Why would Baby Jesus have needed Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh?
I am very christian, but it seems silly to give a baby such a gift?
he needed it to Pimp His Crib
I am very christian, but it seems silly to give a baby such a gift?
he needed it to Pimp His Crib
December 24th, 2009 at 8:37 am
He was a brat.
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December 24th, 2009 at 9:10 am
he needed it to Pimp His Crib
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December 24th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Yeah. Who gives Frankincense to a baby? These wisemen sure didn’t know much about babies…
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December 24th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Never to young to start bribing them.
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December 24th, 2009 at 10:40 am
well, you have to give babies a good start.. and he needed it
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December 24th, 2009 at 10:47 am
because he is jesus, he can do whatever he wants. ahh.. cocaine, what a drug. oh i’m sorry, you’re serious? jesus is not really magical, silly.
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December 24th, 2009 at 11:15 am
These gifts for told His destiny. Gold because He was King, Frankincense because He was and is God, and Myrrh because He was born to die in our place.
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December 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am
It was not that he needed it it was a gift of respect, the wise men wanted to bring their very best for the son of god
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December 24th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Remember he’s a Jew…
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December 24th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
They’re symbolic of the rightful king of Israel.
(Plus they were worth a great deal of money.)
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December 24th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
a baby needs diapers
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December 24th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
As examples to show His followers what He expected of them later in life, and in quantity.
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December 24th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Incredibly silly question, as Jesus would have obviously needed nothing (assuming you believe he was a god figure, which he wasn’t). Had he needed something, he wouldn’t have been omnipotent, and therefore, not a god.
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December 24th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
He didn’t need it. That’s what others "thought" he needed since they knew about who he was.
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December 24th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
He didn’t need them..They were offered to Him as King…
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December 24th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Have you ever caught a whiff of a manger?
Seriously, the gifts were used to purchase divine favor.
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December 24th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
it was one of the first baby showers, gold was money then, obviously that wise men couldn’t think of a good gift. Dont post questions that help ppl belittle the religion plz
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December 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
He didn’t need those items; they just were gifts giving unto him without his awareness for them.
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December 24th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I know right.
A rattle would have sufficed.
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December 24th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
the baby wouldn’t but the parents would need the money so that they could flee into egypt when king herod sought the death of the child.
the wise men did not come until about two years after jesus was born.
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December 24th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
They weren’t just gifts to a plain old baby…He’s the Son of God!
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December 24th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
These gifts were fit for a king in those day. And Jesus is the King of kings!
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December 24th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Young Jesus did NOT need any of those things. The Magis’ gifts were simply a way of honoring Jesus. That was it!
It was customary in eastern cultures to always bring gifts when one was to be in the presence of someone of importance, especially a king. Jesus was considered to be the future King of the Jewish people.
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December 24th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Three gifts are explicitly identified in Matthew: gold, frankincense, and myrrh which is found only in Yemen. Many different theories of the meaning and symbolism of the gifts have been brought forward. While gold is fairly obviously explained, frankincense, and particularly myrrh, are much more obscure.
The theories generally break down into two groups:
All three gifts are ordinary offerings and gifts given to a king. Myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable.
The three gifts had a spiritual meaning : gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of priestship, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.
Sometimes this is described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.
Myrrh was used as an embalming ointment and as a penitential incense in funerals and cremations until the 15th century. The "holy oil" traditionally used by the Eastern Orthodox Church for performing the sacraments of chrismation and unction is traditionally scented with myrrh, and receiving either of these sacraments is commonly referred to as "receiving the Myrrh".
It has been suggested by scholars that the "gifts" were medicinal rather than precious material for tribute.
The Syrian King Seleucus II is recorded to have offered gold, frankincense and myrrh to Apollo in his temple at Miletus in 243 BC, and this may have been the precedent for the the mention of these three gifts in Gospel of Matthew (2:11). It was these three gifts, it is thought, which was the chief cause for the number of the Magi becoming fixed eventually at three.
This episode can be linked to Isaiah 60 and to Psalm 72 which report gifts being given by kings, and this has played a central role in the perception of the Magi as kings, rather than as astronomer-priests. In a hymn of the late 4th-century hispanic poet Prudentius, the three gifts have already gained their medieval interpretation as prophetic emblems of Jesus’ identity, familiar in the carol "We Three Kings" by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., 1857.
John Chrysostom suggested that the gifts were fit to be given not just to a king but to God, and contrasted them with the Jews’ traditional offerings of sheep and calves, and accordingly Chrysostom asserts that the Magi worshiped Jesus as God.
What subsequently happened to these gifts is never mentioned in the scripture, but several traditions have developed. One story has the gold being stolen by the two thieves who were later crucified alongside Jesus. Another tale has it being entrusted to and then misappropriated by Judas.
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December 24th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
He was all about the bling.
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December 24th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Jesus is King of Kings, He is Lord of Lords and the Magi came and brought gifts to Him.
He was not just a baby in a stable. He is the Savior of the world.
So for that reason Jesus got the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
All the kinds of gifts someone would give a King.
How old are you?
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December 24th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
He wouldn’t have. It was and still is a tradition of the country to give gifts when you visit a person of account. And would not Jesus the son of God be of highest account in the whole world? 1 Peter 1:18 – This scripture is reprimanding people who went over board when it came to tradition. They only gave consideration to tradition and not what was taught from the bible. It talks a little about this same tradition that we are talking about now.
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December 24th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
The poster God’s servant answered the question. While the wise men gave those gifts to acknowledge the birth of a king. God meant it to help finance their escape from the evil King Herod who was going to kill all the male children in his kingdom who were two years of age and younger.
Remember that both Joseph and Mary were very poor and yet three magi came and gave those costly gifts for a king. All of this was necessary for God warned Joseph to flee to Egypt in a dream. Those gifts financed their escape and live in Egypt until it was time to return after King Herod’s death.
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December 24th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
It wasn’t so much that he needed them as other people (and the way you phrased this question) have implied. It wasn’t about Jesus "needing" the gifts, and while He was a child, you must remember that He was also the Savior and true King of the Jews. Baby or not, these were the kinds of gifts brought to a king. Also, there is a more in depth explanation in the link in my sources, I think this may have been provided to you all ready, but check it out if you haven’t. It will resolve your question, I believe.
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http://www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/1368642/
December 24th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Remember, the Wise Men were aware of who Baby Jesus was, so they brought those gifts to honor Him.
Also, Joseph & Mary had traveled a long way, for a long time, to Bethlehem because they had a tax to pay. I’m pretty sure the innkeeper might also have put them in the stable because they were poor. So they had to pay a tax, to take care of Baby Jesus, and then they had to travel even further when they had to leave and flee to Egypt. So I’m sure the gifts came in very handy, considering all the time they spent on the road traveling.
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December 24th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Needed the gold to get a better room and the other stuff to make the stable smell better>_<
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December 24th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Each of those gifts represents a different ‘quality’
You have to understand what each gift meant to the people of that time. They have symbolic meanings. Far from silly.
Another thing to consider is that the 3 travelers were traveling long before Jesus was actually born. They had those gifts ready. Why not read up on it. You might find the background details very interesting.
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