Myrrh - Scholarly Article

It simply shows Jesus was a newborn baby.
Swaddling cloths were normal care for infants.
There’s no special symbolic meaning in the detail itself.

The phrase “wrapped in cloths” (swaddling cloths) reflects standard ancient childcare. So the detail is not unusual or symbolic on its own. Its main function is identification. The angels give the shepherds a specific sign. “A baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” The unusual part is not the cloths. It’s the manger.

The cloths simply emphasises that Jesus was a new-born baby.

According to Andreas J. Köstenberger and Alexander Stewart, the angel’s specification that the shepherds will “find a baby wrapped in cloths” simply emphasises the new-born status of this chid:

The swaddling cloths simply indicate that Mary was taking care of Jesus in the same way that any other responsible woman at that time would have taken care of a newborn child. The strips of cloth indicate neither poverty nor any other spiritual significance but were the common means by which mothers kept newborn babies warm.[640]

The name “Jesus” means “God saves.”
It comes from the Hebrew name Joshua.
So his name directly expresses his mission.

The name “Jesus” has a layered linguistic history.

Hebrew: Yehoshua / Yeshua

Greek: Iēsous
Latin: Iesus
English: Jesus

The original meaning is: “Yahweh saves” or “God saves.” This is explicitly linked to his role.
Matthew 1:21 says: “He will save his people from their sins.” So the name is not random.
It’s a statement of purpose.

It also connects to Joshua in the Old Testament. Joshua led Israel into the promised land. That creates a parallel:

• Joshua leads into physical land
• Jesus leads into spiritual restoration

The name was common at the time. Many parents used it, hoping for deliverance.

But the New Testament claims Jesus uniquely fulfills that meaning.

So the connection is direct: His name describes his mission.

The English name Jesus is a transliteration of the Latin transliteration of the Greek transliteration of Jesus’ Aramaic name – Joshua - which means “God saves.”

The New Testament was written in first century Greek. About a hundred years later, it was translated into Latin. These Latin manuscripts transliterated the Greek name Iēsous as Iesus. When the New Testament was first translated into English, this was transliterated as “Jesus.” As Andreas J. Köstenberger and Alexander Stewart explain:

The Greek name Jesus is equivalent to the Hebrew name Joshua, which, reflecting the angel’s comment, means “Yahweh saves.” The name Jesus therefore points to Yahweh’s willingness and ability to save his people and recalls Joshua’s role in leading God’s people into the possession of the land that God had promised. Jesus was a common name in first-century Palestine, and parents often named their sons Jesus as an expression of their hope that God would one day act to save and deliver his people . . .[641]

As theologian Benjamin L. Gladd comments:

Though I understand why modern translations preserve the name Jesus, I fear they’ve obscured an important dimension to Jesus’s identity. . . . Joshua means “the Lord saves,” and it appears to be the sixth most popular name in Palestine during the first century. This name is pregnant with meaning for at least two reasons.

First, “the Lord saves” encapsulates the whole of Jesus’s ministry, because, as the angel proclaims, “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The apostles never lose sight of this meaning when they invoke the name Joshua/Jesus.

Second, the name Joshua also evokes Moses’s successor, the one who led Israel into the promised land (Josh. 1:1–5:12). Joshua’s entrance into the land and his partial victory over the Canaanites prophetically foreshadow Jesus’s entrance into the new creational promised land and complete victory over the spiritual Canaanites. In bearing the name Jesus/Joshua, Jesus of Nazareth will exterminate Israel’s longtime foes—sin, death, and Satan—and bring about an unparalleled act of redemption: the salvation of individuals from sin’s bondage.[642]

They are royal and religious gifts.
They honor Jesus as king and more than a king.
They were standard high-status offerings in the ancient world.

The gifts are: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. All three were valuable and culturally significant.

Gold is obvious. It represents wealth and royalty.

Frankincense is incense. It was used in worship and temple rituals.

Myrrh is a resin. Used in perfume, medicine, and burial practices.

In the ancient world, such gifts were appropriate for honoring kings or divine figures. So at a basic level, the gifts signal status. This is not an ordinary child.

There is also a deeper layer often noted:

• Gold → kingship
• Frankincense → divinity or worship
• Myrrh → suffering or mortality

That interpretation is theological, not explicit in Matthew.

Also important: The text never says there were three wise men. That comes from the number of gifts.

Conclusion: The gifts function as recognition of greatness, whether understood politically, religiously, or both.

The gold, frankincense and myrrh given by the wise men were standard gifts in the ancient world for honouring a king or deity.

The magi give three gifts, of gold, frankincense and myrrh: “These valuable items were standard gifts to honor a king or deity in the ancient world: gold as a precious metal, frankincense as perfume or incense, and myrrh as anointing oil.”[643] The fact that there were three gifts became the basis of the traditional view that there were three wise men, each of whom gave one of the gifts. However, Matthew does not explicitly say that there were three wise men. Myrrh resin

has a long history of use as a flavoring agent, as an aromatic ingredient in cosmetics, and in traditional medicine. . . . Myrrh was highly esteemed by the ancients; in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, it was an ingredient of costly incenses, perfumes, and cosmetics and was used in medicines for local applications and in embalming.[644]

In the bible, we find several references to myrrh as a perfume (Psalm 45:8; Song of Songs 3:6; Esther 2:12). Jesus would be embalmed with myrrh after his crucifixion (John 19:39).

Fig. The three gifts of the magi, left to right: gold, frankincense and myrrh.[645]