the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Nard
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or NARD (Heb. נֵרְרְּ, from Skr. naladurtha, probably through Persian; Gr. νάρδος, Arab. [Note: Arabic.] sumbul-i-kindi [= Indian spike]).—The chief ingredient in the costly unguents used in the East, and from thence imported to Rome. The word is found in the OT (Song of Solomon 1:12; Song of Solomon 4:13-14) and twice in the Gospels (Mark 14:3-5, John 12:3-5), occurring in both cases in the account of the anointing of our Lord, in a house at Bethany, by a woman whom St. John identifies as Mary the sister of Lazarus.* [Note: connects this incident closely with the last Passover, but Jn. makes it clear that it happened on the night before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.] In classical literature there are frequent references to nard. Theophrastus speaks of it as a root (de Odor. 28), and says it came from India (Hist. Plant. ix. 7. 2). Dioscorides, a physician who flourished about a.d. 100, also tells us that it came from India, being found in the Ganges district, and that it had many shaggy (πολύκομος) spikes growing from one root (i. 6. 77). Athenaeus (xv. 691 B), Horace (Od. ii. xi. 16, iv. xii. 16), Ovid (Ars. Am. iii. 443), and Tibullus (ii. 2. 7) make references to it. But our chief authority is Pliny the Elder (Nat. Hist. xii. 26, 27, xiii. 2). He speaks of its great value,† [Note: and Jn. mention 300 denarii (about £10) as the cost per pound of the unguent. Pliny (xii. 26) says that the ‘spicae’ were worth 100 denarii a pound, and in xiii. 2 mentions the price of a similar unguent as rising to 300 denarii per pound.] its adulteration, and the means by which genuine nard may be distinguished from spurious. Genuine (sincerum) nard is known by its lightness, its red colour, its sweet smell, and its peculiar taste (gustu maxime siccante os, sapore iucundo). He also speaks of the use of alabaster boxes to preserve it. (See Alabaster).
It was formerly supposed by Linnaeus and other botanists that nard was an Indian grass; but Sir W. Jones and Dr. Royle, director of the Government Botanical Gardens at Saharunpore from 1823 to 1831, have conclusively proved that it is to be identified with Nardostachys Jatamansi, a plant of the order Valerianaceae, found at great altitudes in North India. This plant bears small spikes of purple flowers, each with four stamens. The part used for making the perfume was the root and lower portion of the stems, which are shaggy ‘like tufts of ermine,’ and to which the skeletons of former leaves adhere, giving them a bristly appearance. It is probably these stems, rather than the flower heads, which Pliny calls spicie. The epithet πιστική applied in Mk. and Jn. to νάρδος may possibly be an attempt to reproduce spieata, which, in vulgar Latin, may have become spicita (see Swete’s St. Mark, ad loc., and art. Spikenard in present work).
Literature.—Besides the authorities quoted in the article, see Asiatic Researches, ii. 405–417; W. Dymock, Pharmacographia Indica (1891), ii. 233–238; Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 485; articles ‘Spikenard’ in Encyc. Brit.9 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , Smith’s DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] (by Houston), Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (by Post), Encyc. Bibl. (by Thistleto-Dyer and M’Lean).
H. W. Fulford.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Nard'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/n/nard.html. 1906-1918.
