An appellation given among the Medes and Persians to a class of priests, wise men, philosophers, etc., who devoted themselves to the study of the moral and physical sciences, and particularly cultivated astrology and medicine. They alone performed the religious rites, and pretended to communicate to men secret things, future events, and the will of the gods. See Isaiah 47:13,14 Daniel 2:9,27 , show that as a class they were destitute of true wisdom.
Not so those who came "from the East" to salute and adore the infant Jesus, Matthew 2:1-12 . The captivity of the Jews beyond the Euphrates had dispersed throughout the East much knowledge of the true God; and these philosophers and astronomers, in their search after wisdom, had found and believed the prophecies respecting the Messiah, and were divinely guided to his presence at Bethlehem. See Psalm 72:10,11 Isaiah 60:1-3 .