What most people don't know about the song, We 3 Kings.

[SaintCody777]

On Epiphany, I played the Beach Boy's take on the song.

But after the end, I discovered and sung a couple of actual last verses. I notice that in many Christmas songs about Jesus' birth or the Nativity done by artists only the first one or two verses are sung, sometimes over again. These are 2 real last verses of We 3 Kings that were not in the Beach Boys' We 3 Kings:

"Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;—
Sorrowing, sighing,
Bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
O Star....

Glorious now behold Him arise,
King, and God, and Sacrifice;
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Heaven and earth replies.
O Star...."

Many of these Nativity songs sung by popular artists actually last quite long, like 3 or 4 minutes. That's more than enough time to sing out the full lyrics. Besides political facts, what could be other reasons for just singing only the first and 2nd verses of a Nativity song?
At first I found it quite disturbing that Jesus' torture on the cross, death, and burial, were already foretold by one of the gifts of the Magi, Myrrh. But it's been prophesied in Scripture and it was made of good use when He died on the cross. Of course, the real last verse involves His resurrection from the dead.​

 

[JackRT]

Another interesting fact is that the Magi were not Kings. Magi is the plural of Magus and a Magus was a priest of the Zoroastrianism faith that was centred in the modern region of Iran/Iraq. I suspect that they had a powerful influence on the Jews during the Babylonian Exile. We cannot even know for sure that they were "wise men".

 

[SaintCody777]

Another interesting fact is that the Magi were not Kings. Magi is the plural of Magus and a Magus was a priest of the Zoroastrianism faith that was centred in the modern region of Iran/Iraq. I suspect that they had a powerful influence on the Jews during the Babylonian Exile. We cannot even know for sure that they were "wise men".

It's true they were not really kings. But also at the time, astrology was also mingled with astronomy. Physical and astronomical sciences back then were very hard to separate from pagan religions, superstitions, and myths. It was impossible to at least separate one from the other. So even if they were not priests, they were still wise men, being astronomers and God did send the star as a sign to the wise men for them to follow.

 

[Of the Kingdom]

Here's one on Godtube that has the "missing" verses. It wasn't the first version I found there, though. It is so easy to leave the heart of the Christian message out so no one is offended.

We three kings

 

[prodromos]

On Epiphany, I played the Beach Boy's take on the song.

But after the end, I discovered and sung a couple of actual last verses. I notice that in many Christmas songs about Jesus' birth or the Nativity done by artists only the first one or two verses are sung, sometimes over again. These are 2 real last verses of We 3 Kings that were not in the Beach Boys' We 3 Kings:

"Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;—
Sorrowing, sighing,
Bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
O Star....

Glorious now behold Him arise,
King, and God, and Sacrifice;
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Heaven and earth replies.
O Star...."

Many of these Nativity songs sung by popular artists actually last quite long, like 3 or 4 minutes. That's more than enough time to sing out the full lyrics. Besides political facts, what could be other reasons for just singing only the first and 2nd verses of a Nativity song?
At first I found it quite disturbing that Jesus' torture on the cross, death, and burial, were already foretold by one of the gifts of the Magi, Myrrh. But it's been prophesied in Scripture and it was made of good use when He died on the cross. Of course, the real last verse involves His resurrection from the dead.​

This is why Orthodox icons of the Nativity depict Christ's birth in a cave. They prefigure His burial in the tomb.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Another interesting fact is that the Magi were not Kings. Magi is the plural of Magus and a Magus was a priest of the Zoroastrianism faith that was centred in the modern region of Iran/Iraq. I suspect that they had a powerful influence on the Jews during the Babylonian Exile. We cannot even know for sure that they were "wise men".

I suspect it is related to the notion of "sage", similar to the original meaning of the English word "wizard", literally a "wise person" (from wys meaning "wise" and -ard (compare drunkard). As early as Tyndale we get the translation of "wyse me". Wycliffe has "astromyenes" capturing the idea that they were star-gazers. Curious I looked up the oldest I could find, the Wessex Gospels, and there they have tungol-witegan. Best as I can tell that means something like "those who know or see the stars", tungol being Anglo-Saxon for "star" or "celestial body" and "witegan" meaning "one who knows" or "one who sees" related to "wit" related to "wys"--"to see" or "to know (by seeing)". Note that I don't know for sure, I'm doing my best to try and dig into the etymology, but am also conjecturing some here.

It would be my guess, then, that "wise men" follows an etymological and traditional connection to these being "[star] sages". It's just that the term "wise men" carries a lot of different connotations and senses now. But, basically, a fairly accurate way to describe the magi as star-gazers.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[prodromos]

Three wise-guys