Could the wise men have been Essene high priests?
Justin, a native of Palestine in the second century, said the magi or wise men came from Arabia. “Jewish tradition … knew that many priests of the first temple had settled in ‘Arabia’ after Josiah’s temple purges in the late seventh century BCE.” Perhaps the wise men were descendants of these priests, “especially as the traditional way to depict the magi in nativity icons is as three high priests.” They might have been Essenes. Essenes “were a conservative priestly group opposed to the current temple regime in Jerusalem, they studied prophecy and were themselves prophets, they were astronomers, and they were looking for the Messiah. … But if they were Essenes, why did they need to ask … where the king of the Jews had been born? … One answer might be that they knew a different version of the Bethlehem prophecy in Micah 5.2” that said he shall “not come forth” out of Bethlehem. (Margaret Barker, Christmas: The Original Story, 121-123)