Whenever you see a nativity setup it’s always kinda annoying to see these white people gathered around a little white baby…. This apparently happened in Bethlehem, in Asia! But for all the whitening over the years one thing has stood, the token black dude!

For those that went to Church, you probably know that dude is Balthazar! Sometimes known as The King of Arabia or The King of Tarse and Egypt! But do you know anything more about him and why is he still black in the white washed westernised Christianity?

Balthazar gave myrrh to baby Jesus according to the Christian story of the three wise men (Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior) who followed the star to Jesus’s manager and presented him with precious gifts.

Balthazar’s name isn’t in the bible, even the number of wise men isn’t mentioned, it actually all came from a later manuscript. Wikipedia says:

The Gospels of the New Testament in The Bible do not give the names of the Magi (or even how many there were), but their traditional names are ascribed to a Greek manuscript from 500 AD translated into Latin and commonly accepted as the source of the names. In this original manuscript, Balthazar is called Bithisarea which later developed into Balthazar in Western Christianity. Balthazar was described in the 8th century by Saint Bede as being “black complexion, with heavy beard” with the “myrrh he held in his hands prefigured the death of the Son of man”.

As part of the Magi, Balthazar followed the Star of Bethlehem first to the palace of Herod the Great who instructed them to return to him when they had found the Child Jesus. When they arrive at the house, the Magi worshipped him and presented their gifts. Balthazar gave the gift of myrrh, which symbolised the future death of a king, as myrrh was an expensive item at the time. Following his return to his own country, avoiding King Herod, it is purported that Balthazar celebrated Christmas with the other members of the Magi in Armenia in 54 AD but later died on 6 January 55 AD aged 112.

For all accounts, the closest reason Baltizar stayed black was because he was from Arabia or Egypt, he was involved somehow in bringing Myrrh, which may have been traded through Upper Egypt, on the border of Sub-Saharan Africa.

As to why and how he kept black for more than 1500 years since his first mention in the manuscript, who knows! Dark faces in early christianity were more common and it seems that he was somehow left in literally as the token black dude!

Over the years in Europe he has often been portrayed in blackface, however recent calls for just calling up a black actor have been made and are finally being listened too!

Do you know more about this? Can you help expand?