Science File - Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Foundations - Chemistry

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Article Index
Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh
The Three Wise Men
Flat On Their Faces
Gold
Frankincense
Myrrh
Following the Star
References
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Frankincense The scientific facts behind the Biblical story

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Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.....

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

The Three Wise Men appear in only one Gospel, Matthew (2, 1-12); John and Mark start the story with Jesus already an adult, while Luke offers only the shepherds. Many commentators have discounted Matthew's story entirely, classing it with the many legends of Jesus's childhood that were banished to the Apocrypha, basically because these stories are too crude and politically incorrect for the version of Jesus which came to be officially sanctioned. In any case, it is now thought that the Greek version of Matthew was not the first Gospel to be written; that was Mark; and there may have been a prior version of Matthew in Hebrew that has long since been lost.

But, assuming they existed at all, who were these Three Wise Men and why were they inspired to bring precisely these gifts to a neonate?

The word magus itself is derived directly from Old Persian maguš, meaning, powerful, rich. The Greek word has nothing to do with kings at all; magoi were Persian sorcerers, a priestly caste, who for long periods effectively ruled that country. The word does not, in the Bible, have a very good connotation, either, cf Simon Magus (Acts 8, 9-24), Elymas and Bar-Jesus (Acts 13, 6-8), or the references in the Old Testament Book of Daniel. According to Herodotus, the Magi were one of several tribes making up the nation of the Medes, and were renowned for their ability to interpret dreams and portents and for their skill in astrology (which in those days included astronomical observations) (Histories I, 101; VII, 37). In other words, they were the nearest thing to scientists in their day. They were a significant group in Media until about 550 BCE, at which point their power was curtailed by the emperors Cyrus and his son Cambyses II, but they were still very much around at the time of the birth of Christ.

So the choice of the English phrase "wise men" to describe them, and their later identification as kings, is a bit curious. The earlier Vulgate has simply magi, which is just a transliteration of the Greek original.

Matthew doesn't specifically state how many there were, either; the number three seems to derive from the fact that there are three specific gifts mentioned. Nor does he give them names; these, like the regal status, are later accretions. Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior date from 7th century Latin texts, whereas the Syrian Church had Larvandad, Hormisdas and Gushnasaph, the Armenian Church, Kagba, Badadilma, Badadakharida, the Ethiopian, Hor, Karsudan, Basanater. All Matthew says is that they came "from the east", which would mean Persia, Assyria, or Babylonia at the time of Christ, and returned "to their own country". Marco Polo claimed to have seen their tombs at Saveh, south of Tehran, in about 1270; however, Cologne Cathedral also claims to have their bones, donated by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick in 1164.

Anyway, with a disastrous side visit to Herod, they get to the inn or house and see the child. Promptly fall flat on their faces, which is an Asiatic, rather than a Jewish, sign of respect owed to a king or deity. Recovering, they bring out their famous gifts. Which, since they've brought them all this distance (and Matthew doesn't say they let Herod have any, by the way, Tetrarch or no) they must have felt would be suitable for whatever was under that star. It was not tactful to tell Herod that they were looking for the King of the Jews, although they may not have meant that word basileus literally; the verb proskunesai can mean either "pay obeisance to as a king" or "worship as a god".

It is possible that Matthew, whose Gospel was addressed mainly to Jews, was intent in this story (as in others) on showing how Jesus's life fulfilled Old Testament prohecies about The Messiah, such as Psalm 72: "The Kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.". Also Isaiah 60, 6: "all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord."

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Occam's Razor would suggest that these are simply the three most expensive things they could think of or obtain. Gold certainly fits that category. Most ancient cultures, like modern ones, used it on a large scale, in ornaments, gifts, as currency. The dominant culture in Palestine, at the time of Christ, was Roman, and gold use was widespread for both ceremonial and private purposes. It played an important part also in Jewish ceremonial, dating back at least to the time of Moses (Exodus 28). But the oldest gold artifacts yet found come from Sumeria: royal jewellery. From the second millennium BCE, Egyptian gold workmanship was expert and was also exported widely around the Middle East.

But hang on a minute: is there another reason, not so obvious, to give gold? It has a very ancient history as a medicine, from the earliest records until today. The Egyptians used it 4,500 years ago in dentistry (it was unromantically used to bind loose teeth), just as today 13 tons of gold are used each year. In the East, elixirs of potable gold were made of finely powdered gold, or gold dust, as it was believed that the untarnishable nature of gold could be transferred as a curative of all known disease, or preservative of eternal youth, to whoever drank them. Alchemy as a discipline didn’t exist until seven hundred years after Christ, but drew on the accumulated experience of generations of magi and other shamans. Dark Age and medieval inheritors of what passed for scientific investigation and experimentation in the ancient world, spent much of their time looking for the Philosopher’s stone – the specific that would transmute base substances into gold (Sol or Rex metallorum). Was the gift of gold also an anticipation of the Messiah's healing and shamanic powers?

