The word magoi often has the meaning of “magician”, in both Old and New Testaments (see Acts, viii, 9; xiii, 6, 8; also the Septuagint of Dar:., i, 20; ii, 2i 10, 27; iv, 4; v, 7, 11, 15). St. Justin (Tryph., lxxvui), Origen (Cels., I, lx), St. Augustine (Serm. xx, De epiphania) and St. Jerome (In Isa., xix, 1) find the same meaning in the second... See more

Neither were they magicians: the good meaning of magoi, though found nowhere else in the Bible, is demanded by the context of the second chapter of St. Matthew. These Magians can have been none other than members of the priestly caste already referred to. The religion of the Magi was fundamentally that of Zoroaster and forbade sorcery; their... See more

Beginning in the 4th century BCE, the use of the term magus became ambiguous and had a double significance. It often acquired contemptuous connation and was used to designate conjurers, sorcerers, and soothsayers (Bidez and Cumont, I, p. 174; Bickerman and Tadmor, p. 252; Papathcophances, p. 105). But the same word was also used for designating... See more

Was Judas a bad guy? Probably not. Just like us. Judas loved Jesus. But like two horses pulling the chariot of the king, one horse runs pure, looking straight ahead and faithfully pulling, while the other horse looks around, gets distracted and allows concerns and anxieties to cloud his vision. When the two horses fought inside Judas, eventually a

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