Frankincense: The What and Why
Frankincense was a gift from the Maji to the child Messiah. Books could be filled, and have been, over the properties of Frankincense and what it does or how to make it. The essence of why it was and is offered might be found in its name. If someone is being “frank” it means they are speaking earnestly and candidly without evasion. This kind of speech without deceit one can trust. This substance then, as an accepted offering, is pleasing to God.
https://classic.net.bible.org/ defines it this way:
A fragrant, aromatic resin, or gum resin, burned as an incense in religious rites or for medicinal fumigation. The best kinds now come from East Indian trees, of the genus Boswellia; a commoner sort, from the Norway spruce (Abies excelsa) and other coniferous trees. The frankincense of the ancient Jews is still unidentified.
A more extended definition can be found:
(Heb. lebonah; Gr. libanos, i.e., “white”), an odorous resin imported from Arabia (Isa. 60:6; Jer. 6:20), yet also growing in Palestine (Cant. 4:14). It was one of the ingredients in the perfume of the sanctuary (Ex. 30:34), and was used as an accompaniment of the meat-offering (Lev. 2:1, 16; 6:15; 24:7). When burnt it emitted a fragrant odour, and hence the incense became a symbol of the Divine name (Mal. 1:11; Cant. 1:3) and an emblem of prayer (Ps. 141:2; Luke 1:10; Rev. 5:8; 8:3).
This frankincense, or olibanum, used by the Jews in the temple services is not to be confounded with the frankincense of modern commerce, which is an exudation of the Norway spruce fir, the Pinus abies. It was probably a resin from the Indian tree known to botanists by the name of Boswellia serrata or thurifera, which grows to the height of forty feet.
Source: https://classic.net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=Frankincense&lang=de
The idea of “whiteness and purity” accompanies Frankincense as a quality, and is reminiscent of the concept of “Aviv”– which is when the harvest of wheat begins to have a white quality and means it is ready to be gathered.
The number forty appears often in the Bible–perhaps most famously as a designation of time in a desert, and indicates some kind of purification process. Indeed, it could be that this process leads to a kind of spiritual “whitening”.
If the above speculation is correct concerning the origin of the Frankincense being linked to India, then the Wise Man traditionally associated with India was showing a continuity with the kind of priesthood or practices that were present with that area in giving the gift of Frankincense. Traditionally, this is thought to have been Gaspar. If this is correct, then the gift would have been acknowledging the Messiah as a Brahmin or a type of King of the Holy Men of India.
Indeed, other sources attest to this possibly being the case:
Wise men is a translation from the Greek word magoi. The term indicates men of a priestly caste common among the ancient Medes and Persians. The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who had served in the army in Persia, wrote that the Persian magi based their wisdom on the Brahmins, an Indian priestly order who were the most superior of the Hindu castes. Also, the 17th century Portuguese poet Luis de Camoes identified the magi as Indian Brahmins.
Source: https://www.scross.co.za/2008/11/balthasar-melchior-and-gaspar/
So the child was, in terms of the symbolism of the gift of Frankincense, going to be doing something with regard to speech that was “pure, and white” and was a pleasing offering to God or was and is possessing those qualities. Perhaps it referred more to the “verb” sense of what Frankincense does:
(A) vegetable resin, brittle, glittering, and of a bitter taste, used for the purpose of sacrificial fumigation. (Exodus 30:34-36) It was called frank because of the freeness with which, when burned, it gives forth its odor. It burns for a long time, with a steady flame. It is obtained by successive incisions in the bark of a tree called Arbor thuris . The first incision yields the purest and whitest resin, while the product of the after incisions is spotted with yellow, and loses its whiteness altogether as it becomes old. The Hebrews imported their frankincense from Arabia, (Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20) and more particularly from Saba; but it is remarkable that at present the Arabian libanum or olibanum is a very inferior kind, and that the finest frankincense imported into Turkey comes through Arabia from the islands of the Indian Archipelago. There can be little doubt that the tree which produces the Indian frankincense is the Boswellia serrata of Roxburgh, or Boswellia thurifera of Colebrooke, and bears some resemblance when young to the mountain ash. It grows to be forty feet high.
Source: https://classic.net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=Frankincense&lang=de
Certainly, the Messiah would be wounded, and although we usually are not in the habit of referring to his deeds as “sacrificial fumigation”, it appears that the term would fit the quality of the ministry He rendered.
The gift selected by this one Maji alone would appear to reflect a kind of prophetic understanding of the fulfillment of the ministry of the Messiah. Within the gift of Frankincense are all these qualities which should, when burned, remind one of the qualities of the Child to whom it was given as an indication.
