Feliz Dia de Reis (Astrólogos)

Neste Dia de Reis/Dia dos Astrólogos, fica uma sugestão de leitura.

O livro de Barthel e van Kooten, The Star of Bethlem and the Magi (Brill, 2015), é de facto extraordinário. Nos vários ensaios, muitos deles directa ou indirectamente acerca da astrologia antiga, dão-nos uma nova luz acerca da Estrela de Belém e dos Magos.

No ensaio de Molnar ("The Historical Basis for the Star of Bethlehem"), podemos ler o seguinte: "Matthew says the magi are “from the East,” and historians tell us that magi had historical origins in Zoroastrianism in Persia (Herodotus, Hist. 3.61–80, 7.37).6 Whether Roman-era magi still professed the tenets of Zoroastrianism is irrelevant, because magi is a well-documented term used extensively in Roman-era literature to describe astrologers rather than Zoroastrians, when mentioned in the context of celestial divination.7 Roman reports show that magi practiced astrology throughout the Middle East and even within Rome, from where they were frequently exiled for stirring up trouble with their predictions. Astrologers with connections to the Middle East were sometimes also called Chaldeans, another term signifying their profession rather than their ethnicity. Standard classicist studies show that accounts about magi in this context always mean astrologers.8 Thus, the biblical magi are astrologers with ties to the Middle East." (p. 20).

A leitura que almeja a sabedoria brilha como uma estrela.

Um Feliz Dia de Reis/Astrólogos.