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The 'ketoret' is the incense described in the Bible for use in the Temple. Its composition and usage is described in greater detail in midrash , the Talmud and subsequent rabbinic literature. Although it was not produced following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, some Jews study the composition of the ancient Temple incense for ...
All three gifts are ordinary offerings and gifts given to a king. Myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable. The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.
The name "benzoin" is probably derived from Arabic lubān jāwī (لبان جاوي, "Javan frankincense"); compare the mid-eastern terms "gum benjamin" and "benjoin". H.J. Abrahams states that the use of benzoin in the Biblical incense is not inconceivable since Syro-Arabian tribes maintained extensive trade routes prior to Hellenism.
The English word frankincense derives from the Old French expression franc encens, meaning 'true incense', maybe with the sense of 'high quality incense'. [4] [2] The adjective franc in Old French meant 'noble, true', in this case perhaps 'pure'; although franc is ultimately derived from the tribal name of the Franks, it is not a direct reference to them in the word francincense.
pure frankincense (לְבוֹנָה זָךְ levonah zakh) The components are still being studied and are not determined with absolute certainty. Stacte is variously described as being the extract of the transparent portion of the myrrh resin which exudes spontaneously from the tree, or a balsam from a tree such as opobalsamum or a styrax.
The biblical regulations specify that cups of frankincense were to be placed upon the rows of cakes, and the Septuagint, but not the Masoretic Text, states that salt was mixed with the frankincense; the frankincense, which the Septuagint refers to as an anamnesis, (a hapax legomenon), constituted a memorial (azkarah), having been offered upon ...
The biblical word used here is נטף = naṭaf (Exo. 30:34), which was later called in Mishnaic times by the name צרי = ṣorī. By the time of the post-Second Temple era its meaning had already become spurious, which led Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel to say: "The ṣorī is no more than gum resin [that drips] from resinous trees."
The internationally renowned Bible scholar Bochart stated, at one point in his research, that onycha was actually benzoin, a gum-resin from the Styrax species. [22] H.J. Abrahams states that the use of benzoin in the Biblical incense is not inconceivable since Syro-Arabian tribes maintained extensive trade routes prior to Hellenism.