Caspar (magus)

{{Short description|One of three Magi who visited Jesus}}
{{infobox saint
|image=Geertgen tot St. Jans - De aanbidding van de koningen - Rijksmuseum SK-A-2150 (Caspar).jpg
|caption= Caspar being handed a covered beaker – from [[The Adoration of the Magi (Geertgen tot Sint Jans)|''The Adoration of the Magi'' (Geertgen tot Sint Jans)]]
|imagesize= 250px
|titles= Three Magi, Three Kings, Three Wise Men
|name= Caspar
|honorific-prefix = [[Saint]]
|feast_day= 6 January ([[Epiphany (holiday)|Epiphany]])<br>11 January (Date of his death)
|venerated_in= [[Roman Catholic Church]]<br>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Anglican Communion]]<br>[[Lutheran Church]]
|canonized_date= [[Pre-Congregation]]
|major_shrine= ''[[Shrine of the Three Kings]]'', [[Cologne Cathedral]]
|attributes= King bearing [[Biblical_Magi#Gifts|gifts]], king on a [[camel]], three [[Crown (headgear)|crowns]]
|patronage= [[Epilepsy]], [[thunder]], [[motorists]], [[pilgrims]], [[playing card|playing card manufacturers]], sawmen, [[sawyer (occupation)|sawyer]]s, [[Travel|travellers]], [[merchants|travelling merchants]], [[Cologne]], [[Germany]], [[Saxony]]
}} 
'''Caspar''' (otherwise known as '''Casper''', '''Gaspar''', '''Kaspar''', '''Jasper''',<ref>[[British Library]] [https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/roymanucoll/h/011roy000002b15u00039v00.html register entry] for Historiated Initial With The Adoration Of the Magi, In A [[book of hours|Book Of Hours]] (1500): "According to tradition, there was one old magus, named Caspar or Jasper..."</ref> and other variations) was one of the 'Three Kings', along with [[Melchior (Magus)|Melchior]] and [[Balthazar (Magus)|Balthazar]], representing the wise men or [[Biblical Magi]] mentioned in the Bible in the [[Gospel of Matthew]], verses 2:1-9. Although the Bible does not specify who or what the Magi were, since the seventh century, the Magi have been identified in [[Western Christianity]] as Caspar, [[Melchior (magus)|Melchior]] and [[Balthazar (magus)|Balthasar]]. Caspar and the other two Magi are considered saints by the [[Catholic Church]].

== Name origin ==
{{Further|Casper (given name)|}}

While it is generally accepted that Casper/Kaspar/Gaspar/Jasper was one of the [[Biblical Magi]] or 'three wise men' who were said to [[Adoration of the Magi|have visited]] the [[Nativity_of_Jesus|infant Jesus]] - bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh - there is some debate in academic literature over the rendering of his name. It is likely that these varied renderings are driven by regional and linguistic differences among scholars in different times, places and tongues. <ref>[[Jean-Pierre Isbouts]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20210511225002/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/three-kings-magi-epiphany "Who were the three kings in the Christmas story?"], [[National Geographic]] (2018): "Later tellings of the story identified the magi by name and identified their lands of origin: ...'''Gaspar (also called 'Caspar' or 'Jaspar'''')".</ref><ref>[[Jean-Pierre Isbouts]], Who's Who in the Bible: A reference guide (2013), p114, ISBN 1426211597.</ref><ref>[[Excerpta Latina Barbari]],[http://www.attalus.org/translate/barbari.html#51B page 51B, line 49]: "At that time in the reign of Augustus, on 1st January the Magi brought him gifts and worshipped him. The names of the Magi were Bithisarea, Melichior and '''Gathaspa'''.".</ref><ref>[[British Library]] [https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/roymanucoll/h/011roy000002b15u00039v00.html register entry] for Historiated Initial With The Adoration Of the Magi, In A [[book of hours|Book Of Hours]] (1500): "According to tradition, there was one old magus, '''named Caspar or Jasper'''..."</ref><ref>Hugo Kehrer (1908), [https://archive.org/details/dieheiligendrei00kehrgoog/page/n92/mode/1up?view=theater Vol. I, p. 70] [https://books.google.com/books?id=uhGJwEmfrEwC&pg=PA66 Online version] Kehrer's commentary: "Die Form '''Jaspar''' stammt aus Frankreich. Sie findet sich im niederrheinisch-kölnischen Dialekt und im Englischen. Note: O. Baist page 455; J.P.Migne; Dictionnaire des apocryphes, Paris 1856, vol I, p. 1023. ... So in La Vie de St. Gilles; Li Roumans de Berte: Melcior, Jaspar, Baltazar; Rymbybel des Jakob von Märlant: Balthasar, Melchyor, '''Jaspas'''; ein altenglisches Gedicht des dreizehnten oder vierzehnten Jahrhunderts (13th century!!) Note: C.Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, Paderborn 1875, p. 95; ... La Vie des trois Roys '''Jaspar''' Melchior et Balthasar, Paris 1498"-->]</ref> 

