different traditions about the early life of Jesus, about Mary and Joseph and all of that, and put it all together into a coherent narrative that's all agreeing. So that they've just tried to understand what really went on, and they've got their best sort of scholars to bring things together. So the revelation of the Magi that we've already looked at, that's one of the sources. And particularly interestingly, this Armenian infancy gospel is dealing with two traditions where you've got three kings, and then you've got twelve that we looked at last time, and the solution it has, so we don't know whether it came up with a solution or if it's using an earlier source, we don't know, but it's got a good solution, which is that you've got three sort of emperors of very big regions, and they've got like 12 commanders or kings underneath them, so that you've got a sort of hierarchy, and then you that means you get to the full 15 that people expect from the prophecy of Micah, so that works together quite well. Obviously, because of that prophecy of Micah, you think maybe that came first the idea that you got three and twelve, or maybe they thought, wait a second, that makes sense when you've got you know, who knows which way around it was, but that's kind of what it's doing a lot. So it's got a lot of there's another infancy gospel called the infant so infancy gospel of James, and a huge part of the Armenian Infancy Gospel is just directly from that because that may be first century, it may be second century, that's a very early one, so that's obviously going to be the basis for a lot of stuff. So this Armenian Infancy Gospel that we have it in translation from the 500s, so it can't be any later than that. It seems to be gathering together earlier material, and then you're saying some of that earlier material clearly is from say first century or second century. So as a whole, then the document is giving us an insight into very early traditions or even historical witnesses about the magi. And it's worth noting that there's loads of stuff we know was out there that we don't have access to anymore, like Saint Papias wrote his five tomes and then loads of other books, but he's got his five tomes commenting on the prophecies Jesus made. But you've also got St. Hegesippus the Nazarene, and he interviewed the family of God, and so when he gives descriptions of the Holy Family, when he says what they did and all of that, that's a family tradition, and you know, obviously people might exaggerate accomplishments, but then when it comes to Jesus, it's hard to. He always does the absolute best thing. So out there, at the time, very widely circulating was these interviews with the family of God, the great family family, yeah, the great grandnefews of Jesus through Jude and James and others. And that and that's interesting because people that we know that people talk to Mary and Joseph and this extended family at the time, but and so you would expect there to be records of these conversations and people saying, Oh, what was it like bringing up God and what sort of a kid was he? And like all those sort of questions. And we know, like Ignatius just openly says he wants to ask Murray those sort of questions. So the fact that there were historical accounts from the the Holy Family about the events that happened, of course there will be, of course there will be, and it it's always struck me as slightly strange if people say, Oh, I I don't bel I don't think any there was anything like that. Like, and you think, well, that that's extremely unbelievable that the nobody asked the holy family any questions at all about what had happened, or in fact, these magi, like, this would have been the bet the the greatest experience of their whole lives. So obviously they must have recorded something to do with it in journals or wrote letters saying, you know, hey, listen, you know, you want I've had an incredible experience. I've did this journey, and I met this kid who was God. You know, that obviously will have been written accounts. So well, when we get into this one, it starts on January the 8th, basically, with the Magi from the East arriving in Jerusalem, and they've been traveling for nine months. So they they were set off on their journey, really, at the time when Jesus is conceived, back in March, or I think the revelation of the Magi had them actually setting off on April the 1st. So they maybe needed a week to get all the stuff together and then set off. Here they're named as Melkon, King of the Persians, Casper, King of the Indians, Balthasar, King of the Arabians, and with them twelve commanders, each of whom brought a thousand soldiers with them. So the entire company is these three superior kings, under them twelve lesser kings, princes, generals, whatever. With them a thousand men, soldiers, Melkon is coming from Persia, Cas Caspar's coming from India, Balthazar from Arabia. PJ, what about that? And can we does this mean we just forget the China stuff that was in Revelation of the Magi? So I think we have to, yeah, we have to think this is a scholar at some point, maybe the third century, maybe the fourth century, trying to make sense of different accounts that have come down. And so as we said, we know there must be there must have been accounts from genuine interviews, and like Saint Higgest, of course, we all know he did interview the the relatives of God, but you know, well, yeah, so that there's that sort of stuff floating around. He's just trying to make sense of this, put this all together. So there are other sources who put these kings in different places. So