What happened to them?

[chaunceygardner]

I’ve always assumed they were used to finance the flight into and sojourn in Egypt, which would not have been cheap.

Incidentally the gold would have been the least valuable of the three gifts named.

I would have to agree that is the most logical result, to pay the cost of traveling to and living in Egypt, and perhaps to buy land or a home in Nazareth. Another possibility is that the Holy Family exchanged or gave some of it to others in need. I could see both Mary and Joseph doing that.

 

[cheeto1]

Another possibility is that the Holy Family exchanged or gave some of it to others in need.

Hmm…what do you mean by “exchanged”?

 

[cheeto1]

Essential Catholic theology the concept of NOT either /or BUT both/and.Why can’t something be both real and symbolic?

by all means, it can be both. I just wondered how that was an answer to my
question. Do you think Mary and Joseph understood the symbolism? I can
just imagine them showing Jesus as a child each of these gifts and telling Him
how He got them as a baby. It’s more fun to think about than the idea of them
selling them!

 

[cheeto1]

If memory serves myrrh came in liquid form, so that at least probably couldn’t have lasted 30 years without going off.

Now that’s interesting. Bottles of wine are older than that. You don’t think they
had the technology back then to preserve a liquid?
Do you think any poor people have any valuable coins they got from their
grandparents? Some people might have some possessions that are so precious
to them, that they would never part with them, even if they were poor. The bible
never says they were starving…

 

[cheeto1]

I don’t think Thistle has any special knowledge on the subject.

There’s a very good chance that no one does. I am still interested in why he doesn’t
think they are in a museum. Maybe the same reasons that you don’t really think so?

 

[cheeto1]

Incidentally the gold would have been the least valuable of the three gifts named.

I love incidentally’s. How did you find out?

 

[cheeto1]

He’s saying that when they were presented to him by the magi, they were presented as symbols of him being priest prophet, and king.

I see, thank you

 

[cheeto1]

I think all posted so far are all viable options.

I was thinking the same thing. But maybe there are more…

 

[NHInsider]

I love incidentally’s. How did you find out?

Hmm. I don’t recall when or how I learned about the immense value of frankinsence and myrrh, it would have been years ago. Since I love research, I took this as a welcome challenge and went looking.

Checking various sources makes this assertion slightly sketchy, as the value of gold was apparently pretty volatile. Most sources seem to concur that frankincense was “worth its weight in gold” and myrrh worth about 6 times the value of frankincense.

Pliny the Elder, however, who wrote in the mid first century, gives the values of 6 denarii for a pound of high-quality frankincense and 16.5 denarii for a pound of myrrh. A denarius was the daily wage of an unskilled laborer at the time of Christ, but by definition a pound of gold should have been worth between 500 and 600 denarii (45 aurei to the pound, 12-16 denarii to the aureus. Roman coinage was frequently revalued, see the comment about the volatility of the value of gold.) So that would seem to make the “worth its weight in gold” statement suspect.

So perhaps I should apologize for perpetuating a myth . . .