Book Review: Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men's Journey to Bethlehem

Keywords

Wise Men, Birth of Christ, Wise men journey

Abstract

This book presents an annotated English translation of a New Testament apocryhon. Landau's title, taken from the first words of the text's opening formula, is certainly more evocative than Witakowski's preferred Story of the Magi, which is based on the concluding formula, "the Story about the Magi and their gifts is concluded."The introduction to the volume (1-34) is cast as a personal story of discovery, a useful rhetorical device for presenting abstruse materialto a popular audience. The conclusion (89-98) is followed by an appendix that gives a translation of the relevant portion of the related Opus Imperfectum in Mattheum (103-105). All in all, Brent Landau and his publisher have done an admirable job of turning apiece of philological research (Harvard ThD dissertation, 2008)into a book with broad and popular appeal.

Original Publication Citation

Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem. New York: HarperOne, 2010. (Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 14.2 (2011): 294-98).

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2011

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6407

Publisher

Academia

Language

English

College

Religious Education

Department

Ancient Scripture

University Standing at Time of Publication

Staff/Researcher

Link to Full Text

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