Balthazar very often gets made the king of Ethiopia. So that was because Yemen, Arabia, Yemen, Ethiopia, they're all linked together, and and Midian is an example of that. Yeah. And they were one state at the time. So that's that's one where we look back and we're like, oh, it looks like there's a contradiction. But actually, as we study more, we find actually this was all one big empire. The uh carabate, you know, this was all yeah, one, and it stretched all the way down to Mozambique, so it's a huge sort of empire. That's one thing Arabia. So that's one of the things where we think, wait a second, there seems to be contradictions here. This guy might be doing a really good job. And that that fact that Arabia and Ethiopia are linked, you get that, don't you? Because after Muhammad, the Islamic colonialists are invading other countries and setting up their colonies. There's the Ethiopian emperor, isn't there, who tries to invade Yemen with an elephant army or something. What's that? Well, yeah, so that happened a bit before. Yeah, there was a Jewish king of the Himyarites, and he starts brutal persecutions of Christians. So the martyrs of Najran, he's responsible for that. He's called like the king with the locks because they get the side locks, right? So he does that, and then this Ethiopian Emperor, he so the Ethiopian Empire had just let Yemen do its own thing because there'd been a dispute and they'd fallen out, and they said, Well, just let them do that, and we won't. But they were like, This is too bad, we've got to intervene, kind of breaking with a lot of ancient laws and everything, but they're like, This is too bad. So they do go in, and so then it becomes much more centralized, the state, and then it is and it clearly shows that the linkage of the Arabian Peninsula with the Ethiopian Empire and so on, and all the Ethiopian emperors before that point, because Sheba is in Yemen, but all the Ethiopian emperors call themselves kings of Sheba and Agzum. Ah, so that proves it, yeah. So Balthazar, he's because he when we the models that are at St. John's Leighton Stone Church, where they'll have the nativity scene, they have him as he's a black African. So that's Balthazar, isn't it? On that scene. What about these other two? Melkon of Persia and Caspar. Now he doesn't always have the name Caspar. Let's think of him quickly. What he has, he seems to have several different names, like you call him Gondafar, uh, but here he's Caspar of the of India. Yeah. Tell us about that. So he's pretty incredible. He's ver he's the best attested historically. You know, we've got coins of him, we've got uh monuments that he's written, he's mentioned in literary sources. He's very well known in the ancient world. He was so at the time you've got the Parthian Empire, because what happened? Yeah, Alexander the Great invades Persia and makes it a bit more Hellenic, but he doesn't manage to fully control Central Asia, he gets parts of it all the way to the border of like what China's sometimes claimed, but he doesn't really enforce it. So the Parthians are kind of outside the Greek sphere. So as the sort of Greek hegemony over Persia gets weakened, the Parthians come with like a totally un-Greek way of being Persian, sort of, or Iranic, and they come in and they kind of restore the Persian Empire, but it gets called the Parthian Empire because people are like, oh, is it really Persian? Because you're actually Central Asians, you're Parthians. Uh so that's what happens there. What they set up a load of noble families, one of them is called the House of Surin, and they have loads of privileges, and one of them basically gives them privilege over ruling India, and this Gondafar, he rules India and then he rebels and makes it an independent empire, the Indo-Parthian Empire, based in Tagsala, which is called the Alexandria of the East and uh and Athens of the East, he gets called these names. I think it's now in Afghanistan. Uh but he rules over Pakistan and like uh parts of India, and you know, it's a huge empire. A huge Central Asian Empire, and he founds it like in the teens or twenties, you know, very early. He does quite quickly do that. So he's a huge name, and he's from the House of Syrian. What's that quite interesting about that? The person who evangelized Armenia, Saint Gregory the Illuminator, he's of the House of Syrian, and he knew a lot about Kaspar, and so Caspar had a tomb he made in Armenia, and there was all sorts of details he'd left there, but there's also family law that Gregory knew. So Armenia has a very particular connection that the House of Syrin remained important in Armenia, and you know they were Christianised by it, and so that their faith has been handed on from this Kaspar, even though they're in a different continent. There's that connection. Do you think it's plausible that at least say some of his command because he he he has like four he'll have four commanders under him, won't he, in order to get to this, like the could could any of those come from China though? Well, this more comes from Melcon. Ah, Melkon. Let's move to Melcon then. Melcon or Melchior. He get he's the one that no one really seems to agree where he's from. Right. Uh so yeah, with Caspar, we have loads of monuments and we've got one of his coins, yeah. Uh he's got so much stuff out there that we know exactly where he's from. And Balthazar, as we thought, uh all these connections. