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Bible Dictionaries
Myrrh
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Hebrew mor from maarar "to drop," and lot . An ingredient of the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:23), typical of Messiah's graces (Psalms 45:8) as well as the church's through Him (Song of Solomon). In Song of Solomon 1:13 translated "a scent box of myrrh." The mowr is the Βalsamodendron myrrha , which yields myrrh, of the order Τerebinth aceae . The stunted trunk has a light gray odorous bark. It grew in Arabia around Saba; the gum resin exudes in drops which harden on the bark, and the flow is increased by incision into the tree. It is a transparent, brown, brittle, odorous substance, with bitter taste. The "wine mingled with myrrh," offered to but rejected by Jesus on the cross, was embittered by it.
As it stupefies the senses He would not have that which mitigates death's horrors, but would meet it in full consciousness. It was one of the three offerings of the wise men (Matthew 2:11). Nicodemus brought it to embalm His sacred body (John 19:39). Βal is its Egyptian name, bol the Sanskrit and Hindu. Lot is not strictly myrrh but ladanum , the resinous exudation of the Cistus ("rock rose") Creticus , growing in Gilead where no myrrh grew, and exported into Egypt (Genesis 37:25; Genesis 43:11). "Odorous, rather green, easy to soften, fat, produced in Cyprus" (Dioscorides i. 128); abounding still in Candia (Crete), where they gather it by passing over it an instrument composed of many parallel leather thongs, to which its gum adheres.
These files are public domain.
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Myrrh'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/m/myrrh.html. 1949.
