Every child who's been in a Christmas pageant knows the line. Gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold makes sense. But the other two? Most of us sang about them for years without knowing what they were.
They're tree resins. Hardened sap, gathered by hand from small, tough trees in Arabia and East Africa. And in the world Jesus was born into, they were some of the most precious things a person could own.
Quick Answer: Frankincense and myrrh are aromatic resins from trees. Frankincense comes from Boswellia trees and was burned as incense in worship. Myrrh comes from Commiphora trees and was used in perfume, anointing oil and burial. Matthew 2:11 says the wise men gave them to Jesus with gold. Since the early Church, Christians have read the gifts as pointing to who Jesus is: gold for a king, frankincense for God and myrrh for a man who would die.
What Frankincense and Myrrh Actually Are
Both are gum resins. A harvester cuts the bark, the tree "bleeds" a sticky sap to seal the wound, and the sap dries into small lumps called tears. Those tears are scraped off by hand.
They come from two related trees in the same plant family, the Burseraceae, often called the incense tree family. That's why they're so often mentioned together.
| Frankincense | Myrrh | |
|---|---|---|
| Tree | Boswellia, especially Boswellia sacra | Commiphora, especially Commiphora myrrha |
| Where it grows | Oman, Yemen, Somalia, parts of India | Ethiopia, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula |
| Look | Pale, milky yellow tears | Yellow to reddish brown lumps |
| Scent | Woodsy and earthy | Warm and spicy |
| Main use in Bible times | Burned as incense in worship | Perfume, anointing oil, burial spices |
| Bible example | Exodus 30:34 | Exodus 30:23 |
The name myrrh even tells you how it tastes. Britannica traces it to the Arabic murr, meaning "bitter."
The Wise Men's Gifts in Matthew 2
The gifts appear once in the Christmas story. Matthew 2:11: "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."
A few details get lost in the pageant version:
- Matthew never says there were three wise men. He names three gifts. The number three came from that.
- They came to a house, not the stable. The visit probably happened some time after the birth.
- They weren't called kings. Matthew calls them magoi, Magi, from the East. The "kings" idea grew later from verses like Isaiah 60:6 and Psalm 72:10.
Isaiah 60:6 is worth reading on its own. It says the nations "shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD." Christians have long seen the Magi as a first fulfilment of that picture.
Why Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh? What Each Gift Pointed To
The Bible doesn't explain the gifts. But the early Church did, and the reading stuck.
Origen, a Christian teacher writing in the 200s, put it in one line in Against Celsus: the Magi brought "gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God." Christians have repeated it ever since. You can still hear it in the last verse of "We Three Kings."
Gold for a King. Gold was the gift you brought royalty. The Magi had come asking for the one "born King of the Jews" (Matthew 2:2).
Frankincense for God. Frankincense was burned to God in the tabernacle and the Temple. It was part of the holy incense in Exodus 30:34 and was placed on grain offerings in Leviticus 2:1. Bringing it to a child said something about who the child was.
Myrrh for a man who would die. Myrrh was a burial spice. That's the hard one. A gift for a newborn that looked ahead to his death.
There's a practical side too. These were the luxury goods of their day. Historians have found the same three items in an ancient inscription listing what King Seleucus II offered to the god Apollo at Miletus in 243 BC, as Aleteia reports. So the Magi were bringing gifts fit for royalty and for the divine. Both at once.
Frankincense in the Bible
Frankincense is mostly about worship. It went up as smoke, and smoke went up to God.
- Exodus 30:34-35 lists frankincense in the holy incense burned before the Lord.
- Leviticus 2:1 has it placed on the grain offering.
- Psalm 141:2 asks, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense."
- Revelation 8:3-4 shows incense rising with "the prayers of all saints."
That link between incense and prayer is why Catholic, Orthodox and many Anglican churches still burn incense today.
Myrrh in the Bible, From Birth to Burial
Myrrh follows Jesus through His whole life. That's what makes it the most striking of the three gifts.
- Exodus 30:23 names "pure myrrh" as the first ingredient of the holy anointing oil.
- Esther 2:12 says women prepared for the king with "six months with oil of myrrh."
- Mark 15:23 says that at the cross "they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not."
- John 19:39 says Nicodemus brought "a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight" to bury Him.
Myrrh at His birth, and myrrh at His burial. Matthew's readers would have felt that weight.
How Frankincense and Myrrh Are Used Today
Both are still harvested the old way, by cutting bark and collecting the tears. Most frankincense trees only start giving resin when they're about eight to ten years old.
Christians use them in a few ways:
- Church incense. Grains of resin are burned on charcoal in a censer during the liturgy.
- Incense at home. Some families burn a pinch during evening prayer.
- Anointing oil. Myrrh and frankincense are common scents in anointing oils, following the recipe in Exodus 30.
Frankincense has a smell that's hard to describe until you've stood near it. Ancient and clean, a little like the inside of a very old church. Myrrh is deeper and sweeter, with that bitter edge underneath.
If you'd like to try burning resin at home, this guide on how to use an incense burner for prayer walks through the charcoal and the safety steps.
Bringing Frankincense and Myrrh Into Your Christmas
You don't have to save these gifts for the pageant. Burn a little incense on Christmas Eve while someone reads Matthew 2. Or keep a small bottle of myrrh oil out during Advent and read John 19:39 on Good Friday. The same resin, the same story.
The incense collection at Holy Land Market includes frankincense and myrrh blends from the Holy Land, and the anointing oils include frankincense and myrrh scents for prayer and blessing.
Questions About Frankincense and Myrrh
What is the difference between frankincense and myrrh?
Both are tree resins from the same plant family, but from different trees. Frankincense comes from Boswellia trees, is pale and smells woodsy. Myrrh comes from Commiphora trees, is reddish brown, smells warm and spicy and tastes bitter. In the Bible, frankincense is mostly burned in worship, while myrrh is used in anointing oil, perfume and burial.
Why did the wise men bring myrrh to a baby?
The Bible doesn't say. Since the early Church, Christians have read it as a sign of His death, because myrrh was a burial spice (John 19:39). It was also simply a costly, precious gift, the kind you'd bring to honor a king.
How many wise men were there?
Matthew doesn't give a number. He says "wise men from the east" brought three kinds of gifts, and tradition settled on three people because of that. A painting in Rome's catacomb of Domitilla shows four, and one in the catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus shows two.
Are frankincense and myrrh still used in churches?
Yes. Catholic, Orthodox, many Anglican and some Lutheran churches burn incense in the liturgy, and frankincense is the base of most church incense. Myrrh appears in many anointing oils and some incense blends.
The Gift That Looked Ahead
Gold would have paid for a lot. Frankincense would have filled a room. But it's the myrrh that stays with you. Someone knelt in front of a child and handed his mother a burial spice, and she kept it.
This Christmas, when you get to that line in the carol, you'll know what it meant. And if you'd like to see where it all happened, here's what Christmas looks like in Bethlehem today.
