WHAT IS ? Since “ means “coming” and Epiphany means “appearance”, one may well wonder what the difference is. The dominant themes of Advent are repentance and hope. The violet colour of the paraments fits a sombre mood. Epiphany originated in the Eastern Church and soon was one of the most important church festivals, and it is still one of the chief festivals of the Orthodox Church. We find the first mention of it in the writing of Clement of Alexandria, about AD 200. He commented that some Gnostic sects celebrated the festival of the baptism of Christ on 6 January. Their strange belief was that “the heavenly Christ” came down into the man Jesus when he was baptised, and left him again when he died. Christians could not think of Christ’s baptism in that way. However, the early Church in the East observed Jesus’ baptism at Epiphany. Epiphany was first observed as a Christian festival near the end of the third century. A separate observance for Christ’s birth did not come until about a century later, in the West. One of the chief themes has been the mission to the Gentiles. The early Christians celebrated Christ’s birth and the coming of the wise men on 6 January, Epiphany. In the fourth century Epiphany was still regarded as “The Festival of Lights,” one of the chief days, together with and , when catechumens received baptism. Baptism was regarded as the coming of the light to people in the darkness of heathendom. Because 6 January comes twelve days after , our Christmas season ought to be from Christmas to Epiphany, not, as the shops observe Christmas, from about October on, when they use Christmas carols as to stimulate people to buy. The number twelve comes up in some Christmas carols, including the one lampooned by Penelope Keith! Depending on the day of the week when Christmas falls there are either one or two Sundays after Christmas before Epiphany. We hear about Epiphany in the West for the first time in about AD 360 in Gaul, North Africa and Italy. As in the East, the day celebrated chiefly the manifestation of Christ’s glory in His baptism of Christ and at His first miracle at Cana. However, the West added the appearance of the star when the Magi were led to the King of the Jews. This confuses us, because many Christmas carols already include the coming of the Magi. The Eastern Church does not observe Christ’s birth on 25 December. Legend very soon added details to the story of the Magi. According to a Syrian tradition there were twelve wise men, but Christian tradition in the West assumed that there were three because of the three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. Psalm 72, the psalm of the day, and still the Introit for Epiphany, says: “May the kings from Tarshish and the coastlands bring presents; may the kings from Sheba and Seba bring tribute. May all kings bow down to him; may all nations serve him.” Scripture does not support the assumption that the Magi were kings. The Venerable Bede and claimed to know their names, Gaspar (), and Balshazzar or Balthasar. Gaspar was the king of Persia, the representative of the white race. Melchior was the king of Nubia, an Ethiopian with a reddish-brown complexion. Balthasar was the youthful king of Seba with a black face. The Magi have gone into works of art in this manner. The cathedrals of Milan and Cologne competed for the possession of their relics, which are now supposedly at Cologne! Many superstitions and customs have grown up around the story about the Magi. The children of the poor sometimes dressed as and went from house to house to recite a poem on the theme of the day, hoping to receive alms. Because the season of Advent was a later development, the Church Year originally began on 6 January. Because the Magi were Gentiles, Epiphany still has a mission emphasis, celebrating Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles. In Reformed Churches Epiphany does not receive much attention. They dropped it immediately. Luther kept it together with the traditional pericopes, Isaiah 60: 1-12 and Matthew 2:1-12. He regarded it as a post- celebration of Christmas. However, the nearness of the Christmas festival has always put the festival of Epiphany in the shade in the West. Because the 6th January falls on a Sunday infrequently, Epiphany is not observed in services in about six years out of seven. The first Sunday after Epiphany was also a minor festival, which commemorated Jesus Christ’s baptism in the Jordan. All festivals that are related to Jesus Christ are white, and that is the reason for white at Epiphany and on the First Sunday after Epiphany. Luther’s hymn “Christ under Herr zum Jordan kam” (“When Christ our Lord to Jordan came”, number 748) dwells on the importance of baptism. It is right, however, to remember that Christ’s baptism itself was not the institution of Christian baptism. As part of His fulfilment of all righteousness for us, He also received the baptism of . Unfortunately many people to day find Luther’s melody hard to sing. The Father’s voice from heaven proclaimed Him as the Son of God. The descent of the Spirit on Jesus at His baptism marked Him out publicly as the One anointed by the Holy Spirit, the Messiah, and He then began His ministry, full of the Spirit. That was when His work of salvation was made manifest to people. His divine glory, which He had possessed from eternity, and as man since His birth, began to be displayed in His words and miraculous signs. The rest of the Sundays of Epiphany except the last have Gospel readings that focus on Jesus’ early ministry, chiefly in Galilee. The traditional Gospel readings included the miracle of the turning of water into wine at Cana, when Jesus’ first miraculous sign “manifested forth His glory”, and the finding of the twelve-year old Jesus in the temple. Christopher Wordsworth’s hymn “Song of Thankfulness and Praise” (Number 47) retains the themes of the Epiphany season in the one-year Lectionary. It includes the appearance of the star, the appearance of Christ at His baptism, the manifestation of His glory at Cana, and the demonstration of Jesus’ Messiahship in the early words and works of His ministry. In series A of the three-year Lectionary the Gospel readings in the Epiphany season are the coming of the Magi, Jesus’ baptism, Jesus’ first disciples, Jesus’ ministry at Capernaum and the call of the fishermen Simon, Andrew, James and John, and the five sections from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and 6. The Last Sunday after Epiphany, the Sunday before begins, regularly observes Jesus’ transfiguration, and that accounts for the change to white paraments for that day. The number of Sundays after Epiphany varies, depending on the . Easter is observed by the lunar calendar, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the autumn equinox (in the Southern Hemisphere), the 21 5t March. In the early church it was the responsibility of the bishop of announce the date of Easter, so he either had to know something about astronomy or get his information from the local Jewish synagogue when they were celebrating the Passover. In Egypt Athanasius’ paschal letters announcing the, date of Easter were usually issued about the time of Epiphany. In the three-year Lectionary system, if Easter is late, there may be as many as eight Sundays after Epiphany before Transfiguration. The older system of readings (in the one-year Lectionary) had three Sundays, called , , and , between Epiphany and Lent. These Latin words meant: “seventieth, “sixtieth”, and “fiftieth”, in a kind of count-down before the forty days of Lent (which excluded the Sundays). In the three-year Lectionary these three Sundays are now included in the Epiphany season, and the colour of the paraments is green for them with the exception of Epiphany itself, Christ’s baptism, and His transfiguration.