# Why did the Magi consider frankincense and myrrh such valuable gifts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [October 16, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545 "2014-10-16T23:59:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Copperleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Copperleaf)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/1 "2014-10-16T23:59:30Z")
From “Today’s Question” on the main page (can’t get it to let me respond and I’m not smart enough to figure it out right now)
The reason these items were brought to Mary & Joseph - for baby Jesus is that they were rare and very expensive at that time. King Herod was killing all the 1st born baby boys in the land and the Magi knew that Mary & Joseph would have to run with baby Jesus to save His life. The frankincense & myrrh were brought to aid in their escape as well as to provide for Jesus until such time as Mary & Joseph would be able to return to Bethlehem and Joseph would again be able to provide for Mary & Jesus through his trade - carpentry.
Back in that age, much like it is today a person could not just go into a foreign land (country) and begin working. That gift the Magi brought provided for the first 12 years of Jesus life, until King Herod was dead and they could return from Egypt to their homeland.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/2 "2014-10-17T01:28:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> From “Today’s Question” on the main page (can’t get it to let me respond and I’m not smart enough to figure it out right now)
You did respond. All you left off was [the link to the column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1300/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts). Which I’ve just added, so we’re all good.
And the magi didn’t know that Herod was gunning for the kid until they were almost at their destination-- One presumes that they already had the gifts prepared before then.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/3 "2014-10-17T03:38:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> You did respond. All you left off was [the link to the column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1300/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts). Which I’ve just added, so we’re all good.
>
> And the magi didn’t know that Herod was gunning for the kid until they were almost at their destination-- One presumes that they already had the gifts prepared before then.
I don’t think Herod decided to kill the innocents until the Magi had visited Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and then skipped out of town without reporting back to him.
So if they were seers instead of kings and could foretell the future, the gifts would have been chosen to help the Holy Family in Egypt. Or perhaps it was Divine Providence that made them choose those gifts.
I had no idea Jesus stayed in Egypt until he was twelve. I just remember He was lost in the Temple when He was twelve, and I thought the Bible said they went to the Temple every year.
I guess we don’t really know for sure.
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### Author:  [@thatsmychin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatsmychin)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/4 "2014-10-17T04:57:21Z")
I’ve always thought that Chuck Missler’s explanation is the best:
> [@](#):
>
> The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were also prophetic, speaking of our Lord’s offices of king, priest, and savior. Gold speaks of His kingship; frankincense was a spice used in the priestly duties; and myrrh was an embalming ointment signifying His death. In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of gold and frankincense; but no myrrh. His death was once and for all.
I mean, if these guys knew enough to follow a celestial event to find the messiah; maybe they thought the rest of the prophesies through and brought something that represented the most important parts of what his appearance represented.
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### Author:  [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/5 "2014-10-17T13:21:10Z")
I’d heard that myrrh was a antiseptic, so I though it was a good choice for a newborn. The parents would need to sterilize the umbilical wound, as an example. I like to make the joke – something of a parody of the plot of Kevin Smith’s _Dogma_ – given the high rate of infant mortality, how many putative Messiah’s did we go through before we got one to survive to adulthood?
\*Gabriel, warm up, we gotta send another Visit
What, why, that’s the fifth one, what is it this time
Apparently, there’s something down there called “measles” – kills lots of infants, in God’s infinite mercy and wisdom.
Can’t they be a little more careful with God’s sons?\*
OK, if that’s too sacrilegious for the fundie crowd, we know that God wouldn’t let the Messiah he sent succumb to a childhood infection. But the Magi don’t.
The frankincense, well that’s just what you give a king. After all, they brought it, burnt it, and it was gone. They were just showing off here – we used our magic powers, and got to worship the king, before it was cool.
I always wondered how much gold they brought. A years wages? Enough to send Josue bar Joseph to _yeshivah_ school? (And yes, I know that didn’t really exist at the time) Or just a trinket, again, just to say – “Called it first.”
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/6 "2014-10-17T14:20:43Z")
> [@thatsmychin](#):
>
> I’ve always thought that Chuck Missler’s explanation is the best:…
[This Chuck Missler?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Missler) Not exactly someone I would go to for Biblical scholarship.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/7 "2014-10-17T14:46:13Z")
The idea is hardly original in him. The song “We Three Kings”, over a century and a half old, has a verse for each of the gifts, representing Jesus as “King, and God, and Sacrifice”.
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### Author:  [@thatsmychin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatsmychin)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/8 "2014-10-17T21:43:49Z")
Didn’t mean to imply that Missler “owned” that as original thought. Just wanted to reference the text I pulled from his site.
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### Author:  [@bowlweevils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bowlweevils)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2014, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/9 "2014-10-18T04:14:34Z")
my good friend, Mr. Wikipedia, would like to point out that myrrh and frankincense were also used in ketoret, the consecrated incense used in ceremonies relating to the Tabernacle (gold) in the times of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
also that the English name “frankincense” is from Old Norman French, referring to its quality/expense, “franc encens”.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/10 "2014-10-18T13:05:37Z")
Hi and welcome, **Copperleaf**.
> [@Copperleaf](#):
>
> The reason these items were brought to Mary & Joseph - for baby Jesus is that they were rare and very expensive at that time.
That’s the basic answer, but doesn’t really address the questioner’s question of why they were considered valuable.
> [@](#):
>
> King Herod was killing all the 1st born baby boys in the land and the Magi knew that
I thought it was the Magi’s visit to King Herod that sparked him to kill all the baby boys? They said they were going to find the King, he got annoyed. They would have picked those gifts long before when they set out on their journey, wouldn’t they?
> [@](#):
>
> That gift the Magi brought provided for the first 12 years of Jesus life, until King Herod was dead and they could return from Egypt to their homeland.
I don’t believe it’s established anywhere in the Bible where Jesus was for his childhood. There’s no mention of running to Egypt. There is lots of speculation, including him traveling off to the East and learning Buddhism and whatnot, but no mention in the Bible of any of that. It’s all speculation, poorly founded.
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### Author:  [@thatsmychin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatsmychin)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/701545/11 "2014-10-24T05:41:34Z")
> [@Irishman](#):
>
> I don’t believe it’s established anywhere in the Bible where Jesus was for his childhood. There’s no mention of running to Egypt.
Egypt is mentioned 4 times in Matthew 2:13-19. …flee to Egypt…departed for Egypt…out of Egypt…in Egypt