What did the three wise men do after they had seen Jesus?

Answer 1

The wise men, or magi, appear in Matthew's Gospel, which says that they then returned home without reporting back to King Herod. Since they were no longer needed in the nativity story, nothing further happened to them. John Shelby Spong (Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus) says that among people he knows in New Testament circles, the universal assumption is that the wise men were not actual people.

Answer 2

A:

The appearance of the 'wise men' occurs in Matthew's Gospel, but the gospel does not tell us about thie wisdom. In fact, Matthew does not even say there were three of them, merely that they brought three gifts. The explanation of the tradition of their wisdom is to be found by looking at the original Greek words in this passage.

Matthew 2:1 says magoi came to visit Herod, searching for Jesus. The magoi were priests of the Zoroastrian religion prevalent everywhere in the Near East to the east of the River Tigris; in fact the magoi belonged to a priestly tribe, the Magoi tribe, much as the Jewish priests once claimed descent from the tribe of Levi. The magoi were renowned throughout the ancient Near East for their learning and wisdom. Also, their god was known as Ahura Mazda, which means 'Wise Lord'. The author of Matthew wanted to show that even the priests of this great religion would have wished to worship Jesus. Centuries later the Zoroastrian connection became less important, so the word magoi in the original Greek version of Matthew's Gospel became simply 'wise men'.

Answer 3

After seeing Jesus, the three wise men presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They then returned to their own country without going back to King Herod as they were warned in a dream.