Ancient manuscript tells of journey of the 3 wise men; text has ideas Mormons will relate to, BYU prof says

SALT LAKE CITY — For most Christians, Thursday of last week is known as Epiphany — the day when the Magi, or the three wise men, found the Christ child.

Now Brent Landau, a religion professor at the University of Oklahoma, has translated an ancient text from the Vatican Library into English. Scholars are calling it fascinating.

The Gospel of Matthew says very little about the group we call the three kings who visited the Christ child. They are a mystery, and growing up, Landau was always fascinated by them and the star of Bethlehem. While studying for his doctorate in theology at Harvard, he traveled to Italy.

"Basically, when I was looking for a dissertation topic, I had gone on a study trip to Italy and was really blown away with how much the wise men were showing up in all sorts of different artistic representations: mosaics, sarcophagi, catacombs, paintings all over the place," he said.

"And so when I got back to Harvard, I started trying to investigate to see if there were any texts, perhaps, written about the wise men that just hadn't received much attention and came across a rather obscure article that mentioned this quite obscure text and gave a summary of it. And it sounded absolutely fascinating."

The ancient manuscript was in the Vatican Library. He had just finished learning ancient Syriac, a language similar to Aramaic, which Jesus Christ may have spoken, so he was able to translate it into English and it became the book "Revelation of the Magi."

The story is a first-hand account of their journey. But the most surprising point is when Christ speaks to them.

Landau wrote, "So Christ, being a divine being, is able to appear as a star, that's how he first appears to the wise men, and then transforms himself into a luminous kind of, a glowing, talking infant."

"This is what Christ says to the Magi when he appears," Landau said. He called this the smoking gun.

He said the most important passage of the text was: "And I am everywhere because I am a ray of light, whose light has shown in this world from the majesty of my Father, who has sent me to fulfill everything that was spoken about me in the entire world and in every land by unspeakable mysteries and to accomplish the commandment by my glorious Father, who by the prophets preached about me to the contentious house in the same way as for you as befits your faith, it was revealed to you about me."