Men of Magic

The English word ‘magic’ comes originally from the Magi, a mysterious Persian priestly clan. A Magus was a person wise in religious matters, and the Magi were probably also scribes and keepers of records. The word magic may have acquired its modern meaning from a branch of the clan which moved to Babylonia and specialised in telling fortunes and working religious ‘wonders’. It was three of the Persian Magi, “wise men from the east”, whose journey to visit the infant Christ is described in St. Matthew’s Gospel.