Responding to the article on why frankincense and myrrh seemed like appropriate gifts to give to a baby…
Joseph and Mary weren’t rich. When it came time to present Jesus at the temple, they sacrificed two birds, rather than a lamb, showing that they were poor. A few months later we find them living it up in egypt as Herod kills a whole bunch of children. Where’d they get the money? I’m willing to bet that gold, frankincense and myrrh came in handy.
Hello, and welcome to the SDMB. Thanks for posting your comment. They prefer that you provide a link to the column in question or a page number if you saw it in a book.
I’ll let you slide, this time (as if I could do otherwise… 
Why did the Magi consider frankincense and myrrh such valuable gifts?
But, providing a link would be a display of common courtesy! Surely you don’t expect me to do that!
Sorry :-X
Er, what makes you think they were “living it up” in Egypt? 
Okay, perhaps “living it up” was a poor choice in terms. but it does take money to travel, and get established in a whole new country. I was just pointing out that it is awfully handy that just when they’re going to need money to flee with, some guys show up with valuables to give to the baby.
Well, once they got there, Joseph was a carpenter and as such had a valuable skill to practice. As long as he had his tools, he could set up shop anywhere and have money coming in.
Besides, Jesus was God’s Son, and you don’t think God would think to provide a traveling fund for His Only-Begotten Son? 
That’s exactly what I’m saying!
where’d you get the idea that it takes money to either travel or move from place to place?
travelers checks.
It being after 3am here, I’m going to do something impulsive and sloppy and relate this tale from memory… also due to the fact I have no idea where the book is since I read it over 20 years ago. For those of you interested in the actual text and not my recollection, dig up a copy of the Travels of Marco Polo; a diary of people, places and things he came in contact with, or 2nd and 3rd person stories he was told (I thought it was very similar in this respect to Herodotus - a hodgepodge of truth, semi-truth, and fiction).
Marco Polo relates a wonderful tale regarding the three Magi. What follows is as condensed a version as I can make from what I remember reading…
The three Magi were the best and brightest representatives of a village of learned men. It was believed that the ‘sign’ in the heavens indicated that someone special had been born and the three were sent to locate and examine this person. The three gifts were actually a test. The plan was for each of them to simultaneously approach the child with a gift, and the gift that first seemed to hold the child’s attention would indicate his future: Gold to indicate a leader of men, frankincense a holy man, and myrrh a healer. Much to their surprise all three of them felt that the child chose ‘their’ (all three) gift first.
They were about to leave, when the child (not a baby, he was a toddler) approaches his mother and says something. She then gives the Magi a gift. It’s a small wooden box and she says the child wishes for them to have it, but not to open it until they get home. They give their thanks, climb on their camels and begin the long journey back to their village.
As the weeks pass by they really, REALLY want to know what’s in the box. They finally stop in the middle of nowhere, dig the box out and open it to discover: a rock. Doh! The three wise men are furious. They think they’ve been tricked, and one of them throws the rock into a nearby hole in the ground…
Kaboom! A huge pillar of fire comes out of the ground, and knocks them flat. (Apparently a gas well) Aaaah, (insert light bulb here) it was a test for us and we failed! The rock was to symbolize the strength of our faith.
So they lit a torch from the flame, went home and built a temple with an ‘eternal’ flame. And, for several generations, if the fire ever went out, someone was appointed to ride to this pillar of fire and bring the fire back to the temple.
In my copy there was an asterisk and a footnote that said when the British went through that part of the world in the 1700s that they came upon a village where people still ‘worshiped’ fire.
I apologize for the length of the post, but I hope there are a few people out there that enjoyed the story.
Since “that part of the world” isn’t too far out of Zoroastrian territory, it hardly seems surprising.