Three Gifts and a Clever Power Play

An delightful part of the Christmas story is the amazing tale of the three wizards from faraway lands who followed a magical star and gave luxurious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child.

The gifts assumed mystical meanings as preachers added symbolism to the tale. The preachers love to tell us how the gold stands for the Christ child’s kingly status, frankincense for his divinity and myrrh for the anointing at his sacrificial death. That is all well and good, but there is nothing about it in the earliest version of the tale in Matthew’s gospel.

As I was researching The Mystery of the Magi it became clear that the real significance of the three gifts is not their theological symbolism, but their provenance. The gifts confirmed my theory that the wise men were magi from the court of the Nabatean king Aretas IV.

A First Century Trucking Company

The Nabateans controlled the Arabian peninsula and therefore the vital trade routes from Yemen in the East to the port of Gaza, and from Egypt in the South to Syria, Asia Minor and East to Persia. Their capital, Petra was at the cross roads of these two heavily traveled trading routes.

Think of them as a first century trucking company or not so much an empire as a trade federation. They were shipping…