Troublesome Topic: HOW MANY GIFTS DID THE WISE MEN BRING?

Matthew 2:11

Translation

On coming to the house

they saw the child with his mother

MARY, and falling down prostrate, they worshipped Him.

After opening their treasure stores

they presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Paraphrase

When they had arrived at the house they saw the child

with his mother, THE [PREVIOUSLY] REBELLIOUS ONE, and falling down with their faces to the ground, they worshipped Him. After they had uncovered the precious items they carried, they presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

LAVISH GIFT-GIVING

Gift-giving was practiced widely in ancient times and could often be lavish. Anything of value that represented their homeland was up for consideration. The more important the person was, the more costly and voluminous the collection of gifts became.

The queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon with a “great caravan of camels” and was sent back home with an equally large set of gifts. In the case of a long journey like that of the Queen of Sheba or the Wisemen, the camels would have been fully loaded, and their capacity for carrying loads is high.

In II Kings chapter 8 we read the account of the time when Elisha went to Damascus. Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, whose capital was Damascus, was ill. When the king heard that Elisha was on his way to Damascus, he told Hazael to take the prophet a gift and ask him “Will I recover from this illness?” II Kings 8:9 tells us that the gift consisted of 40 camels bearing gifts that represented “all the good things of Damascus”.

The Wisemen were taking presents to the most important person ever born on earth, and they knew it. They were not kings, but they were wealthy and there were several of them. Therefore, their caravan may have been larger than 40 camels. We are not told the number, but it is safe to assume it was a large caravan, not just a few camels as we have been conditioned to think.

THE GIFTS OF THE WISEMEN

Since the Wisemen were convinced that this baby would prove to be someone of inestimable value, their gift-giving had to match their belief, or they would be seen as liars. It is likely, therefore, that the three gifts we know about were not the only gifts given, but rather these were the most spiritually significant ones and that is why they were mentioned in the biblical text. In fact, a proper understanding of the ancient cultures of the Near East makes it a preposterous idea to say that they only brought three gifts. A more likely scenario is one similar to the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, that of a great caravan of camels, camel drivers, body guards, cooks, servants, etc.

Gold was likely a recognition of His royalty (kingship), while frankincense and myrrh pointed ahead to His death, because both of them were used commonly in the process of wrapping a body for burial. In this way the narrative of Jesus’ birth is hinting at the fact that he was born to die; His greatest salvific act as Messiah would be His death (and resurrection).

The three items that are mentioned by name were also very useful in every-day life and we can be sure they came in handy during the flight to Egypt. Frankincense and myrrh were two of the most common and useful essential oils of ancient times with a wide range of beneficial uses. Although it is ironic, there is deep significance in the reality that these two essential oils enjoyed widespread use in the maintaining of life and health, yet were also used to wrap the bodies of the dead. Jesus came to give life, but He provided it through His death.

THE WISE MEN TOOK THE ROLE OF SERVANTS

The text says they bowed down and worshipped the baby. This was unheard of. The people of the Ancient Near East would bow down before someone holding greater authority than themselves, but they would not bow down to someone of lesser authority who might become greater than themselves at some future time. In this way they demonstrated that they understood the person of Jesus, not just the potential of Jesus. They seemed to grasp that He was more than a human baby.

The text also says that they presented Him with gifts. We do not know if this means they presented their gifts to him through servants, the way it was usually done, or if they did all the presenting themselves. Usually, a king or wealthy person would preside over the giving of the gifts, but it was servants who carried the gifts from the king to the recipient. It does not matter a great deal because either way, they presented Him with gifts. But, based on the fact that they bowed down to an infant, I think the wise men also did the presenting of the gifts personally, from start to finish. This means they humbled themselves and played the role of servants, even though they surely had servants with them who could have done it.

The next lesson is: How Many Wise Men Were There?

Footnotes

1: “on coming to the house”

All we know is that it was no longer just a stable. We should not quickly dismiss the words of the early church fathers, several of whom state that the wise men visited Jesus in a cave. I like the idea of a cave with a large opening because it would have allowed Joseph the freedom to build across the front of it, a facade which would cause Matthew to call it a house, thus reconciling the account of Matthew with the words of the early church fathers.

