The Wisdom of Faith in the Adoration of the Magi. Marcel Proust once wrote of wisdom: We are not provided with wisdom, we must

Transcription

1 Smith 1 Jane Smith Mr. Wheeler English 10 CP, Per. 1 1 January 2014 The Wisdom of Faith in the Adoration of the Magi Marcel Proust once wrote of wisdom: We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, and effort which no one can spare us (45). If Proust is right in his contention that wisdom commonly understood as the quality of having knowledge and good judgment gained through experience is gained through a certain type of personal experience, then what can be said of the wisdom in acts of faith, deeds or undertakings motivated by blind trust or belief in an outcome whose viability cannot be supported through rational thought? The gospel of Matthew offers a brief but famous account of one such journey through the wilderness, to use Proust s phrase, that is emblematic of the wisdom in pursuing a course of action because of faith: the story of the wise men the Magi who come from far-off lands to pay homage to the infant Jesus. Though as a subplot of Matthew s gospel it only comprises a mere twelve verses that are deceptively vague on seemingly critical details, the Adoration of the Magi, as this biblical subject is popularly known, has long seized upon the imagination of Western artists, whose respective treatments of this scene from Christ s infancy narrative seek to represent the true wisdom that compels grown men of learning and means to take up an arduous journey so that they may humble themselves before a foreign infant they believe to be the Messiah. The present study will examine Bartolomé Esteban Murillo s seventeenth-century painting Adoration of the Magi and T.

2 Smith 2 S. Eliot s poem Journey of the Magi to explore how each artist uses the Adoration of the Magi episode to explore what true wisdom means in the context of religious faith. If Matthew s gospel is primarily concerned with portraying Jesus Christ as the embodiment of Mosaic Law and the fulfillment of the prophets visions, then the story of the visitation of the Magi helps achieve this core aim by relating how non-jewish men of great knowledge or royalty the Latin magi has been translated as both wise men or kings (Albright 97), though its original sense in Greek refers to a Persian caste of priests famous for their knowledge of the stars (Boyce 10) travel a great distance to personally acknowledge a Jewish child, the infant Jesus, as the human incarnation of God and his law on earth. Shortly following his description of the political situation surrounding the birth of Jesus, Matthew tells how Magi (the specific number of their group is never mentioned, though tradition recognizes them as a triad) from the east (again, the specific place of origin is not named) pursued a star that guided them to Jerusalem to pay [ ] homage to the newly born king of the Jews (2:1-2). Upon reaching Jerusalem, the Magi are directed by King Herod to Bethlehem, where the wise men then travel following the same star that guided them to Jerusalem until it delivers them to the house in which the infant Jesus is kept by his mother Mary. Upon meeting the child, the Magi [kneel] down and [pay] him homage (2:11), then present Jesus with the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Though these gifts in and of themselves would have been prized possessions to anyone during this time period, it is what the three gifts symbolize as a combination that demonstrates the true wisdom of the Magi. In his Contra Celsum, Origen, a third-century Christian theologian and scholar, explains how these gifts are intended to acknowledge the true divine nature and destiny of the Christ child: gold, a gift fit for royalty, recognizes Jesus as the king of all humankind; frankincense, a perfumed gum used in the

3 Smith 3 worship of deities, recognizes Jesus as the one true God; and myrrh, a fragrant resin used in the burial of the dead, recognizes Jesus as the Redeemer destined to suffer and die for the sins of humankind. Matthew s Magi, then, are to be understood as wise not necessarily for their knowledge of worldly things nor for their status as men of affluence and political clout, but for their knowing their faith that the child born to Mary in Bethlehem is indeed the Messiah, the promised Redeemer, the Lord God in the flesh. If the wisdom of Matthew s Magi is determined by their shared faith and trust in the messianic nature of the infant Jesus, then Bartolomé Esteban Murillo s painting Adoration of the Magi (see Appendix 2) embellishes on the bare-bones gospel account to signify how this special kind of wisdom is a transcultural, trans-generational phenomenon attainable for people of any age or country. Murillo s painting depicts three men of clearly Eastern origin that have come to the Bethlehem barn to pay their respects to the divine child of Mary. Though the action of the scene is mostly representative of the encounter described in Matthew s gospel, Murillo s physical portrayal of the Magi adds a new layer of understanding to their wisdom. Whereas Matthew simply describes these well-to-do visitors as wise men from the East (Matthew 2:1), Murillo portrays each member of the triad as being not only a different ethnicity but a different age. In the painting, an elderly man, indicated by the white hair and flowing gray beard, in a yellow cloak kneels before the proffered baby Jesus and kisses his feet in a gesture of worship. On the ground to his right is his gift to the Christ child, the box of gold. Standing to his left waiting their turn to also kneel down before Mary s son and present him with their offerings are the other two Magi: one, a middle-aged Caucasian man with a brown beard and dark brunette hair, patiently waiting to present his gift of frankincense; the other, a sharp-featured, beardless man of smooth dark skin presumably of African or Moorish origin also delighting in the

4 Smith 4 spectacle of the baby Jesus, waiting to present his gift of myrrh. Though Matthew s gospel says nothing about the age of the three magi, Murillo s painting quite consciously depicts them as representing the three stages of the adult male. It is telling that the eldest of the Magi is the one Murillo chooses to kneel before the Christ child and kiss his feet: even a learned, wealthy man of advanced age is prepared to acknowledge a greater king and teacher than himself in the form of a newly born infant. No matter one s age, station in life, country of origin, or ethnicity, the wisdom that sets one on the path of faith, Murillo s painting seems to suggest, is available to anyone willing to take Proust s journey into the wilderness to achieve it.

5 Smith 5 Works Cited Albright, W. F. and C. S. Mann. Matthew. The Anchor Bible Series. New York: Doubleday & Company, Print. Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism: The Early Period. New York: E. J. Brill, Print. Eliot, T. S. Journey of the Magi. The Poetry Archive Web. 19 Oct Murillio, Bartolomé Esteban. Adoration of the Magi Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH. The Toledo Museum of Art. Web. 21 Oct New Revised Standard Version Bible. New York: Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, Print. Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time. Trans. C. K. Moncrieff. Toronto: Centaur, Kindle file.

6 Smith 6 Appendix 1 Adoration of the Magi by Bartolomé Eseteban Murillo

7 Smith 7 Appendix 2 The Journey of the Magi T. S. Eliot (1927) A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter. And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet. Then the camel men cursing and grumbling And running away, and wanting their liquor and women, And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters, And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly And the villages dirty, and charging high prices: A hard time we had of it. At the end we preferred to travel all night, Sleeping in snatches, With the voices singing in our ears, saying That this was all folly. Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley, Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation; With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness, And three trees on the low sky, And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow. Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel, Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver, And feet kicking the empty wine-skins. But there was no information, and so we continued And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory. All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we lead all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death.