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we know where all of those are from. Whereas Melchior or Melkon, that does change a lot from account to account. Uh so obviously, when you've got Magi rolling up, the Magi or the Magians are the priests of the Zoroastrian religion. So people do often default to their they're like, well, if you've got to have a Persian there, and that makes sense. I suppose the difficulty is we don't have a clear Melchior who's alive, who's the Shah and Shah, because that's a very well-known position. We know exactly who is Shar and Shah at any point, meaning the the king of kings, the Shah of Shah's. So it's not obvious that Melchior could be one of those, and they it's a very turbulent time, they live quite short amounts of time, but we know Thomas baptizes all the emperors and their sons, the kings. So that would make us think: is it somewhere else? Is it somewhere more towards like China? Yeah, yeah. And we thought from yeah, the Revelation of the Magi, we do have a huge the basically the 12 commanders from the Revelation of the Magi seem to be sent from these other kings to China, so there's a huge China connection there. So the it you can understand, like if a person's compiling all this in the second century, say, and they're like, Well, the per Persia's the big power to these, so obviously one of them came from there. Yeah, but it's not that's and in particular the Armenian the because the Armenians are always trying to figure out more about the Magi, so that this isn't their last attempt to make a definitive account. When the Mongols came, they found Tibeto-Burman groups of people uh were with them who claimed descent from the one of the wise men. And so that's an interesting. Well, they it would just be Tibetan relatives and Qi'ung relatives that are in China. But then also when Spanish and Portuguese people were sailing around India and they got into Burma, they found there were people there who claimed descent from one of the wise men. And so at the time they were like, oh, these seem like conflicting traditions, but as we thought with the Arabians and the Ethiopians, it actually reveals in the first century this was one group of people, and they now have this term Tibeto-Burmese, for every you know, to Tibet, the Qi'ung, and then down into Burma. This was all one group of people. So you could have an emperor then. So all these later things, they're like, oh, this seems like contradictions. Are they the the sort of Naaman Mongols, or is it are they the Qi'ang or is it the Burmese? They were one people group, one empire in the first century. So I my personal theory is that's Melchior, he's the emperor of them. That I like that. That makes sense of a lot of the traditions and history and so on. So we've got Melkon here at the Armenians call him the king of the Persians. We'll say he's Chinese, Tibetan, Burman, that Burma, that there's Kaspar Gondar of India, Pakistan, that region, Balthazar, he's Ethiopia, Yemen, that region. They're converging. They've each got say four leaders, and it's as if they all kind of converge, and initially they're meeting up. We know there's the the cave of the hidden mysteries, kind of the treasures. So that's where the they kind of and we think it looks as if that was in China, and so they're all converged there and then eventually travel together. So that's what that's what it is, and they all in this Armenian account, we don't like in the other account, we had that enormous backstory that goes right back to Adam and all the rituals they were doing throughout the many generations they were waiting. Here it just has them, they all get together, they travel for nine months, they're outside Jerusalem. But remember, they've got 12,000 men, soldiers. Uh and these 12,000 soldiers, presumably, there'd be 4,000 of these more Chinese soldiers, 4,000 Indians and 4,000 Africans. So with all the uh associated different styles of armour and weapons and like the caravan, so maybe camels, there may be elephants, there may be all kinds of things coming. Wow, it would be quite something. And that sort of deals for a lot of people when we hear them today and they ha bring up objections to the idea of the three kings. They often say, Oh, if you just had three people, then all of Jerusalem and all the lands around it won't be disturbed, like we see in the Gospel of Matthew, that they all get disturbed. Whereas if you do have over 10,000, and you even have some other accounts where as they're going through, because they they're holy, they can see the light that's coming from the stars. Other people who have been waiting for Jesus can see the star, and they join this train, so it gets even bigger in some accounts. But it's obviously bringing that up that you've got to have a lot of people for everyone to get disturbed. Bishop Daniel Johannan, the son of Kate Metropolitan KP Johannan, I was talking to him this week. He's from the Believers Eastern Church in India, and we were talking about the Magi, and he was saying this very thing that there would have been this huge, and he like says there was one of the Aladdin films that he watched, and Aladdin like wants to be like as if he's like an emperor, and there's this huge, like, group of you know, the the genie provides this massive caravan of people and silks and baggage trains and and all these courtiers with him, and he's like, he was just pointing out that once you understand that sort of context, that's what it would have been like. And when they arrived at Jerusalem, there's all like representatives of like huge empires with all their culture and traditions and courtiers and soldiers, it would be a massive, massive occurrence, and Jerusalem is absolutely rocked by it when they arrive. That seems fair