Gold, frankincense and myrrh

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Jan Anton van der Baren: The Gifts of the Magi , 17th century ( Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna )

Gold, frankincense and myrrh are valuable gifts that the wise men from the Orient offer to Jesus Christ , a single motif from the special property of the Gospel of Matthew ( Mt 2,11  LUT ). You have occupied the imagination of the boom particularly.

exegesis

In the story of Matthew's gospel, the magicians set out to worship a king. When they reach their destination, they open their treasure chests. To visit a king with no gifts would be tantamount to an affront to the ancient reader. In any case, there are three extremely precious gifts, "royal gifts". The imported items frankincense and myrrh were used in the cult, but z. B. also used for cosmetics or remedies. Antiochus VII. Sidetes organized luxurious banquets in which the dishes (meat, fish and honey cake) were adorned with wreaths of frankincense and myrrh and golden ribbons. A hypothetical first-time reader would clearly perceive the royal connotation of the scene and the gifts.

Matthew very often refers to the Old Testament at the beginning of his Gospel, perhaps here too. But since the triad gold, frankincense and myrrh does not appear anywhere in the Old Testament, it is not clear which passage he refers to. An allusion to Isa 60,6  LUT or Hld 3,6  LUT is possible . Isa 60,6 and with it the pilgrimage to Zion sounds as an intertextual reference in Mt 2,11, but is messianically transformed, because the magicians want to worship a king and their journey does not find its destination in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem. Jerusalem has negative connotations throughout the Gospel of Matthew. "The addition of the peoples is no longer conceivable as a coming to Jerusalem, but as a coming to the Messiah , to Immanuel , transformed."

The Isaiah passage is later used in the development of the legend of the Three Kings . From the threefold of the gifts the threefold of the bearers is deduced.

Reception history

Christological interpretation

This type of design is the oldest. Irenaeus of Lyons and Origen already saw the myrrh as an indication of the death of Jesus and drew a connection to Mk 15.23  LUT and Joh 19.39  LUT . The ancient church exegesis interprets the detail of the three gifts from the center of the New Testament message: "Gold comes to Jesus as king, incense as God, myrrh as man." Juvencus succinctly formulated this thought as a hexameter : "Thus aurum murram regique hominique Deoque / dona ferunt. ”From a Christological point of view, however, the three terms king, God and man do not really fit together. Because the terms God and man refer to the nature of Christ ( doctrine of two natures ), whereas king is an office. The three offices of Christ are classically king, priest and prophet.

The interpretation of the three gifts in the succession of Irenaeus and Origen entered the liturgy of the Feast of Epiphany (Epiphany, January 6th):

"Regem deumque annuntiant / thesaurus et fragrans odor / turis Sabaei, at myrrheus / pulvis sepulcrum praedocet. (The king and God proclaim / the treasure and the fragrant smell / of the incense of Sheba, but the myrrh, / the grains, the tomb foretells.) "

- Hymnus Magi videntes parvulum

“From oriente venerunt magi in betlehem adorare dominum et apertis thesauris suis preciosa munera obtulerunt aurum sicut regi magno thus sicut deo uero mirram sepulture eius. (From the east magicians came to Bethlehem to worship the Lord, and opened up their treasures and offered precious gifts: gold to the great king, incense to the true God, myrrh for his burial). "

- Antiphon, nuns' breviary from Admont Abbey , fol. 112v.

It can also be heard in modern hymns, e.g. B. in Die Weisen aus dem Morgenland ( Maria Luise Thurmair 1952): "Gold, frankincense, and myrrh were sacrificed to / the child / who was there, so poor in the stable with the cattle, / their God and King."

The “ Syrian Treasure Cave ” (6th century) interprets a little differently : Christ is king (= gold), priest (= incense) and doctor (= myrrh). The two Christological interpretations could be combined, as Marco Polo handed down from Persia. There, so it is said in Il Milione , there is a town of Cala Ataperistan , where there is a tradition that three kings once set out from that area to worship and test a newborn prophet. If he reaches for the gold, he is a secular ruler. If he reaches for the incense, he is a god. If he reaches for the myrrh, he is a doctor.

Moral interpretation

Since the early Middle Ages, in addition to the relatively fixed dogmatic interpretation, the three gifts were also used in parenesis , which opened up greater leeway. They then stand for what the Christian should give to God:

gold incense myrrh
Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum Faith prayer good works
Euthymios Zigabenos pure works prayer Killing the passions
Gregory the Great wisdom prayer Mortification of the flesh ( mortificatio carnis )
Martin Luther hope Faith Love: Confession to the suffering and death of Christ
Johann Arndt Faith Devotion, prayer Buses; Cross and suffering

The precious material gifts of the wise men from the east became spiritual gifts that every person could give to the baby Jesus. Here, too, the trail continues into church music, e.g. B. to the cantata They will all come from Saba (BWV 65):

"The gold of faith, the incense of prayer, / the myrrh of patience are my gifts, / you, Jesus, shall have them for and for / for property and gifts."

Further interpretations

Since the High Middle Ages there has been a third type of interpretation that emphasizes the usefulness of the gifts: gold - because Mary and Joseph were poor; Incense - to cover up the stench in the stable; Myrrh - for infant health. Johann Albrecht Bengel saw in the gifts primarily products from the country of origin of the astrologers. "These firstfruits should show that one day everything would be Christ, including the mineral and vegetable kingdoms."

