Revelation of the Magi
The star that guided the Magi on their travels was Christ himself; he shifts from a celestial form into a human one both to beckon them on their journey, and transforms again in Bethlehem to instruct them.
In an epilogue set many years later, they are baptized by the Apostle Judas Thomas in Shir, and he commissions them to spread the Christian message.
The Magi themselves perform a special ritual monthly wherein they ascend the mountain, purify themselves, pray in silence, and then read Adam's revelations.
Generations of Magi have awaited a prophecy of a specific event, where a star's light will come to the Cave of Treasures, illuminate them, and guide them to God.
There they witness the star transform into a luminous, talking infant who finds them worthy, and commissions them to spread the good news.
Their food supplies now overflowing from the miraculous multiplication by the star, they share their provisions with the people of Shir; those who eat have visions of Christ's coming deeds and glory.
Thomas baptizes the Magi and commissions those in Shir to spread the gospel of Jesus across the world, empowering them with the Holy Spirit.
Grammar and word choice suggests an origin in the 5th century or earlier, such as referring to the Holy Spirit with feminine constructions, a style that fell out of practice after 500 CE.
[6] Chapters 6–10, a recording of a dialogue between Adam and Seth about various theological concerns purportedly in the Magi's prophecies, has also been proposed as a preexisting and independent composition that was integrated into the narrative at some point.
Some of the themes suggest a familiarity with Johannine theology and the Gospel of John, such as the use of light in a positive sense as related to the divine.
[10] The work seems to be familiar with an epiclesis of oil in the style of a Syriac rite reminiscent of such a blessing done in the Acts of Thomas.
[11] The Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, a 5th-century commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, seems to display familiarity with the Revelation of the Magi and provides a short summary of it in a fragment called the Liber apocryphum nomine Seth.
[4] In the medieval era, the Opus Imperfectum was incorrectly believed to have been authored by Church Father John Chrysostom, helping ensure it circulated and was copied by scribes.
Later popular works, such as the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, likely also drew from the summary of the Revelation of the Magi in the Opus Imperfectum.
Landau cites as an example the writings of the 17th-century Augustinian friar Antonio de la Calancha, who studied the Andean traditional religions practiced in South America (then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire).
Calancha was impressed by the resemblances to Christianity in these belief systems, and hypothesized that St. Thomas and the Magi must have proselytized to them as described in the Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum.
[9] Classical-era thought portrayed the people at the "periphery" of the known world in various fanciful ways, but attributing superior, secret knowledge to them was one of the tropes that could be applied to them.
[6] An origin so far to the east is in contrast to other Christian works on the topic, which usually portrayed the Magi as coming from Persia, Babylonia, or Arabia.
The work does not go into detail on the nature of the food, merely calling them "provisions", but the passage does suggest the author's group may have held spiritual rituals involving whichever hallucinogen they favored.
In contrast to stories that play up the necessity of suffering for Christians, their pilgrimage is not portrayed as arduous or sacrificial, but rather as quick and pleasant.
The interest in the legend of Seth shares similarities with Sethian Gnosticism seen in works such as the Apocryphon of John, such as calling the magi from the "race of light.
[9] Brent Landau argues that the epilogue was probably a later addition to the work, and that this informs how the theology of the main section should be interpreted.
If taken this way, the work is sending a pluralistic message that suggests that people in far-off lands could and did know God, but in forms that were not obviously Christianity.
