In the story of the first Christmas, the Magi, or three wise men, are said to have offered the newborn Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is always a welcome gift, but the resins from the Boswellia and Commiphora trees don't have such an obvious purpose.
The explanation given in catechism classes is that gold symbolized the baby's divinity, frankincense represented his future priesthood and myrrh foretold his impending suffering and death. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, frankincense and myrrh were daily items since the beginning of mankind and they appeared in Egypt around the third millennium B.C. from the Land of Punt (believed to have been located between Ethiopia and Eritrea).
Myrrh was used to treat wounds and frankincense was used in kohl eyeliner. Egypt's first female pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut, sent the largest trading mission to Punt in 1493 B.C. The people of Punt agreed to allow live myrrh trees to be taken to Egypt. The occasion was such a big deal that Hatshepsut's mortuary temple features a bas relief of the event, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Fast forward 500 years and the queen of Sheba and King Solomon weren't just a love connection as suggested by the Song of Songs, 1:13: "My beloved to me is a bag of myrrh/ Lodged between my breasts." The queen brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jerusalem to close on a commercial treaty that would give the king access to her land's bounty and trade routes and grant the queen's country military protection and access to his markets, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A thousand years later (circa the Magi's time), the Roman Empire was exporting more than 3,000 tons of frankincense. The Middle East controlled the majority of the world's supply (as they do today, according to The Wall Street Journal).
When the Roman Empire collapsed, spice caravans were easy pickings for bandits and trade routes between Europe and the Middle East diminished. The resins didn't have much value outside the Catholic Church.
Frankincense and myrrh are now used in massage oils and mouthwash, according to The Wall Street Journal, though they were once greatly prized commodities.
