Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

INCENSE

Odiferous plants of various origins and species growing in different parts of the ancient Middle East played important roles in the economic, political, and religious life of the region. Undoubtedly these plants were first used in the Neolithic period but came to have an increasingly greater importance with the advent of formal states in the 4th-3rd millennia b.c. However, we have virtually no etiological myths which explain how these plants came to be used in such special functions and roles. In terms of the biblical world, by the early 1st millennium these substances came to play an ever increasing role. High status and prestige for the Mediterranean world became associated with the acquisition and consumption of exotic, foreign aromata. The use of these rose to great heights during the late Iron Age.

Various odiferous substances were used by the ancient peoples of the Middle East in association with funerals, divine worship, magic ritual, for cosmetic purposes, and in medicinal applications. Cuneiform sources in Mesopotamia refer to incense as early as the 4th millennium, and in Egypt “incense” has been identified in Nagada II period burials (ca. 2500), although the term “incense” is first attested in the 5th Dynasty.

In the OT incense burners and “altars” suggest frequent use of incense (Heb. qĕṭōreṯ) in daily life. Specific official rituals which included incense are described in a number of OT texts (e.g., Exod. 30; Lev. 2, 10, 16; Ps. 141). Cosmetic and medicinal uses are mentioned especially in the Song of Songs. In the NT the mention of incense (Gk. thymíama) use is rarer, and conforms to Jewish OT tradition (e.g., Matt. 2:11; Luke 1:9-11; Rev. 5:8; 18:13; Mark 14:3-9).

The most vexing question in any discussion of incense is what plants were used and what they were called. For example, galbanum prescribed in the Exodus account may be one of 100 species of the Ferula genus. Recently compiled data suggest what was used and available in the 1st millennium. Some of the incense products were only available and derived from southwest Arabia or northeast Africa. These included frankincense (Boswellia sp.), myrrh (commiphora sp.), aloes (Aloe sp.), bdelliums (commiphora sp.), and balm (Balsamodendron sp. or Commiphora sp.). Other incenses were available from a larger area of the Middle East, even into the northern latitudes of Syria, Lebanon, and Asia Minor. These included sweet-smelling canes (Acorus calamus), sweet-smelling rushes (Cymbopogon sp.), tragacanth (Astragalus sp.), labdanum (Cistus sp.), storax (Styrax sp. or Liquidambar sp.), mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), pine (Pinus brutia), terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus, identified from a Late Bronze Age Canaanite ship in the Mediterranean; perhaps Egyp. sntr), and other various resins from specific trees (e.g., Artemisia sp. and Acacia sp.). Other incense materials came from southeast Asia and were transshipped to the Levant via South Arabia. The most famous of these were cinnamon and cassia (Cinnamonium sp.) The incense trade was conducted both by sea (cf. Hanno Periplus; Pliny Nat. hist.) and by well-known land routes up the spine of Arabia. The origins for the Iron Age trade lay well back in the Bronze Age, from which actual ship remains have been recovered and historical records attest to shipbuilding.

Bibliography. N. Groom, Frankincense and Myrrh (London, 1981); H. H. Hairfield, Jr., and E. M. Hairfield, “Identification of a Late Bronze Age Resin,” Analytical Chemistry 62 (1990): 41A-45A; A. Lucas, “Cosmetics, Perfumes, and Incense in Ancient Egypt,” JEA 16 (1930): 41-53; W. Müller, “Notes on the Use of Frankincense in South Arabia,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 6 (1976): 124-36; K. Nielsen, Incense in Ancient Israel. VTSup 38 (Leiden, 1986); J. Zarins, “Mesopotamia and Frankincense: The Early Evidence,” in Profumi d’Arabia, ed. A. Avanzini (Rome, 1997), 251-72.

Juris Zarins

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

INCENSE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)