Gold, frankincense and myrrh: were these good gifts for a child?
If myrrh was used in embalming, why would you give it to a child?
I can see the gold part, of course, and maybe even the frankincense as an honor for an important child, but why give him something that had connotations of death?
Maybe the three wise men located him through following a star, but it doesn’t mean they knew that the Romans would kill him thirty years later. Nor would that have been a good thing to tell Mary.
Was myrrh an inappropriate gift for a baby?
Actually, they don’t have connotations of death. You don’t understand the intentions. They are used for protection from spirits and are used during religious rituals. They are also used during meditation and prayer (frankincense and myrrh). My family back home in Africa still use them today for those purposes.
December 8th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
No wonder they were from the East – my Indian uncles always give me crappy gifts on my birthday!
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December 8th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I’ll just spin my top.
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December 8th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I was taught that the gifts had some symbolism, Gold is an obvious one, it represents royalty. The gift of frankincense represents the Jesus’ divinity, since incense is used primarily in the worship of God (in temples and such). And finally as you point out, the myrrh is an embalming the dead with symbolizes his mortality (his human side if you will);
By today’s standards, yes, myrrh is inappropriate. But then again, for me this was all just a story…
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December 8th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
They were the required offerings for presenting a firstborn son at the Temple.
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December 8th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Actually, they don’t have connotations of death. You don’t understand the intentions. They are used for protection from spirits and are used during religious rituals. They are also used during meditation and prayer (frankincense and myrrh). My family back home in Africa still use them today for those purposes.
References :
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/myrrh.htm
http://www.anahatabalance.com/resin_frankincense.html
http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/frankincense_myrrh
December 8th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Well myrrh oil was (and still is) used in may things like curing infections, rashes, & tooth aches, as well as building the immune system. It also has numbing qualities, and was probably used on babies to soothe diaper rashes & teething pain. So I would consider that a very appropriate gift for a baby.
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http://www.health-care-tips.org/herbal-medicines/myrrh.htm
December 8th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
"They were the required offerings for presenting a firstborn son at the Temple."
Is that so? can you point me to a source?
I’ve seen Myrrh interpreted as a foreshadowing of his death.
Considering it is all legend and not based on fact, why not bring that nuance in early on.
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December 8th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
You first must understand that these were symbolic gifts. Also, all three were rare and denoted wealth. Assuming this even happened, I am sure Mary and Joseph took these things, kept the gold or exchanged it for smaller coin, and sold the frankincense and myrrh to help pay for their journey to Egypt and staying there, as Joseph would not have been able to work, probably. Or they simply kept the money and used it slowly over the years to supplement income. The Birth Narratives were Never Intended to be taken literally. They were symbolic stories that came right out of pagan belief systems that their writers came from.
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December 8th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Mary knew early on that her Child would die an excruciating death. The myrrh was to symbolize that Jesus was a Man, the frankincense to symbolize that He was God, and the gold to symbolize that He was a King. The gifts of the Maji were inspired by God, and meant more for their symbolism than to be of practical use to Jesus.
God bless!
Dave
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