Jasper is traditionally identified as having brought the gold, hence the Persian etymology of [[Jasper_(given_name)|Jasper as a given name]], meaning 'bringer of gifts' or 'treasurer'.<ref>[[Penny, Nicholas|Nicholas Penny]], National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume II, Venice 1540–1600, 2008, National Gallery Publications Ltd, ISBN 1857099133, p104.</ref><ref>[https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h1489/esv/wlc/0-1/ "H1489 - '''gizbar''' - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (KJV)"]. Blue Letter Bible. Retrieved 25 December 2020.</ref>

The name ''[[Caspar]]'' or ''[[Casper (given name)|Casper]]'' is derived from "Gaspar". In turn, "Gaspar" is from an ancient [[Chaldea]]n word, "Gizbar", which, according to  [[Strong's Concordance]], means "treasurer".<ref>{{Cite web|title=H1489 - gizbar - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (KJV)|url=https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/gen/1/1/s_1001|access-date=2020-12-25|website=Blue Letter Bible|language=en}}</ref> The form "Gizbar" appears in the Hebrew version of the [[Old Testament]] [[Book of Ezra]] (1:8). In fact, the modern [[Hebrew]] word for "treasurer" is still "Gizbar".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Klein Dictionary, גִּזְבָּר|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Klein_Dictionary,_גִּזְבָּר|access-date=2020-12-25|website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref> By the 1st century B.C., the [[Septuagint]] gave a Greek translation of "Gizbar" in Ezra 1:8 as "''γασβαρηνου''" ("Gasbarinou", literally son of "Gasbar"). <ref>{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Bernard Alwyn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNaDupoSycMC&pg=PA106|title=Analytical Lexicon to the Septuagint|date=2009|publisher=Hendrickson Publishers|isbn=978-1-56563-516-6|pages=106|language=el}}</ref> The transition from "Gizbar" to "Caspar" and "Kaspar" can thus be summarized as: Gizbar > Gasbar > Gaspar > Caspar > Kaspar (with "C" being a misreading of the manuscript "G" and "K" having the same phonetic value as "C". Another derivation proposed by [[Alfred von Gutschmid|Gutschmid]] (1864) could be the corruption of the Iranic name "[[Gondophares]]".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Metzger|first=Bruce M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cS2hDwAAQBAJ&q=%22The%20derivation%20of%20the%20name%20Gaspar%20(or%20Caspar%2C%20or%20Jasper)%20is%20disputed%22&pg=PA29|title=New Testament studies (philological, versional, and patristic)|date=2019-07-01|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-37928-2|pages=29|language=en}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal|last=von Gutschmid|first=A.|date=1864|title=Die Königsnamen in den apokryphen Apostelgeschichten. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniß des geschichtlichen Romans|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41249661|journal=Rheinisches Museum für Philologie|volume=19|pages=161–183|jstor=41249661|issn=0035-449X}}</ref>

==Place of origin==
[[File:Crisa Aureia.tif|thumb| The homeland of King Caspar in the ''Aurea Cersonese'', the Golden Peninsula, near Java in the Indian Ocean, on the map of [[Andreas Walsperger]], c.1448]]
Who the magi were is not specified  in the Bible; there are only traditions. Since English translations of the Bible refer to them as "men who studied the stars", they are believed to have been [[astrologers]], who could foresee the birth of a "[[Messiah]]" from their study of the stars.<ref name=Drum>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09527a.htm Drum, Walter. "Magi." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 2 May 2015</ref>

Caspar is often considered to be an Indian scholar. An article in the 1913 ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/356642/Magi|title=Magi|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=21 June 2023 }}</ref> states that "according to Western church tradition, [[Balthazar (magus)|Balthasar]] is often represented as a king of [[Arabia]], [[Melchior (magus)|Melchior]] as a king of [[Persia]], and Caspar as a king of [[India]]." Historian [[John of Hildesheim]] relates a tradition in the ancient silk road city of [[Taxila (modern)|ancient Taxila]] that one of the Magi passed through the city on the way to [[Bethlehem]].

Some consider Caspar to be [[Gondophares|King Gondophares]] (AD 21 – c. AD 47) mentioned in the [[Acts of Thomas]]. Others consider him to have come from the southern parts of India where, according to tradition, [[Thomas the Apostle]] visited decades later. The town by name [[Piravom]] in [[Kerala]] State, Southern India has for long claimed that one of the three Biblical Magi went from there. The name Piravom in the local Malayalam language translates to "birth". It is believed that the name originated from a reference to the [[Nativity of Jesus]]. There is a concentration of three churches named after the Biblical Magi in and around Piravom, as against only another three so named in the rest of India.