point, yeah. And we thought how like in China it was still known that the reason Jupiter, the planet Jupiter, gets associated with the king of the gods and everything is because it has all these moons around it, like the most moons are any planet, so you've got to have a huge train. That's impressive and visible, and that's why you know that that's necessary to make it clear that you're a you're a king. So if the prophets looking forward to seeing this king and all of that, they must know there has to be a train. You can't just sort of be and you know, Jesus, the king of Jews, he does get the 12 disciples and the 72, and they may not be dressed exactly like they imagined the courtiers of the uh king of kings to be, but they you know, you always have a train of people with you. Yeah, and yeah, and Jesus' ascension and everything, it's all got that in. So they arrive, but once they get to Jerusalem, this is in the Armenian infancy gospel, the star disappears. So they're at Jerusalem, and it says when King Herod saw the massive army camped around the city, he was greatly alarmed. And the Bible says the whole city is totally alarmed with this massive arrival of international forces. So Herod, who's in this account, he sounds quite a cowardly person. He appoints like princes to go and do negotiating for him. Because if he then why doesn't he just go out and meet them properly? But he doesn't do that. He's not a good character. But his son Archelaus is more easy. Yeah, yeah, and we like him, yeah. Because the people often know because Archelaus, what he's famous for, is he was supposed to be made king after Herod, and then the people reject him, so then he goes away to Rome, and then he like comes back, and all the people that he rejected him he kills, and then all the people that were favourable to him he give cities. And Jesus seems to reference that story in a parable as a goodie, and he does it at where his palace was. He's one in Jericho. In Jericho, yeah. So there is actually a Christian tradition of liking Archelaus, and so you know, somewhat rare, but we see it here, so it's worth noting just Herod's not so good, but he's got a good son. Well, Herod sends out these princes, and then there's a kind of extended negotiation between these princes and the magi with all their armies, and they're very nervous because they're like, What you're camped here, what are you after? And then they're like, Is it you're after do you want friend? Is it friendship or hostility? Or are you merchants who've come to trade? And then they'll say, The princes say, You carry with you every desirable fragrance of flowers. Do you wish to have a large place to trade your treasures? But the Magi insisted, it is not as you assume. We have nothing to trade, all we seek is our way. We're just looking for directions. And then the prince is like, What are you looking for? And then they explain, we've come here by God's command, and this is the ninth month, and this and this a star has guided us until today. And the star was with us to this place, but now its light is hidden, and we don't know what to do. Okay, so then Herod discovers all this, and he and he's still worried about why they have so many armies and so many resources. I'll read again from the Armenian Infancy Gospel. It says this the Magi explained, we came here for this reason and wish to inquire of you. We heard in our own land that a king's son is born in the land of Judea, and we have come to worship him. Hearing this, Herod became enraged and very afraid. He asked, From whom did you hear this, or who told you? And then the Magi replied, We have this written and sealed testimony from our ancestors. For a long time our fathers and their sons after them instructed us about this written word that's been passed down and is now fulfilled for us. Furthermore, by God's commands through an angel who appeared to us, we have come to this place which the Lord has shown us. We've had more details about that. I was just gonna say Yeah, the revelation of the Major does seem to have so this this is them, they've just got the dialogue, presumably, this is Saint Gregory, and he's got all the old you know accounts and everything left by his ancestor Gondafar. But like, you know, so he's just got that end, but we've got the whole diaries that they left in China, we've just read through that. So, you know, you put it all together, it is interesting seeing the coherence, you know, between them. But yeah, so he's just summarizing all of that, the ancient accounts and from Seth and all. Although I think he goes into Seth a bit more. Yeah, because Herod wants to get this writing, he's like, Where's this writing that you alone possess? And the Magi explained, No other nation knows about it, only our nation has this testimony. And and then they they explain then what's in it. This is what they say. After Adam's expulsion from the garden and Cain's killing of Abel, the Lord God gave Seth to Adam as a son for consolation. This document was with him, written, shut, and sealed by the finger of God. Seth received it from his father and gave it to his sons who passed it down through generations. They were commanded to guard the document carefully until the time of Noah. Noah gave it to his son Shem, and so on, until it reached Abraham. Abraham gave it to the high priest Melchizedek, and from then on it came to us through Cyrus, the king of Persia, and our ancestors who received it kept it in a chamber with reverence. Thus the document was passed to us, and we brought this writing to present to the newly given king, the son of the king of Israel. So