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| Myrrh |
Video Introduction
At Christmas we are reminded again that the Magi brought three gifts, gold, frankincense and Myrrh (Matt 2:11). The number of Magi are not mentioned in the Bible, but we assume from the three gifts that there were three. To many westerners, these gifts seem strange, but for those in the Ancient Near East it was a standard gift to honor a deity or king: gold as a precious metal, frankincense as perfume or incense, and myrrh as anointing oil.
These same three items were apparently among the gifts, recorded in ancient inscriptions found by William Sherrard (English Consul to Smyrna) on the spot between 1709-1716, that King Seleucus II Callinicus offered to the god Apollo at the temple in Miletus in 242 BC (Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.16,3).[A.]
McGrath also points out that:
yet early Christian writers regarded these gifts as more than honorific. Each one disclosed something of the true significance of Jesus of Nazareth. Gold was appropriate for a king, expressing his authority; frankincense was appropriate for a priest, who would make sacrifice in the temple' and myrrh was a sign of his forthcoming death, in that he would be wrapped in clothes soaked in oil [B.] (i.e. theologians call these "the threefold office of Christ").
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| Commentary of the Seven Churches |
The Name of Smyrna The origin and meaning of the name Smyrna (Rev 2:8a);is concealed by ancient mythology and legends. There is also debate over the linguistic connection between Smyrna the city and myrrh מור, mōr; LXX σμύρνα, smurna) the spice.1 Harris identifies Smyrna and Myra (Acts 27:5) with the spice2 arguing that “the existence of a trade in spices and frankincense and myrrh between S. Arabia and the Mediterranean”3 led to the naming of Smyrna, Myra and Adramyttion (Άδραμύττιον)4 after “the products which were the stock-in-trade of the first settlers”5 during the pre-Hellenic era.6 This becomes a plausible theory given that western Asia Minor does not produce myrrh on its own and the common practice of colonists identifying the name of a place with either a product or import from their homeland.7
Myrrh resin The ancient Semitic root for “myrrh” is מור (mōr; LXX σμύρνα, smurna),8 used 21 times in the OT denoting a sacred oil and perfume extracted from the gum in the bark of the Balsamodendrum Myrrh tree or shrub found in Somaliland, Arabia and Ethiopia.9 The Hebrew word for myrrh (מור, mōr) is derived from the Hebrew root mrr meaning “to be bitter”.10 The physical taste is bitter, hence the term “bitter” (mōr) arose for its name.11
The city later developed the name Smyrna12 from its trading connections with myrrh. The term myrrh is used three times in the NT, excluding the name of the city.13 It was one of the expensive gifts brought to the infant Christ by the Magi (Matt 2:11, LXX σμύρνα, smurna). Again, at the close of Christ’s ministry, myrrh was mixed with wine (σμυρνίζω, smurnidzō) to hide the bitter taste of the wine (Mark 15:23).14 Myrrh’s antiseptic properties were also used in embalming the body of Christ (John 19:39, σμύρνης, smurnēs).[D] The use of myrrh (σμύρνα, smurna) in the NT was connected with the humiliation and suffering of Christ, and is consistent with the theme of martyrdom. Hemer concludes that the symbolism of myrrh points to the suffering and death of Christ. He states: “as it has been used in death and burial, in the expectation of an after-life, so Christ himself had died and lived again. The themes of suffering, death and resurrection pervade every verse of our letter”.15 The name of Smyrna is, therefore, indeed appropriate for a city which would come to know significant suffering (2:10).
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A. Often repeated without footnotes. Chisbull, Asiatic Antiquities, (New Delhi: Cosmo, 1720), 67;
Pierre-Henri Larcher, Notes on Herodotus: Historical and Critical Remarks on the Nine Books of the History of Herodotus, with a Chronological Table (Whittaker, 1844), 109;
Alister E. McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2015), 101.
B. McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction, 101-102.
C. David E. Graves, Jesus Speaks to Seven of His Churches: A Commentary on the Messages to the Seven Churches in Revelation (Toronto, Ont.: Electronic Christian Media, 2017), 151-152.
D. Robin Ngo "Frankincense and Other Resins Were Used in Roman Burials Across Britain," BAR Archaeology news, December 05, 2014
1 Strabo indicates that part or all of Ephesus was also called Smyrna, which could lead to further confusion (Geogr. 6.14.1.4).
2 J. Rendel Harris, “The Early Colonists of the Mediterranean,” BJRL 10, no. 2 (1926): 330, 340.
3 Ibid., 340.
4 Hazarmaveth (Hebrew, “village of death”), son of Shemite Joktan, (Gen 10:26).
5 Harris, “Early Colonists,” 330.
6 Cecil J. Cadoux, Ancient Smyrna: A History of the City from the Earliest Times to 224 A.D. (Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1938), 31 n.2. However, Cadoux states, if there is a connection between the substance of myrrh and the city, it “remains an unsolved mystery.”
7 Many cities are given names from a connection with their past i.e., New England, New South Wales, Philippi, etc. J. Rendel Harris, “The Early Colonists of the Mediterranean,” BJRL 10, no. 2 (1926): 330.
8 J. Hausmann, “mōr, Myrrh,” TDOT, 8: 557–60.
9 Exod 30:23; Ruth 1:13; 1 Sam 15:32; 22:2; Pss 45:9; 64:4; Prov 7:17; 27:7; Eccl 7:26; Cant. 4:14; Isa 5:20; 33:7; 38:15, 17; Jer 4:18; Lam 1:4; Ezek 3:14; 27:31; Amos 8:10; Zeph 1:14; Gus W. van Beek, “Frankincense and Myrrh in Ancient South Arabia,” JAOS 78, no. 3 (1958): 141–52; “Frankincense and Myrrh in Ancient South Arabia,” BA 23 (1960): 70–95; Nigel Groom, Frankincense & Myrrh: A Study of the Arabian Incense Trade (London, U.K.: Longman, 1981); Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster/Knox, 2001), 347–48. Pliny describes several different kinds of myrrh, each identified by the region of origin: “Minaean in Main, Astramitic in Hadhramaut, Gebbanitic in Qataban, Ausaritic in Ausan, Sambracene in southern Tihama and two other types from unidentified location” (Nat. 12:35.69).
10 The Hebrew term marar is used 19 times in the OT (BDB, 600; Wilhelm Michaelis, “Σμύρνα,” ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, TDNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 7:457.
11 Ibid.
12 The Greek form Smurna is occasionally used on coins and in inscriptions. Georg Petzl, Die Inschriften von Smyrna, vol. 1, AÖAW 23–24 (Bonn: Habelt, 1982), 10.657.
13 Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting, The Biblical Resource Series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001). 58–59, 76; Thomas, Rev 1–7, 158; W. A Criswell, Expository Sermons on Revelation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), 92.
14 Thayer states that: “since the ancients used to infuse myrrh into wine in order to give it a more agreeable fragrance and flavor, we must in this matter accept Matthew’s account (Matt 27:34, viz. ‘mingled with gall’) as by far the more probable.” Joseph Henry Thayer, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Complete and Unabridged (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1889), §4669.
15 Hemer, Letters to the Seven Churches, 59.
See Also Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, "Why Did the Magi Bring Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh?: Medicinal uses of frankincense may help explain the gifts of the magi," BAR November 26, 2019.
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