While there are many things we do not know, we can be confident that in those days, when someone suffered rejection, it was usually permanent and complete. In a small town like Bethlehem, which was proud of its heritage as the place of David’s birth, everyone would join in that rejection so as to not also become victims of the same. Therefore, it is a safe assumption to think that the same rejection which meant Mary was not given an acceptable or normal place to deliver her child was the same rejection which meant Joseph was not able to find a house for them to live in. He was forced to fix up that original place they had found, whether it was a stable or a cave or an outcropping. In God’s wisdom, Joseph had the skills to do just that.

We don’t know with certainty how much time transpired before the arrival of the Wise Men. However, we can be sure that at least 40 days had passed since the birth of Jesus because Joseph and Mary had already been to the temple for Mary’s cleansing ritual.

2: “with his mother”

This verse makes no mention of Joseph. It was probably a way to emphasize that Joseph was not the father of this child. The other option is that Joseph had found a job in Jerusalem and had to walk each day to and from work. Since they were expected to work from sun-up to sun-down, his walk to and from work would have to happen just before dawn and just after dusk. The wise men probably arrived during the day since it was not appropriate to show up after dark; only robbers came to someone’s house after dark. Therefore, Joseph was not there when they arrived.

3

To “fall down prostrate” with one’s face to the ground before someone was to say to that person, “You are far greater than I, therefore, I am completely at your disposal; do with me as you desire; command me to do anything you wish and I will do it.” Here these highly educated, wealthy men who had stood before kings and given them advice on what to do, were telling a baby that they would obey His every wish. What a beautiful irony!

4: “their treasure stores”

This words means “treasure stores, treasury, storehouse, place where valuables are stored, repository”. This seems to point toward a large number of camels laden with lots of gifts. The addition of this phrase does not support the idea that there were only three wisemen and each one gave only one gift. We don’t know how many wisemen there were, but we can be confident they gave more than one gift each.

5: “gold frankincense and myrrh”

While these gifts were likely intended to represent things of value from their homeland, they were also significant in deeper ways. Gold was likely a recognition of His royalty, while frankincense and myrrh pointed ahead to His death, because both of them were used commonly in the process of wrapping a body for burial. In this way the narrative of Jesus’ birth is hinting at the fact that he was born to die; His greatest salvific act as Messiah would be His death (and resurrection).

These items were also very useful in every-day life and we can be sure they came in handy during the flight to Egypt. Frankincense and myrrh were two of the most common and useful essential oils of ancient times with a wide range of beneficial uses. Although it is ironic, there is deep significance in the reality that these two essential oils enjoyed widespread use in the maintaining of life and health, yet were also used to wrap the bodies of the dead.

Gift-giving was practiced widely and could often be lavish. The more important the person was that the gifts were intended for, the more costly and numerous the collection of gifts became. Since they were convinced that this baby would prove to be someone of inestimable value, their give-giving had to match their belief, or they would be seen as liers. It is likely therefore, that these three were not the only gifts given, but rather these were the most noteworthy and spiritually significant gifts. All the wisemen, however many there were, probably gave gold, and all of them probably gave spices and fine articles of clothing, as well as various other articles.

6

Some commentaries of the Bible say that, in this case, each servant came forward to present a single product. This is supported by many ancient friezes which show the gift-giving process with servants carrying one item at a time. I disagree with that theory for the following reasons. The servants did the presenting; camels only got the products from point A to point B. So 40 camels represented at least 40 different items, maybe 80 if each camel was accompanied by two servants for two gifts, and maybe they were heavily laden, requiring several presenting servants for each camel. Why did Ben-Hadad send the gifts on camels instead of in the hands of servants? It may have been to help Elisha get the products back to Israel, in which case fully loaded camels would make more sense. Thus, it appears that the gift included the 40 camels as well, and camels were not cheap. Even if each camel only bore one or two gifts, it was a large gift, and fully loaded camels would make it a lavish gift in keeping with the wealth of a king. I favor the idea that the camels were fully loaded; it was the presenting servants who only carried one item at a time, not the camels. In the end, we don’t even know if Elisha accepted those gifts; cultural norms indicate that he was obliged to accept them, but prophets of God were known to ignore social norms and some aspects of this story point to him not accepting them. It is not important, or it would have been mentioned in the story. The 40 camels were important and that is why they were mentioned.