that's interesting. The document they give more about the specific way in which the document was passed down via Cyrus and then to the cave of treasures. Yeah, and there's uh an odd group in Armenia at the time called the Melchizedekians, and we we've often thought about them, but maybe we haven't talked about them too much on the podcast. But they basically believe the thing everyone got angry with them at the time was that they would celebrate Easter on the 14th day, and that's a huge- CRAZY! Yeah, but they're more distinctive doctrine, and it's odd it didn't get more attention at the time, it did afterwards, but uh they believe like Jesus incarnated possibly more than once, and that Melchizedek could be a previous incarnation, and then Jesus lives and dies, and then later he all incarnates again. Kind of like you do in Narnia, how you've got in all these different worlds you get Aslan as like an incarnation of Jesus, but that sort of idea where it's like he just pops up he becomes flesh many times, yeah. Yeah, I mean possibly, but then they also maybe just Jesus beforehand, maybe without incarnating, just lived on earth physically and visibly for a while. Because those Melchizedekans tended to they didn't think of God as immaterial at all, they felt God was substantial and solid. Yeah, so the idea of Melchizedek just being God walking around, they were big on that. Yeah, so the Melchizedekians wanted to get Melchizedek in, and the document he looked after for a while, but eventually it goes to Cyrus, and then event then from Cyrus to a chamber with reverence, which we're like, we know what that is. It's the it's on the uh the mountain of mysteries in the chamber of hidden secrets and everything. And then then they've they they brought the document. That wasn't clear in the revelation of the major, then they brought the document, or it or it maybe it was clear, but I missed it. Herod doesn't like this, he's like, no, you can I'm not having this. Like, because obviously he's not who they're looking for, whereas Herod thinks, I'm the I'm the king. They're like, nah, it's not you. Archelaus then is is trying to handle his dad. But then the Magi eventually get want to know, well, where is the Messiah, the Christ, gonna be born? And of course, we know that they consult Micah, chapter 5, and they find it. Oh, it's in Bethlehem. So Herod then says, Okay, you guys go, verify this, and then come back, and then I'll come and worship him too. And then this account says, Thus spoke the wicked tyrant, planning to have the child secretly killed. So the Magi immediately arose, bowed to Herod and the entire city of Jerusalem and went on the way. And then it's interesting, it says, Suddenly, the star they had seen in the east appeared, leading them again until it stopped over the infant. So for the six miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star pops back and says, Alright, let's go. So they arrived joyfully. I'm reading again now. They arrived joyfully in Bethlehem, dismounted and immediately surround sounded their trumpets and played music in honour of the newborn child, the son of the King of Israel. And then the kings, the princes, and the armies danced and sang with loud voices. They praised God and gave thanks for being worthy to honor the day of that great mystery revealed to them. What's interesting about that to me is I think I got used to the idea, because it's on Christmas cards, is the idea that there were these like three magi who arrived kind of secretly, and it was a very low-key thing, and they just kind of slipped quietly in, and there's just a small group of people gathered around. But in this account, it's like they're playing music, dancing, there's 12,000 soldiers, and they're all making a huge deal. The kings, princes, and armies danced and sang with loud voices, playing trumpets. So Bethlehem would have been absolutely freaked out by this immense gathering of people. And of course, then it has Joseph and Mary were frightened and terrified, they ran away from the cave. They there's an interesting later account, but an interesting one where Joseph basically has to manage all the people, and they're like, Alright, you can only come like three at a time, or that sort of thing. So he sort of has it so that Mary doesn't get overwhelmed. But yeah, you definitely think if the crowd disturbs Jerusalem, which is a city, then a little village will be incredibly disturbed, it will be overwhelmed. Uh so it's interesting that it's noticing these things that, as you're saying, like in the cars and stuff, maybe they miss this out. But but maybe that the cards in the centre drawing from that one where Joseph then has to manage them. So it's like, alright, you have to go in quietly, but like you can't wake the baby up. You can't, you know. He's doing that a bit, and it it's interesting that that you got Mary is just focusing 100% on Jesus, and then Joseph has to kind of think, all right, I've got to look after Mary, and he's told to do this by the angel and everything. And that that would be part of it, would be managing it. So maybe they can be reconciled, you know, the two. Yeah, okay. I'll tell you what, we'll we'll leave it there for this episode. Then when we come back, we'll see in this account, neither Joseph nor Mary are managing it very well. But we'll we'll see what they do. And we'll also perhaps just dig into a little bit more about these three original maji. We've been trying to locate them. There's more to know about them, and we'll maybe do a little bit of that too. But that's uh we'll leave it there for this week.