Volume 2

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

22/1016 (page 1074)

$thinks it is a beheading of St. John. The three magi have round massive fells of hair, which might almost pass for a remembrance of the Phrygian caps, except that other figures on the chest have the same. Their boots and braccae are unmistakeable ; they are offering their trea- sures in covers and.paterae apparently, and are attended by an ornamental duck or swan. This bird is repeated to fill up space. The star is very large, and of many rays ; there is a broad Runic border, and an inscription “ Magi ” in runes above the carving. The quasi-symbolic figures of the Virgin Mother and Child are ex- traordinary, the former ends at the waist in waving flourishes, perhaps typical of drapery, but ornamented with dots like an Irish initial letter; the Child consists entirely of a larger face or medallion held as usual before His Mother; the writer feels little doubt of its having been copied or adapted from some MS. of Durrow or Iona; and, as Mr. Maskell observes, following Mr. Stephens, it is one of the costliest treasures of English art; and, as a specimen of Northumbrian art and Northumbrian folk-speech, it is doubly precious. The distinctively Persian dress of the niagi, as represented on all the monuments, certainly deserves attention, as it indicates the connexion, in the Christian imagination, between the reli- gion of Zoroaster and the coming of the Lord, which Zoroaster was supposed to have foretold. See Hyde, de Eeligione veterum Persarum, c. 31, p. 381, ed. Oxon. 1700), and Magi in Dict. of THE Bible, ii. 190. F. Nork {Mythen der alien Perser als Quellen Christlicher Glavbensleliren, р. 82) considers that many representations of the Adoration of the Magi bear a decidedly Mithraic character. [R. St. J. T.] MAGIC (Ars Magica, from magus, Persian , mugh). “ Among the Persians,” says Porphyry, “ they who are wise respecting the Deity and are His servants are called Magi ” (de Abst. Aniin. iv. 16, p. 165, cited by Rose (in Parkhurst), who also refers to Justin, i. ix. 7, xii. 13; Curtius, v. 1; and others). Xenophon distinctly ascribes to them the office of priests: “ Then were the magi first ap- pointed to sing hymns in honour of the gods at the dawn of every day, and to sacrifice daily to those gods to whom they, the magi, should declare sacrifice due ” (Cyrop. p. 279; ed. Hutch.). The name (gdyos^ is not used as a reproach in the Septuagint. See Dan. i. 20; ii. 2, 10, 27; iv. 7. The prophet Daniel was the head of the “ Magi ” in Baby- lon (Dan. V. 11). It is also the title given to those who were led by the star to Bethlehem (Matt. ii. 1, 7, 16). Nevertheless it had already acquired a bad sense among the Jews. Thus Simon (Acts viii. 9) is said gayeveiv and to use gayt'ia (11); while Elymas, a Jew, is expressly с. alled a gdyos (xiii. 6, 8). This was the popular usage, and at length it prevailed entirely. “ Custom and common speech,” says St. Jerome, “ have taken magi for malefici—who are regarded in a different light in their own nation; for they are the philosophers o.f the Chaldeans ” (Comm. »n Dan. ii.). It is probable, however, that Magism had long greatly altered for the worse, eveji in the practice of its best professors in its original home; for Origen, speaking of the magi of Persia, says, “ From them the magical art of their nation takes its name, and ha^ tra- velled into other nations to the corruption and destruction of those who use it ” (c. Cels. vi. 80). Philostratus is also speaking of these Persian adepts, when he makes the strange statement, that they invoke God when they are working unseen; but subvert the public belief in the Deity, because they do not wish to appear to receive their power from Him. (de Vit. Sophist. in Protag. 498.) The “ curious arts ” (rd irep'iepya) renounced by the converts at Ephesus (Acts xix. 19) were, accoi'ding to the common meaning of the term employed, the several branches of magic. What these were in the opinion of the early Christians we learn from many authors. Ma- gicians, it was believed, could raise phantoms resembling persons deceased, could extract oracles from children, whom they entranced; nay, from goats and tables (Tertull. Apol. 23). In a book written a little before the end of the 2nd century, Simon Magus is represented boasting:—“ I can make myself invisible to those who desire to seize me, and again visible when I wish to be seen. If I desire to flee, 1 can pierce mountains and pass through rocks, as if they were mud. If I were to cast myself down from a high mountain, I should be borne uninjured to the ground. If I were bound, I could release myself and bind those who had chained me. If imprisoned, I could make the bars open of themselves. I could make statues live, so that they were thought to be men by those who saw them. I could cause new trees to spring up suddenly, and produce boughs at once. If I flung myself into the fire, I should not burn. I change my face, so as not to be known; nay, I can shew men that I possess two faces. I can become an ewe or a she-goat. I can give a beard to little boys. I can shew gold in abundance. I can make and unmake kings ” (Recognit. Clement, ii. 9. Comp. Pseudo-Clem. Pom. ii. 32 ; Gesta Petri, § 33). The supposed narrator is made to say that he saw a rod with which Simon was beaten “ pass through his body as through smoke ” (Recog. ii. II ; Ps.-Cl. Horn. ii. 24), and that a woman, his confederate, was seen, by a vast multitude sur- rounding a tower in which she was, to look out of every window on each side at the same moment (Recog. u.s. § 12); that he caused another to look like himself (Gesta Petri, 136), and “ spectres and figures to be seen daily in the market place, statues to move as he walked out, and many shadows, which he affirmed to be the souls of persons departed, to go before him ” (Horn. iv. 4 ; Gesta Petri, 45). Simon’s fatal attempt to fly is related or alluded to by several early writers ; as by the author of the Apostolical Constitutions (vi. 9), Arnobius (adv. Gent, ii. prope init.), Epipha- nius (Haeres. xxi. 5), St. Ambrose or Hegesippus (de Excid. Hieros. iii. 2), Sulpicius Severus (Sacr. Hist. ii. 41), Maximus (Serm. 39), Pseudo- Augustino (contra Fulgent. Don. 23), etc. Many of the Gnostics, as Menander (Iren. Haer.i. 23, § 5), Basilides (24, § 5), and Carpocrates (25, § 3), with their disciples, were accused of “ using magic and (mystic) images, and incantations, and all other curious arts (perierga).” See also Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 7. St. Irenaeus relates two stories of Mai’cus (about 160), which shew how$