RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Incarnation Incense
surface in the style of Oriental roofs. This altar stood in the middle of the sanctuary, and, furthermore, immediately before the curtain of the Holy of Holies. Burnt offerings, meal offerings, and drink offerings were to stay far from it; only incense was to burn thereon; save that by way of expiation the horns were to be stained by the high priest with blood on the day of atonement, and on other occasions the blood of sin offerings was thus applied (Lev. iv. 7). A matter that strikes attention is the late context of the passage Ex. xxx. 1 sqq., while the appointment of the altar of incense was to be expected in the earlier context of chapter xxvi., where the Samaritan copy inserts it (xxvi. 34). Wellhausen, followed by most of the moderns, affirms that the era of the priest code was not acquainted with an altar of incense; the passage in question being of later origin than the remainder of the description of the tabernacle. The explanation for this context of the altar of incense in Ex. xxx. (again inxxxvii.) is not to be given conclusively. It is not impossible that in the early age they performed the incensing merely with incense pans or censers, and that only in the course of time was there an altar set up for that purpose expressly. But the erection of an incense altar in Solomon's temple ought not to be doubted, since frequent mention occurs (e.g., I Kings vi. 22, vii. 48, ix. 25). The dimensions are not reported, although by analogy they were possibly greater than in the tabernacle. In like manner, this adjunct, being an inalienable factor in the worship of Yahweh as regulated by Moses, could not have been wanting in the temples of Zerubbabel and Herod. According to the testimony of I Mace. i. 21, iv. 49, this golden altar was carried off by Antiochus Epiphanes, along with the other utensils of the sanctuary, though reconstructed anew by Judas Maccabeus, on the occasion of rededicating the Temple. Josephus, again, was acquainted with this jewel of the sanctuary (War, V., v. 5). Similar evidence is gained from Heb. ix. 4, which attests the actual presence of this altar in the last age of the temple. In the face of such weighty evidence, it is of little significance that Josephus, who knew that altar so well, does not expressly mention the altar of incense in connection with Pompey's visit to the temple (Ant. XIV., iv. 4; War, I., vii. 6), but dwells on the golden censers and the great quantity of incense. The absence of any picture of the altar on the Arch of Titus and in the description by Josephus (War, VII., v. 5) is probably to be explained by the supposition that it had perished in the conflagration. It is obvious that the material for the ceremonial incense consisted of fragrant substances. The substance most frequently employed was 3o The frankincense (q.v.), a resin (etymo- Materials. logically, of a whitish sort; cf. Pliny, Hist. nat. xii. 14), which the Hebrews obtained from southern Arabia (from Sheba, according to Jer. xi. 20; Isa. Ix. 6). For the inner sanctuary there is prescribed a special composition of fragrant spices (Ex. xxx. 34-38). Just as the Egyptians had a prescription for ceremonial use compounded of from ten to thirty-six ingredients (Plutarch, De Iside, lxxxi., enumerates sixteen sub-
stances), so in the tabernacle and in the temple an exclusive composition of four ingredients in equal parts was to be employed — and this might not be prepared for profane uses. The three aromatics that were to supplement frankincense are named: (1) nataph, " stacte," an exuding gum, according to some authorities, of the myrrh shrub (elsewhere expressed by the Heb. mar; verse 23), according to others, of the storax; (2) sheheleth, " incense nail," " sea clove," the shell of a mussel, strongly pungent under combustion; (3) helbenah, Lat. galbanum, " heart resin," abundant in Syria, which when alone emits an unpleasant smell, but, when duly proportioned with other ingredients, contributes to the potency and exhilarating effect of the aroma. These substances were to be mingled " after the art of the perfumer " [after the manner of the ointment mixer], and salted (cf. Lev. ii. 13), the same as was prescribed for the ceremonial offerings: hence, too, they would be crushed or pulverized. Later Jewish observance did not confine itself to the four substances here mentioned, but added seven other aromatics (cf. Kerithoth 6[lb; Maimonides, Hilkoth kele hammikdash, ii. 1-5). Of the four specified ingredients, there were to be taken, according to the rabbis, 70 pounds each. However, 368 pounds appear to have been used for the yearly requirement. The residue may have been composed of the accessory substances intermixed in smaller portions. The seven additional aromatics are as follows: myrrh (Ex. xxx. 23; Cant. iii. 6), cassia (Ex. xxx. 24; Ps. xlv. 8; Ezek. xxvii. 19), spikenard (Cant. i. 12; cf. John xii. 3), saffron (Cant. iv. T.4), costus, calamus (Ex. xxx. 23), and cinnamon (Ex. xxx. 23; Cant. iv. 14). Thus ten, or more usually eleven, aromatics were enumerated, according as frankincense was or was not included among them. Josephus (War, V., v. 5) speaks even of thirteen perfumes which went up from the altar of incense, but this is explained by the fact that still other aromatics were intermingled with the compound. Quantity and component proportions are more specifically defined by the Talmud.
The four statutory ingredients of the sacred incense have been interpreted in a variety of
symbolic ways. Philo gives a cosmo- 4. Sym- logical turn to the number four, stacte bolism. having reference to water, sea clove
to the earth, heart resin to the air, frankincense to fire (Quis rerum div. heres, p. 397). Josephus says that the thirteen kinds of odors, proceeding from the sea, the inhabited and uninhabited earth, denote that all is God's, and all is designed for him. In connection with the symbolical identity of incense and prayer, some have sought to correlate the four kinds of material for incense with the four categories of Christian prayer (praise, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession; cf. I Tim. ii. 1); or with the four emotional attributes indispensable to prayer (faith, humility, love, hope). All this is conjecture, and only this is certain, that there was contemplated an ascension of the mysterious aroma within the holy abode, and that the drawing near to God is also to be prefigured by ennobling and enrichment of the elements of worship.
Incense _ . . In Coena Domini