Christ relics

The Christ Relics Gifts of the Magi (Moscow 2014)

The venerable gifts of the three wise men are venerated in the Athos monastery of Agiou Pavlou . There are 28 golden pendants (triangular or square, 5 to 7 cm large plates, which are decorated with filigree ornaments) and olive-sized pearls made of incense and myrrh, attached to them, on silver threads, a total of 70. According to tradition, Mary handed over them these treasures before the death of two righteous women. They were then initially kept in Jerusalem, from there to the Sophia Church in Constantinople; after the fall of Constantinople they were handed over by Mara Branković to the convent of the Athos monastery, where they have been since then. The Athos monks believe that the relics have healing powers and in this way testify to the coming of Jesus Christ into the world.

Outside Greece, the relics were only shown once after the 15th century: in January 2014 in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kiev and Minsk, with a large participation of the Orthodox population.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. 1 Sam 10,27  LUT ; 1 Kings 5,14  LUT reads in the version of the Septuagint : "And all the peoples came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and they brought gifts from all the kings of the earth who heard his wisdom." (Wolfgang Kraus, Martin Karrer ed. : Septuaginta German , Stuttgart 2009, p. 393)
  2. ^ Eduard Schweizer : The Gospel according to Matthäus , Göttingen 1976, p. 18.
  3. ↑ Moisés Mayordomo-Marín : Listening to the beginning: reader-oriented gospel exegesis using the example of Matthäus 1-2 , Göttingen 1998, p. 303.
  4. ↑ a b c Ulrich Luz : The Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 1–7) , Neukirchen-Vluyn, 4th edition 1997, 121.
  5. ↑ Matthias Konradt : The Gospel according to Matthew , Göttingen 2015, p. 42.
  6. ↑ Contra Haereses III, 9,2: The magicians “indicated by the offering of their gifts who he was whom they worshiped: by means of myrrh, that it was he who wanted to die and be buried for the mortal race of men; by the gold, that he was the king whose kingdom has no end ; through the incense that he is the God made known in Judea , who revealed himself to those who sought him. "
  7. ^ Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart: Gregorian repertoire (Translator: Bernhard Schmid, Rottenburg)
  8. ↑ Quoted here from: Regina D. Schiewer: Die deutsche Predigt um 1200: Ein Handbuch , Göttingen 2013, Berlin / New York 2008, p. 156.
  9. ^ The wise men from the Orient, EG Rhineland-Westphalia-Lippe 553.4.
  10. ↑ Alexander Toepel: The Adam and Seth legends in the Syrian book of the treasure cave: A source-critical investigation. Leuven 2006, p. 171, note 66.
  11. ^ Pseudo-Chrysostomos: Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum , Migne, Patrologia Graeca 56, 642. “Si quis ergo praebet se Christo fidei sapientia plenum, obtulit ei aurum. Thus autem est oratio, sicut scriptum est: Dirigatur oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo (Psal. 140,2). Si quis ergo Christo mundam offert orationem, obtulit ei thus. Myrrham aestimo esse opera bona: quoniam sicut myrrha corpus defunctorum insolubile servat, sic bona opera Christum crucifixum in memoria hominis perpetuum servant, et hominem servant in Christo. Primum ergo oportet Christo offerre fidem rationabilem, deinde orationem mundam, et tertio opera sancta. "
  12. ^ Martin Luther: Sermon on Epiphany 1517, WA 1,122-125 . Ibid. P. 124, 6–9: “For we can offer not material gold, frankincense and myrrh, but faith, trust in what one cannot see. Believing that Christ is King, God and man, that is, offering those three gifts. "
  13. ↑ Johann Arndt: Postilla, That is: ingenious declaration / the Evangelical texts / throughout the year ... , ed. by Philipp Jacob Spener , Frankfurt am Main 1625, pp. 157–160.
  14. ↑ BWV 65 They will all come from Saba , Recitativo T. Cf. Mathias Peter: Music by JS Bach for Epiphany. Old Testament Promises . In: domradio.de, January 8, 2017.
  15. ↑ Ulrich Luz: The Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 1–7) , Neukirchen-Vluyn, 4th edition 1997, 121 f. Cf. Thomas Aquinas: Super Evangelium S, Matthaei Lectura z. St .: “Aliqui assignant rationem istorum munerum litteralem et dicunt isti, quod tria invenerunt: domum sordidam, puerum infirmum, et matrem pauperem. Et ideo obtulerunt aurum ad sustentationem matris, myrrham ad sustentationem membrorum pueri, thus ad tollendum foetorem. "
  16. ↑ Johann Albrecht Bengel: Gnomon or Pointer of the New Testament, an interpretation of the same in ongoing notes . Edited in German by C. F. Werner. Stuttgart 1853/54, Volume 1, p. 28.
  17. ↑ a b c Gifts of the Magi delivered to Minsk for worship . TASS Russian News Agency, January 17, 2014.
  18. ↑ 20,000 Line Up to See Gifts of the Magi , The Moscow Times, Jan. 10, 2014.
  19. ↑ Pravoslavie.ru: 585,000 believers venerate Gifts of the Magi in Russia over 10 days (January 17, 2014).