The Esoteric Legacy of the Magi of Bethlehem in the Framework of the Iranian Speculations about Jesus, Zoroaster and His Three Posthumous Sons

Although the number of the Magi was not stated in the Gospel of Matthew, they soon became “three”, at least in most of the later Christian traditions, probably after the corresponding number of the gifts. But the complex meaning of this figure opened the way for many additional intriguing speculations; for instance, in the West, it became very important in the framework of the Trinitarian controversy, in particular against Arians and other sects, while in the East, mostly in Iranian or Iranianized lands, where early Christianity had tried to play an important role in its first centuries, it was also an object of more or less implicit theological inter-connections with foreign traditions. In particular, we well know the Mazdean expectation of the three posthumous sons of Zoroaster, among whom the last one was expected as representing the “saviour” par excellence, or the Saošiiaṇt- (in Pahlavi Sōšāns or Sōšyans). This eschatological hero, who will come to resurrect all the dead, starting the final battle against Ahreman, was directly connected with the image of Jesus himself, whose birth was presented in some Apocrypha as prophesized by Zoroaster. Also the role of the three Magi, clearly connected with Zurwānic (i.e. Aiōnic) speculations concerning the power of the divine and infinite Time, offered new symbolic relations between the three Magi and the three Mazdean apostles or envoys. In fact, the future actions of Zoroaster’s posthumous sons were potentially resumed in the contemporary presence of the three Oriental Wise Men and in their meeting with Jesus, especially in the intricate symbolism of the their three distinct ages (mostly in artistic representations), corresponding in some sources, to the three different ages of Jesus. Certainly, the meeting between the Christian tradition and the Mazdean one produced a number of various syncretistic solutions, associations and adaptations. These emerged not only in the well known doctrine presenting Zoroaster as the prophet who had prophesized the birth of Jesus, but also in the direct correspondence between Jesus and the Mazdeans apostles, sons of Zoroaster, in particular the third one among them, the Sōšāns who will resurrect all the dead and will prepare Ohrmazd’s descent on the earth, preliminary for the final transfiguration of the universe. The implications of these speculative contaminations produced some unpredictable results.