This suggests that the gifts might have been sanctified in some way before they were handed to the Magi. Sanctification might have come many years before the child's birth.

We think of the Magi as three, based only on the gifts they bore. In reality, they probably traveled as a caravan — they needed a sizable group to protect their valuable cargo.

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Far from the Magi "gift drop" that has become a cultural fixture, the items they carried suggest a far more serious religious mission. Barker points to Philo of Alexandria, ...

The magi we know best first appear in the Gospel of Matthew—those three wise men, long thought to be Persian astrologers, following a star from the East to find, and crown, the new King.

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