213. How Three Wise Men Became Three Kings

Empire

Jack Davenport

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The story of the Three Wise Men has been reinterpreted since it was first written down. The gift-bearing visitors to the newborn Jesus were initially described as “Magi”, meaning Persians of a priestly caste, but by the 4th century they were given the individual names of Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar. And in Medieval Europe they were described not as Three Wise Men, but as Three Kings. Yet there’s more to the evolution of the Magi than Western ideas, in Syriac Christian traditions there are up to 24 Magi, and in the Ethiopian church they are named Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater. So how have these ideas developed over time? Listen as William and Anita are again joined by Professor Lloyd Lewellyn-Jones to discuss the evolution of the story of the Magi, and the influence of British imperialism on their symbolism… Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [email protected] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producers: Anouska Lewis Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community.
0:06.7	Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter,
0:12.4	sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpod.uk.com.
0:19.6	This episode is brought to you by Sun Express Airlines.
0:23.6	Looking for an affordable escape for the whole family, Sun Express has you covered.
0:28.9	Early birth deals to Turkey start at just 5999, fly non-stop to sunny Antalya or scenic
0:35.8	Izmir.
0:36.5	Perfect for making family memories. These low fares
0:39.6	won't last long. So book now, tan later, at sunexpress.com and secure your seats today. Hello and welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnand.
1:02.9	And me, William Dribble.
1:05.1	And we're doing some Christmasy specials because we love you and we love this subject.
1:09.2	I mean, it's amazing.
1:10.3	We're talking about the Magi,
1:12.4	the three wise men, three kings. If you haven't heard the first episode, go back and listen to it
1:16.0	because it's really outstanding with our outstanding guest, a professor of ancient history,
1:21.2	and now a proper man of the cloth, Lloyd Llewellyn Jones, is with us again. Hello. Hello, hello. You took us on such
1:30.5	a fabulous romp in the last episode. And, you know, the reason again, if you're just joining us, is why are these
1:36.8	guys doing this story? I thought I'm listening to Empire. Well, if you listen to the first one,
1:41.8	and hopefully in this too, we always have this idea that the nativity story with the three wise men turning up with their gold,
1:48.9	frankincense and mure is a direct trajectory from the gospel of Matthew coming straight down to us and nothing has been changed.
1:58.0	And it is, you know, it's as pure as that.
2:00.0	But what we're doing is we're talking
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -99 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jack Davenport, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jack Davenport and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.