Gold continued to be highly regarded and used medicinally for just about everything, from smallpox to syphilis to epilepsy to “nervous afflictions”; and in the twentieth century, before penicillin, Sanocrysin (aurothioglucose) was a last-ditch attempt at a cure for TB. Weak solutions of gold inhibited the growth of TB bacilli in culture, but the treatment also resulted in stomatitis, glossitis, jaundice, leucopenia, erythema and renal damage. Myocrisin (sodium aurothiomalate, for intramuscular injection) is still used for severe and intractable rheumatoid arthritis.

“Golden eye ointment”, used for styes, had nothing to do with gold (it contained yellow oxide of mercury), but probably refers to the old folk remedy of rubbing a stye with a gold ring to cure it. Which is at least preferable to Parson Woodforde’s remedy: “ The Stiony [stye] on my right Eye-lid still swelled and inflamed very much. As it is commonly said that the Eye-lid being rubbed by the tail of a black Cat would do it much good if not entirely cure it, and having a black Cat, a little before dinner I found my Eye-lid much abated of the swelling and almost free from Pain. I cannot therefore but conclude it to be of the greatest service to a Stiony of the Eye-lid. Any other Cats Tail may have the above effect in all probability -but I did my Eye-lid with my own black Tom Cat's Tail. (Diary, March 1791)

alt Frankincense (aka olibanum, koine Greek libanon,from Arabic al-lubán: milk) is one of many aromatic substances used in the manufacture of incense, and incense was (and still is) an important part or religious, magic, and royal ceremonial. Frankincense is the resinous exudate of the tree Boswellia thurifera, Family Burseraceae, which is indigenous to India, Ethiopia, south Arabia and Somalia. There are over a dozen species of Boswellia, most resin-producing but most of poor quality. The exudate, which originates in schizogenous gum-oleoresin reservoirs within the tree, is white and milky at first, congealing into small tear-shapes that are orange-brown in colour. Chemical components include 1-a-pinene, dipentene, phellandrene, cadinene, camphene, olibanol and various unnamed other resins.

alt It has been asserted, though I cannot find a reputable source for this, that frankincense contains the hallucinogen THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, C₂₁H₃₀O₂) also present in marijuana, which would possibly explain its popularity as an inhalant besides the pleasant smell. THC was first isolated by Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni in Israel, appropriately enough, in 1964. Its pharmacological actions are the result of its binding to the cannabinoid receptor CB1 in the brain; the effects include mild analgesia, euphoria, sedation, and mild hallucination including space-time disorientation.

It has also been suggested. by an Australian scientist, Dr Michael Stoddard, that the resin contains a substance akin to human sex pheromenes.

alt The holy incense for the wilderness tabernacle of the Jews was prescribed by God to Moses and contained stacte, onycha, galbanum and pure frankincense (Exodus 30, 34). It was used, according to Herodotus, by the Ancient Egyptians in their religious rites, but specifically (Histories II, 86) not in embalming.

Its other uses in antiquity seem to have been few. The fumes were regarded as an insectifuge, and Pliny (Natural History XXV, 25) claims it is an antidote to hemlock poisoning. In more modern times it has been used in folk and herbal medicine as an expectorant, antiseptic, immunostimulant and antidepressant. Small-scale clinical studies have suggested that some components do have immunostimulant, cytotoxic and apoptotic properties.

alt Myrrh, on the other hand, has different and darker connotations. It is, like frankincense, a gum, which is exuded by the tree Commiphora myrrha, Family Burseraceae, which also grows in Somalia and Ethiopia. The name is derived from the Hebrew mor, murr or maror, meaning bitter. In ancient times it was sometimes worth more than its weight in gold, and in ancient Rome cost five times as much as frankincense. It has a place in Jewish tradition, as the caravan which bore Joseph to slavery in Egypt also carried myrrh and other spices (Genesis 37, 25) and was carried as a gift by his brothers when they later came to beg food (ibid 43, 11).

Constituents include resin (myrrhin, C₄₈H₃₂O₂) and volatile oil (myrrhol, C₁₀H₁₄O), gums, sulphates, benzoates, malates, and acetates of potassium. The oil contains myrrholic acid, heerabolene, pinene, limonene, dipentene, eugenol, cadinene, cinnamaldehyde, cuminaldehyde and others unnamed.

alt It certainly turns up in incense and anointing oil recipes and perfumes (cf Exodus 23-30, Esther 2, 12, The Song of Solomon 5, 5 among many others) but less cheerfully, it was used to anoint corpses (Nicodemus brings myrrh and aloes to the body of Jesus in John 19, 39-40) and the Romans burned it at funerals to disguise the smell of the corpse. Greek soldiers took it into battle, valuing its antiseptic propertes; Hippocrates prescribed it for anointing sores, and Roman civilian doctors as a vermifuge and antussive. Herodotus says (Histories II, 86) that the Ancient Egyptians used it, along with cassia and other spices, in embalming. But more important, in ancient times, was its reputation as an analgesic.

