Three Wise Men.

[richlist]

The Three Wise men who visited the baby Jesus took gold, frankincense & myrrh.
Does anyone know what myrrh was ?........please don't say car polish.

[UncleEbenezer]

's embalming fluid, innit?

[richlist]

But, embalming fluid is for use on dead people.......why take embalming fluid ?

[Breelander]

Does anyone know what myrrh was ?........

Myrrh ... is a gum-resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense and medicine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh

[quelquod]

The Three Wise men who visited the baby Jesus ...

Three?

[bungeejumper]

But, embalming fluid is for use on dead people.......why take embalming fluid ?

At school they taught us that it was all part of a mystic prophecy about Jesus's certain death.

Okay, at the time I expect an XBox would have made a more fun gift for the kid - and for that matter, a spare sheepskin would also have been more useful for the warmth. But, with the benefit of hindsight, subsequent tale-tellers thought better to discard such practical considerations and give him a circular link forward to his impending doom. I mean, that's what myths and sagas and legends do, innit?

BJ

[Eboli]

I am with bungeejumper. It is worth noting that in the famous carol We Three Kings there is the reference verse:

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying.
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember there is a reference in Isaiah to the Messiah being King (gold), Priest (frankincense) and Prophet (Myrrh) but I can't find it. Perhaps it's in another Old testament book.

Eb.