Frankincense, myrrh and spikenard: the oils of scripture

Oil turns up constantly in scripture and almost never casually. Kings were set apart with it, the sick were prayed over with it, the dead were prepared with it. It marked a person as set apart for something.

Frankincense

Resin tapped from Boswellia trees in the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa. Balsamic, faintly lemony, and instantly recognisable to anyone who has been in a liturgical church. It arrives in Matthew 2 as one of the three gifts, and it was worth roughly its weight in silver at the time.

Practically: it is the friendliest of the three. Warm, clean, nothing strange about it.

Myrrh

Also a resin, from Commiphora. Darker, smokier, slightly bitter — and it carries a shadow, because it turns up twice: once at the birth, and again at the burial, when Nicodemus brings myrrh and aloes to the tomb.

Giving a newborn a burial spice is either a strange gift or a very deliberate one.

Spikenard

Not a resin but a root, from the Himalayas — which meant that in first-century Judea it had travelled thousands of miles to get there. Earthy, musky, and honestly a bit odd the first time you smell it.

This is the one Mary poured over Jesus' feet a week before the crucifixion. John notes the price: three hundred denarii, close to a year's wages. He also notes what happened to the room.

And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. — John 12:3

Using them now

Buy them diluted unless you know what you are doing — neat botanical oils do not belong on skin, and a 3% dilution in fractionated coconut oil is both safer and easier to apply. Keep them out of sunlight. And if you are praying over someone, warm the bottle in your hand first; cold oil on a forehead breaks the moment every time.