Matthew 9When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.________________Magi – it is a tribe of people.   They are from Medo-Persian empire.  They choose one tribe to be the priests– Magian Tribe.  They represented the nation of Mede’s…  They maintained influence… They were highly influential and revered group of people.They flowed through in Babylon, Medo-Persian empire, they were in Greek empire and the present roman empire of this time.When they came – they came in caravan… and 100’s of them accompanies them.    They come with loud noise.  In fact, Nero, the roman emperor when he was in his peak – killing and burning Rome, when heard that Magi were coming, he rolled a red-carpet to them.Kings sought them, for advise – they are like Levites.  No Persian king can be made king, unless Magi crowned them._______They worshiped one god – they worshiped fire.   They had an altar the fire was burning and another altar they sacrificed animals.They also had clean vs unclean animals – just like Jews.They also believed touching a corpse – defies a man.Why is this important - Daniel These were the king makers – in the book of Esther 1  - they even say, it is law of the Mede and Persians.  That’s after the Kings consulted with the Magi.Priestly tribe, influential many kingdoms, interacted with Daniel… 6th century BCE, when King Darius (Medo Persians) – decided to create one-religion Zoroastrianism.  There are 3 groups of Magi’s:Followed the ancient Medo-Persian systemFollowed Daniel and his teaching - True GodFollowed King Darius religion.