The Bible

 

Matthew 2:1-12 : The Visit of the Wise Men

Study

1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

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.

12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Commentary

 

Christmas Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

By New Christian Bible Study Staff

The Adoration of the Magi, a Design for Bas Relief.

In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3507

Study this Passage

  
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3507. 'Rebekah was listening to Isaac while he spoke to [Esau] his son' means the affection for truth and the life from that affection. This is clear from the representation of 'Rebekah' as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards Divine Truth joined to Divine Good there, and so as the affection itself for truth; and from the meaning of 'listening to Isaac while he spoke' as the life from that affection. For in the internal sense 'listening to someone speaking' means influx, and it does so because in the representative sense 'listening to' means being obedient, 2542, and 'speaking' means willing and flowing in, 2626, 2952, 3037; so that in the highest sense 'listening to someone speaking' is the life from that affection, that is to say, the life of Divine Truth received from Divine Good. 'To his son' in the internal sense has reference to the good of the natural and from this to the truth of the natural. Being far removed from the sense of the letter, which is the historical sense, the meaning held within these words is scarcely apparent; but such a meaning is nevertheless present there.

[2] Indeed angelic ideas are not at all like human ideas. Angelic ideas are spiritual; and when they become more interior they are celestial, whereas human ideas are natural, and when formed from things that happened in history are sensory impressions. The Lord however has effected through the Word such a correspondence between spiritual things which belong to heaven and natural ones which belong to the world that natural ideas are converted in an instant into spiritual ones. Consequently heaven is joined to the world through mankind, and in particular through the Word, and so through the Church in which the Word is present. The fact that the correspondence of natural things and spiritual exists in every single thing that can be grasped and perceived mentally will in the Lord's Divine mercy be clear from what is to be stated from experience about the Grand Man at the ends of chapters below.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.