A letter was recently discovered in a ruined city near Aden just north of the Gulf of Aden by archaeologists the content of which might be of interest to those who recognize the Christian Feast of the Epiphany as the comemoration of all the tribes of Abraham being invited to worship together. A translation of that letter follows:
From the Ziggurat at Saba
from the court of Balthazar in the 942nd year of Marduk
and the Western year 20 of Tiberius Cesear's reign
GREETINGS MAY PEACE AND PATIENCE REIGN IN YOUR HEART MY BROTHER
MELCHIOR OF ARABIA, PRINCE OF ARABIA FELIX
HEIR TO ALL THE LAND NORTH OF THE GULF OF ARDEN ON THE WEST
AND NORTH OF THE RED SEA ON THE EAST I REPEAT GREETING!
I am sending this document to you by courier to assure our complete security and privacy. After the events of the past, just five changes of the sun, I am enquiring if you too have been informed of the fate of our young friend from Bethlehem. Our companion Gaspar, the youngest of us has not had a fortunate life and now lies dead, buried in Tarsis by his family and without honor from the community because of his telling of our strange tales, but more about him later. I ask you about the star born child because of news that has reached me just two years ago by traveling Saracens who came trading olive oil for our fine frankensence.
I was told that this child whom we traveled so far to see, that soon after we left he was named Jesheva in the customary manner of the Hebrew people and that he was raised strictly in the customs and teachings of this Hebrew faith much as we suspected he might. The stories told by those shepherds, as I recall, lead us to believe that there was a more to his mission than just prophecy for these people. And the star leading us was certainly seen by many who were not Hebrew or followers of Yahweh - that single and solitary god they pray to and kill animals for. I have studied their religion a great deal since that visit, and it still is a mystery to me. Tracking the stars is more revealing because it is possible to understand the past and to see some future things by the regular patterns and motions of the stars. The hearts and laws of these religions in the west are not predictable at all. I find they have even taken some of our own ancient stories, the revealed vision of Gilgamesh and the great flood for instance, and have the same story in their scripture. They say it belongs to their past. It still amazes me after seventy-one sun cycles that people do not understand that we all may have common beginnings and a common god who is the creator of all that is.
But I must tell you of our young friend Jesheva. He is dead. I know we were told he would save his people and others as well. But there is more to the story. We, that is those in my home country who have entered this religious order, have visited with some of his pupils. They have said that, even after he was punished by the court, crucified and buried, even then he was later seen teaching and healing and proclaiming new promises for many people, even perpetual life for many not following the Hebrew ways. Some have said he was just an agent from the Romans and returned to the west after calming the riots of rebellion. Others have said he was from far in the east, past the great sea, and returned there after training followers to teach his lessons to others. But one thing is sure, he was doing as we were told that night. He was proclaiming a message from a heavenly creator, he was healing many who were sick. And he did give his people a kind of freedom from their oppressive overseers - but it was not what they expected.
I can recall that journey like it was only a moon cycle ago. Many other things have faded from my memory, but that trip, your face as we met in Selucia on the Tigris, those things I will never forget. The star shone so brightly that night, it was reflected on the water so it seemed like day. But what a long trip, a cold and hard trip. We had no way of telling the herdsmen how long we would travel, we had no idea what direction the star would lead next. Our sleep was filled with dreams we could not reveal to those who did not understand the ways of our ancestors. We could not even mention our readings from the stars to those who say the law forbade finding this young liberator king.
"You can't trust those foreigners", they would say. "You can't believe them if they don't follow Hammurabi's code or acknowledge Marduk, who has the wisdom of Ea and became the prince of all gods; or acknowledge Ea of Eridu his father, the god of war; or Nabu of Barsippa, the fire god. You simply cannot trust unbelievers", that is what they would say! And they might kill those who doubt them and their methods of "conversion".
What I remember most about that journey is that night. It seemed as though the world was filled with mad men at first, travelers sleeping by every square and crowding every well. Money lenders and merchants pushing their goods in the faces of the camels and blocking the path. The evening was so cold after sunset even the fires would not warm us as we waited for the star to lead us.
Certainly we expected a house at least. It might have been a small palace or a synagogue of some size if the brightness of the star was any indication, and we did expect a meal to be ready for us, didn't we. Oh, how foolish we were! How much we saw and how little we understood until that moment, until we arrived.
How sad and new I felt. Unwise and completely humbled. Herod had received us so graciously and certainly this new King would be born stronger, higher, and more influential than he, but what did we find? That is the question. And the answer depends on which eyes you ask. The eyes we wore before would have said we found poverty, sheep dung, cold damp hay, and uneducated peasants. But when we left we wore different eyes, eyes that saw a stable transformed. How could a woman glow with joy when she should be in tears? How could a man attend his wife as though he were a servant and yet content? How could animals be so still? And how could a simple stall for crops and livestock become so warm and comfortable when the winter wind howls outside?
But how blind we were! In spite of how much we saw, how much more we
refused to see. How could we present gifts which only a king could use to this small child and his poor family. Gold they might be able to use if they could convince someone they didn't steal it. But perfumed oil usually used for bathing or burial! And incense fit for burning in the houses of worship - how embarrassed I felt! Such gifts would have been more appropriate for a widow with a husband dead at her side preparing for burial! But for this child and his small town family - of what possible use could these be?
I don't even remember the trip home or when we parted, we were all struck dumb by the pungent irony of that visit. Unable to respond because each of us realized we had received more than we had given. Mind you, none of us asked for what we received nor did we have much choice in the matter, but there was no turning back. For us there is no turning back, we can never undo what we had done. And now he is dead.
Dead, the messengers from Jerusalem say. Dead say those from Tyre. Dead say those from Caesarea...But not dead. The whispering has begun. He is alive in the East. He is alive and in hiding. Some say he is alive and gone to be with their God, Yahweh, to sit on the throne of judgment! This is what I wrote to tell you, our vision is now in the idle whisperings of people on the street. In Judaea, in Rome, in Palmyra, in Cappadocia, everywhere.
It has all come to be. He was on a cross, he was tried by his own people, he was dead, but has been seen since. Oh Melchior, How could we have known it would come true. But even more importantly, how could we have believed what we were shown?
I will share with you my madness, now I am looking forward to death. Now I
can believe what I saw and heard. Now I am eager for that which we saw in the stable at Bethlehem - to be a child again and to be with the one with whom we are always children - this child god, son of our Creator. This is our fate. And now the truth of those ridiculous gifts is clear. We were present at both a birth and a death. They were,
they are one in the same.
We were born there with this child. Yet, We also died in that moment and that is when the light started and we have been blind ever since.
Blind to the ways of the world. Blind to the madness of men hungry for power. Blind to the wisdom of wealth and slaves and concubines and the great houses of all our countries. Now I realize that it was on that day, the day I became blind, that I just began to realize what kind of kingdom he came to establish. And now, just now, am I beginning to see.
Soon I will see Gaspar, and I will see you too again my friend. If what I am told is true, soon we will be with Him, this star-child-become-king. Now I realize what kind of kingdom he came to establish. He was not born to be an earthly king. No, but he died to be a king, and our gifts were for both a birth and a death, his birth and our death.
God speed, my friend. By the time you get this, I will have gone on ahead, to the land of our ancestors, but perhaps not. Perhaps to a better place. I eagerly await the day we will travel together once more toward that great light we once saw in the sky.
And this time we will find it, or, perhaps, it shall find us, of that I am sure.
Your humble servant, Balthazar.