It was a Jewish custom to offer a drink of light wine, rendered acid (the "vinegar" of the Gospels) mixed with myrrh to victims of crucifixion, as was offered to Jesus on the cross (Mark 15, 23), "but he received it not". Matthew says, the wine he was offered was mixed instead with gall, [Greek chole] meaning some bitter substance presumably with similar anodyne properties. Luke does not mention any drink at all; John says hyssop (which has no analgesic properties but is held to be a stimulant) and that he drank it. As usual, no agreement between sources.

alt Myrrh is still an ingredient in liniments and salves, in mouthwashes and toothpastes, and is used in the production of the liqueur Fernet Branca, famed as a digestive. An antischistosomal containing myrrh, Mirazid, has been used in the recent past although its efficacy has been questioned. Anticarcinogenic potential of the resin has been demonstrated in mice. Eugenol is the important constituent of cloves, and along with cinnamaldehyde has clinically proven antimicrobial properties; clove oil is, of course, a local anaesthetic. Recent research has also isolated compounds which show in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities and also local anaesthetic activity (furanodiene-6-one and methoxyfuranoguala-9-ene-8-one) and also two, furanoeudesma-1,3-diene, and curzarene, with pronounced analgesic effects in mice; the latter compounds appear to interact with the opioid receptors in the brain. So its reputation was not undeserved.

Commentators have since tended to latch on to the Mark passage and assume that the magi's offering was a prophetic foreshadowing:

The golden tribute owns Him King,

But frankincense to God they bring,

And last, prophetic sign, with myrrh,

They shadow forth His sepulcher.

(Aurelius Prudentius (348-413:O Sola Magnarum Urbium tr. anon)

(The famous carol We Three Kings Of Orient Are, by John Henry Hopkins, dates no further back than 1857)

Oh, and people have been trying for 2,000 years to identify the star that led them. Not only has none of the candidates ever checked out, the behaviour (going before them, keeping in sight, then hovering over the precise address where the baby lay) is not behaviour normally indulged in by stars or any other heavenly body for that matter, including supernovas. Some astral phenomenon is evidently being invoked; it was a common belief that the occurrence of shooting stars (comets and meteorites) presaged important events, but what itcould have been, is lost in time. "Lights in the sky" leading one on, may have recalled, to Jewish readers, the Pillar of Fire by Night that helped guide the Israelites in the Wilderness (Exodus 13,21-22), but pagans also had the same legends; when at the fall of Troy, Anchises asks Jupiter for a sign that his family will survive, Jupiter sends thunder and de caelo lapsa per umbras stella facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit: a comet with a long fiery tail (Virgil: Aeneid II, 693-4)

Having made their presentation, the Magi leave for home, cunningly avoiding Herod on the way. This must have been a kind of pilgrimage or haj to them, because the journey and the sight of the Christ appears to have been sufficient in themselves; the magi are not portrayed as doing or saying anything else. Nor do we find out what happened to the gifts. Legends aplenty remain as to what happened to men and treasures afterwards - if they ever existed.

REFERENCES

Biblical Sources

Catholic Truth Society: The Holy Bible Revised Standard Version, London, 1966

Bible, Authorised/King James Version, London, 1957

United Bible Societies: The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament, Illinois, 1990

Vulgate text:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/index.htm

Classical Sources

Herodotus: Historiae, 3^rd ed. T Prior, Oxford 1927 (1908)

Pliny: Naturalis Historia, Latin text available here:

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html

Virgil: Aeneid Book II, ed. RH Jordan, Bristol, 2002

Liddell & Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, Abridged Edition, Oxford, 2004 (1901)

Other Books

Taylor, F Sherwood: The Alchemists, London 1976 (1952)

Woodforde, J: Diary of a Country Parson ed. John Beresford, Oxford, 1968

Journals

al-Harbi, MM et al: Anticarcinogenic effect of Commophora molmol on solid tumours induced by Ehrlich carcinoma cells in mice, Chemotherapy 1994, 40 (5), 337-47

Ali, SM et al: Antimicrobial activities of eugenol and cinnamaldehyde against the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials, 2005, 4 (1): 20

Botros, S et al: Lack of evidence for an antischistosomal activity of myrrh in experimental animals, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 71 (2), 2004, 206-10

Dolara, P, et al: Local anaesthetic, antibacterial and antifungal properties of sesquiterpenes from myrrh, Planta Medica May 2000, 66 (4), 356-58

Hostanska, K, et al: Cytostatic and apoptosis-inducing activity of boswellia acids toward malignant cell lines in vitro, Anticancer Research 2002, 22 (5), 2853-62

Massoud, A et al: Preliminary study of therapeutic efficacy of a new fasciolicidal drug derived from Commiphora molmol (myrrh), Am J Trop Med Hyg, 65 (2) 96-99

Mikhaeil, BR et al: Chemistry and immunomodulatory activity of frankincense oil, Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C Mar/Apr 3003, 58 (3-4), 230-38

Stone, C: We three Kings of Orient were Saudi Aramco World, 31 (6) Nov/Dec 1980, 2-3, can also be found at:

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198006/we.three.kings.of.orient.were.htm

Websites

Catholic Encyclopedia: Magi

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09527a.htm

and Gospel Of Matthew:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10057a.htm

UCLA Louise M Darling Biomedical Library Medicinal Spices Exhibition 2002:

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm

WebBible Encyclopedia: Gall:

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/gall.html

and Myrrh: