Gold, frankincense, and Mer, a special edition for Christmas dedicated to Rory in Philadelphia

whose family supports us on Patreon.

Hello, this is Janna, and I'm here to introduce a special Christmas edition of Herodotus

with Bertie.

Hey Bertie, I've been listening to your Herodotus stories and I've got the idea that he was writing

about the world long before Christ was born.

So I'm a little puzzled.

What has Herodotus got to do with Christmas?

You're right, he lived about 400 years before Christ and some of the events he's writing

about happened even earlier.

But he is writing about the Middle East where Jesus was born and specifically he can tell

us about some very Christmassy gifts, gold, frankincense, and Mer, which you've probably

heard of from the Christmas story.

Or maybe you've seen them on Christmas cards showing the three wise men kneeling before

the baby Jesus in the stable offering these mysterious gifts of the East.

But actually in the Bible Matthew writes that the Magi followed a star to a house in Bethlehem.

The stable and the manger scene is in a different gospel written by Luke.

Oh right, interesting, that scene's not quite so good on a Christmas card.

So who do you think the wise men or the Magi were?

The Bible calls the wise men Magi and says they came from the East following a star.

It doesn't say how many there were by the way.

The tradition of three wise men grew up later.

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