the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Frankincense
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or Frankincense was not indigenous to Palestineâthe assumption that the tree from which it is derived was at home in the Lebanon Mountains rests merely on the similarity of the name ("lebanon" = λίβανοÏ)â though gardens for the cultivation of the exotic plant may have existed there (comp. Song of Solomon 4:6,14; the gardens of Jericho, En-gedi, Zoar: Josephus, "Ant." 8:6, § 6; 9:1, § 2; Pliny, "Historia Naturalis," 12:31). Frankincense was imported mainly from Arabia (especially from Saba; Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20), and as it was needed for sacrificial purposes (according to the critical school, only after the priestly codification: see see INCENSE), stores of it were kept in the Temple (1 Chronicles 10 [A. V. ] 29; Nehemiah 13:5,9). Voluntary offerings of it are mentioned (Jeremiah 17:26, 41:5, R. V.). It is also referred to as among the luxuries of the wealthy (Song of Solomon 3:6), and may have been used as an ingredient in the perfumes burned in honor of dead kings (CREMATION; Jeremiah 34:5; 2 Chronicles 16:14, 21:19).
In southern Arabia (Sprenger, "Die Alte Geographie Arabiens," 1875, pp. 296-297; Glaser, "Skizze der Gesch. und Geographie Arabiens," 1880, 2:167-168), in a mountainous district, is found a tree of shrub-like appearance, with compound leaves, five-toothed calyx, five petals, ten stamens, and a triangular, three-celled fruit, with winged seeds (the Boswellia sacra). This tree, which was known even to the classical writers, furnishes frankincense. It is, however, also very likely that in remote antiquity (according to Egyptologists, in the seventeenth pre-Christian century) Somaliland was one of the countries whence this coveted luxury and sacerdotal necessity was imported. India, too, produced it. In the latter country it is the Boswellia thurifera or Boswellia serrata which furnishes the resin (olibanum). The bark is slit and the gum oozes out; hence the Greek name ÏÏαγονιαÏ. Sometimes palm mats are spread on the ground to catch the exuding gum; otherwise no further care is required (see Pliny, c. 12:32; Theophrastus, "Plants," 9:4). The Indian product is perhaps the finer and purerâe., the "white"âfrankincense (hence the name 
, from 
"white"), called "lebonah zakkah" (Exodus 30:34; LXX. διαÏÎ±Î½Î®Ï Vulg. "lucidissimum."); it was one of the ingredients of the holiest incense (comp. Matthew 2:11), and was identical, it seems, with that which was used by the Arabs in their sacrificial ritual (Doughty, "Arabia Deserta," 1:452, 2:144, Cambridge, 1888). It is white, brittle, and bitter to the taste, while the ordinary species is a gum of yellowish color.
In the Talmud this frankincense is enumerated as one of the eleven components of the incense (Ker. 6a, b). It was not to be sold to an idolater ('Ab Zarah 1:5). It is also mentioned as an ingredient in the preparation intended to stupefy an individual about to undergo capital punishment (see CRUCIFIXION; Sanh. 43a).
- Hastings, Dict. Bible;
- Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl.;
- Tristram, Natural Hist. of the Bible, p. 356, London, 1889;
- F. A. Flückiger, Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreiches, 2d ed., 1883;
- Levy, Die Semitischen Fremdwôrter, 1895, pp. 44-45;
- Guthe, Kruzes Bibelwörterb., 1903, s. Weihrauch;
- Löw, Aramäische Pflanzennamen, 1881, p. 235.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Frankincense'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/f/frankincense.html. 1901.