There are some who consider that Caspar's kingdom was located in the region of ''[[Egrisilla]]'' in ''[[India Superior]]'' on the peninsula that forms the eastern side of the ''[[Sinus Magnus]]'' (Gulf of Thailand) by [[Johannes Schöner]] on his globe of 1515. On it can be seen ''Egrisilla Bragmanni'' ("Egrisilla of the Brahmans"), and in the explanatory treatise which accompanied the globe, Schöner noted: “The region of Egrisilla, in which there are Brahman [i.e. Indian] Christians; there Gaspar the Magus held dominion”.<ref>“Egrisilla regio in qua sunt christiani Bragmanni. ibi Gaspar magus fertur habuisse dominum”, ''Luculentissima quaedam terrae totius descriptio,'' Nuremberg, 1515, Tract.II, fol.54 [http://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=autoren_werke&ab=Sch%C3%B6ner,%20Johannes&l=de]. Schöner’s 1515 globe is reproduced in [[Chet van Duzer]], ''Johann Schöner’s Globe of 1515: Transcription and Study,'' Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, Transactions, Volume 100.</ref> The phrase ''hic rex caspar habitavit'' (here lived King Caspar) is inscribed over the [[Golden Chersonese]] (Malay Peninsula) on the [[Mappa Mundi|mappemonde]] of [[Andreas Walsperger]] made in Constance around 1448. Whether it was a latter day king who took the name of Caspar is also not known.
[[File:Gaspar magus.tif|thumb|Johannes Schöner on Gaspar magus, or Saint Caspar: "The region of Egrisilla, in which there are Brahman [i.e. Indian] Christians; there Gaspar the Magus held dominion," ''Luculentissima quaedam terrae totius descriptio''.]]
The Magi are now considered by some not to have been kings. The reference to "kings" is believed to have originated due to the reference in [[Psalms]] "The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring him gifts: and all the kings of the earth shall adore him" Psalm 72:10.

Some late medieval depictions of Caspar as an African king may have been influenced by accounts of the [[Mansa Musa#Islam and pilgrimage to Mecca|hajj]] pilgrimage of the Ghanan ruler [[Mansa Musa]].

==Gift to Child Jesus==
[[Image:Dieric Bouts 004.jpg|thumb|Caspar is behind the kneeling Melchior in ''The Magi visiting child Jesus'', by [[Dieric Bouts]]]]
Matthew wrote that the Magi brought three gifts – [[gold]], [[frankincense]] and [[myrrh]]. These gifts apparently have deeper significance, the gold signifying the regal status of Jesus, the frankincense his divinity, and the myrrh his human nature. Caspar is traditionally portrayed with a reddish beard in the middle of the three kings, as younger than Melchior and older than Balthasar, and who waits in line behind Melchior to give the gift of frankincense to the [[Child Jesus]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=erEYlKTP_ZEC&dq=Saint+Caspar&pg=PA383 Giffords, Gloria Fraser, ''Sanctuaries of Earth, Stone, and Light: The Churches of Northern New Spain, 1530-1821'', University of Arizona Press, 2007] {{ISBN|9780816525898}}</ref> He is often portrayed in the act of accepting his gift from an assistant, or in the act of removing his crown, signs of preparing to be next at the feet of [[Child Jesus]].

==Death==
According to tradition, Caspar became a [[martyr]], and some consider that the other two Magi also met with the same fate. The relics of the Magi were found in Persia by [[Helena, mother of Constantine the Great|Helena]], but were later brought to [[Constantinople]] and then to [[Milan]] in [[Italy]]. From there, they reached [[Germany]], where they are now housed in the [[Cologne Cathedral]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Text/concerning_the_magi_and_their_na.htm|title=Concerning The Magi And Their Names|access-date=2 May 2015|archive-date=20 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420114004/http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Text/concerning_the_magi_and_their_na.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[Image:Cologne Cathedral Shrine of Magi.jpg|thumb|right|The relics of the Magi kept in the [[Shrine of the Three Kings]] in [[Cologne Cathedral]], Germany.]]Caspar is commemorated on the [[Feast of Epiphany]] along with the other members of the Magi but is also commemorated in Catholicism with his feast day, 11 January. Following his return to his own country, avoiding King Herod, it is purported that Caspar celebrated Christmas with the other members of the Magi in Armenia in 54 AD. Caspar died on January 11, 55 AD aged 109.{{fact|date=December 2021}}

==Veneration==
In some parishes, it is traditional to bless chalk for each family so that they may [[Chalking the door|mark the first initial of each of the three Magi over their doors]] as a blessing for protection.

==See also==
*[[Casper (given name)|Casper]]

==References==
<references />

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Caspar (Wise Man)}}

{{Nativity of Jesus}}
{{Epiphany}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

[[Category:Biblical Magi]]
[[Category:Christmas characters]]
[[Category:Unnamed people of the Bible]]
[[Category:Saints from the Holy Land]]