History testifies: Iranians were the first Christian worshippers

 FCNN News Agency: They were the first religious figures to worship Jesus. Easterners who had come from far away to find the Messiah, the King of the Jews, and to present their gifts on the occasion of his birth. They brought gold, myrrh, and frankincense from their homeland for the newborn baby to be remembered in history.

And what more precious memory could there be than the fact that their meeting with their Lord was recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.

The Bible reports the meeting of these three wise men with Jesus Christ. This meeting played a key role in the story of Jesus' birth.

But from which land these three people earned the honor of this visit is a question that has occupied minds for centuries, but countless pieces of evidence indicate that they were Iranian.

The Bible mentions that they came from the east, which traditionally includes Babylon, Persia, or the Jews of Yemen.

In Byzantine paintings dating back to 565 AD, the Three Magi are depicted in Persian clothing.

In the Natal Reis Magos, or the statue of the Magi kings in Brazil, these three are also mentioned as: Lohrasb; Jamasb and Gashtasb. Other names mentioned in languages ​​other than Persian (in Christian texts) include: Caspar; Melchior and Paltazar.

Armenian texts also state that the three Magi came from Persia, India, and Arabia. The Magi's promise of the birth of a king of the Jews angered and frightened Herod, causing him to order the killing of all male children, just like Pharaoh. However, Jesus and his family escaped this fate because they had fled to Egypt. In the story of Jesus' birth, he is born like Moses, and like Moses, his enemies attempt to kill him when he is a child.

The burial place of the Magi is not completely known, but there have been claims about it so far.

In the travelogue of Marco Polo, who visited Tehran in 1270, the tombs and graves of these three people are estimated to be in a square-shaped place in Saveh, near Tehran, which is mentioned in a work by the Iranian painter Ostad Hossein Behzad.

Marco Polo, in the book Million, Volume 1, states: “There is a city in Persia called Saba from which the three Magi came and were buried in this city in three large and very beautiful tombs, side by side. And above it is a square building that is very beautifully preserved. The bodies are complete and even their hair and beards are preserved.”

Marco Polo of Venice, who came to Iran in the 13th century as the first European Christian, wrote in his travelogue that there is a city in Iran called Saba (which refers to the current city of Saveh) from which three Magi named Gaspar, Melchoir, and Balthasar set out and went to Bethlehem to worship Jesus Christ, and all three of them are buried in a luxurious tomb with beards and locks of hair.

Marco Polo himself stated that in 1270 AD, in the city of Saveh, the people of the city showed him the tomb of the Three Magi who had predicted the advent of the Promised One or the Messiah.

Marco Polo made detailed research in the city about these three people, but no one could give him any accurate information about them, except that in ancient times the three Magi were buried there (Savah).

The graves of these three apostles of Christ are in the village of Injil Awand, which is mistakenly called Injir Awand. While this village is named after the Christian Bible, the name of the Bible. And the tombs still exist. However, according to oral information, the graves of these elders have been dug up and the bodies have been sent to Germany.

Some Christians also believe that the tombs of these three people are located in the Great Cathedral of Cologne, Germany.

There is another tomb in Palestine called the Tomb of the Three Kings, which is sometimes considered the burial place of the Three Wise Men.