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Myrrh

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Nave Topical Bible
• Myrrh
Thompson Chain Reference
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Treasury of Biblical Knowledge
• Spices, Spikenard, Myrrh, Hyssop, Etc: & Balm, Ointment, Perfumes
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• ܡܽܘܪܳܐ
• σμύρνα
• σμυρνίζω
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• מֹר

Myrrh is the exudation of a little-known tree found in Arabia, but much more extensively in Abyssinia. It formed an article of the earliest commerce, was highly esteemed by the Egyptians and Jews, as well as by the Greeks and Romans, as it still is both in the East and in Europe. The earliest notice of it occurs in , 'Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh (morderor) 500 shekels.' It is afterwards mentioned in , as employed in the purification of women; in , as a perfume, 'All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia;' also in several passages of the Song of Solomon (; ). We find it mentioned in , among the gifts presented by the wise men of the East to the infant Jesus—'gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.' It may be remarked as worthy of notice, that myrrh and frankincense are frequently mentioned together. In , we learn that the Roman soldiers 'gave him (Jesus) to drink wine mingled with myrrh; but he received it not.' The Apostle John () says, 'Then came also Nicodemus, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight,' for the purpose of embalming the body of our Savior.

Fig. 274—Balsamodendron Myrrha

Though myrrh seems to have been known from the earliest times, and must consequently have been one of the most ancient articles of commerce, the country producing it long remained unknown. Some is undoubtedly procured in Arabia, but the largest quantity has always been obtained from Africa. Mr. Johnson, in his recently published Travels in Abyssinia (i. 249), mentions that 'Myrrh and mimosa trees abounded in this place' (Koranhedudah in Adal). The former he describes as being 'a low, thorny, ragged-looking tree, with bright-green trifoliate leaves; the gum exudes from cracks in the bark of the trunk near the root, and flows freely upon the stones immediately underneath. Artificially it is obtained by bruises made with stones. The natives collect it principally in the hot months of July and August, but it is to be found, though in very small quantities, at other times of the year.

Several kinds of myrrh were known to the ancients; and in modern commerce we have Turkish and East Indian myrrh, and different names used to be, and are still applied to it, as red and fatty myrrh, myrrh in tears, in sorts, and myrrh in grains. In the Bible also several kinds of myrrh are enumerated, respecting which various opinions have been entertained.

Myrrh, it is well known, was celebrated in the most ancient times as a perfume, and a fumigator, as well as for its uses in medicine. Myrrh was burned in the temples, and employed in embalming the bodies of the dead. It was offered in presents, as natural products commonly were in those days, because such as were procured from distant countries were very rare. The ancients prepared a wine of myrrh, and also an oil of myrrh, and it formed an ingredient in many of the most celebrated compound medicines, as the Theriaca, the Mithridata, Manus Dei. etc. Even in Europe it continued to recent times to enjoy the highest medicinal reputation, as it does in the East in the present day. From the sensible properties of this drug, and from the virtues which were ascribed to it, we may satisfactorily account for the mention of it in the several passages of Scripture which have been quoted.