Ancient Fragrant Lore: The Scents of the Bible (part 5)

by: Elena Vosnaki

"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying: 'Take also for yourself the finest of spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant cane two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin. You shall make of it the Anointing Oil, a fragrant mix, the work of a perfumer.'" —The Holy Bible, Exodus 30:23-24

This small excerpt from the Bible gives but a glimpse of the importance of aromatics among the ancient Jewish people. Oil is frequently mentioned in Scripture as an emblem of sanctification; the odor of sanctity being an external manifestation of the internal spirituality and of the designation of an object or a person to the service of God. The divine authority in prescribing the composition of the Anointing oil that would consecrate the furniture of the tabernacle to Moses puts said production into the sphere of utmost importance. To anoint means to consecrate, to be set apart and dedicated to the service of God. The setting apart part is one which strongly resonated with the first monotheistic faith, that of the Jewish people. Fittingly more than 150 Spirit-inspired Bible verses, including 22 New Testament Scriptures, use the word "anoint", a term which bears a connection to the Latin inunctus (smeared with oil). Let's not overlook the fact that in the prescription to Moses finally a warning is given against the application of the anointing oil to anyone except the priests, or its composition for any other purpose besides the use of the sanctuary! Aaron is anointed as Israel's High Priest with the oil on both his head and clothes, while King David is anointed with oil not only to stress his link with God but also to mourn the loss of his child and before entering the Temple. Most poignantly of it all, the very word for Messiah in ancient Hebrew and the ancient Greek form of Christ (Χριστός) imply exactly this: being anointed with oil. In modern Greek Orthodoxy even today the baptism is immediately followed by the Chrism, Χρίσμα, which involves ... anointing with holy oil.

"To God we are the aroma of the Messiah" writes the apostle Paul in his second epistle to Corinthians 2:14-16. One cannot extricate the smell from the symbolism.

To revert to the actual recipe, however, the cluster of aromatics prescribed for the anointing oil is a synopsis of the sweet spices that the ancients considered most heavenly: myrrh, cassia, cinnamon and calamus, mixed in olive oil, the liquid gold of the Mediterranean. What were these mysterious ingredients and how different was their use in antiquity?

Myrrh is a white gum in high request as a "spice," produced off the trunk and larger branches of a thorny tree resembling the acacia which grows in Arabia, Egypt, and Abyssinia. Although myrrh isn't palatable due to its intensely bitter reception by the taste buds, its pleasant scent was admired from antiquity onwards, popular in most costly ointments of the old world. The Jewish used myrrh in funerals (John 19:39), no doubt inspired by the Egyptians who used myrrh for their embalming procedure. The body of Jesus after his death is supposed to be treated with "myrrh and aloes." The Jewish also used "holy fire" or hyssop (commemorated in the rites of burial), a Biblical plant that used used in cathartic sacrifices.

In the Exodus prescription the epithet deror in regards to myrrh, from the Arabic darra, is denoting a liquid, therefore implying the finest quality which issues forth with no need of incision on the bark (stacte). The costly essence of myrrh makes another entrance into the story of the Bible, when Queen Esther undergoes a year of preparation for her impending coronation which involves "a six month treatment with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and other aloes."

Cinamon, Kinnamon bosem, sweet cinnamon (called canella in Greek), a far richer spice than myrrh, comes from a small tree growing in the island of Ceylon, its provenance being the bark of the plant. It is interesting to note that it is mentioned also in Proverbs (7:16) and in Song of Solomon (4:14) where it is taking a less holy and much more carnal aspect. Sweet calamus, Kenaih bosem, calamus aromaticus, or odoriferous cane, grew in Egypt, Syria, and India, a reed with a knotted, roundish stalk, containing in its cavity a soft white pith. While growing, the air around is said to be scented by the sweet scent of the pith. The process for the perfume essence producer involves cutting it down, drying it, and powdering it, much like with iris roots in Florence, Italy, rendering it an ingredient for the richest and costliest perfumes. Cassia, qiddah or qetsi'oth (the latter if we refer to the bark strips, from which the Greek word cassia, as used in Psalms, derives1) or Cassia lignea, on the other hand, the inner bark of a small tree similar to cinnamon, probably imported from India, is also mentioned as one of the wares in which Dan and Javan traded with Tyre in Ezekiel 27:19 ["Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in your fairs: bright iron, cassia and calamus, were in your market."]; the Syrians obtained iron, cassia and calamus from there on the big trade routes. This unguent ingredient became popular with the Romans, coming into contact upon their expansion into the Near East, but for the Jewish it also held funeral importance. Of course this is far from conclusive. "Spices—in the context of anointing oils, perfume, food, and incense—are mentioned throughout the Bible: 16 verses containing frankincense, 17 with myrrh, five with spikenard, and many others featuring cinnamon, cassia, calamus, camphor, stacte, aloes, onycha, cedar, honey, hyssop, henna, mandrakes, pomegranates, lilies, roses, and saffron. Our faith is deepened and we are enriched and brought closer to God as we begin to study and understand the spiritual meaning of these exotic biblical fragrances." 2

Beyond the spiritual significance, it's easy to see how aromatics in the ancient world were worth their weight in gold; a short mention in the story of the "Magi of the East," or "three wise men" (non-believers but cognizant of the ground-breaking events) bringing gifts to baby Jesus involved not one, but two of them: myrrh and frankincense, alongside gold, as mentioned in Matthew 2:11. Are they signs, to signify the triad of roles that Jesus will have, King, Priest and Prophet? Some researchers think so. Frankincense takes the form of incense and through smoke (per fumum) the gates of the skies open to hear the prayers. Myrrh is tied to death and its rites. We can limit ourselves to recognizing their regal (in both senses of the word) significance.

The most intriguing aspect of reading the Bible in search of aromatics nevertheless is how the spices and sweet unguents are used to denote both sanctity and the pleasure of the bodily senses. "All your garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made you glad"—Psalm 45:8 And again in the sacrificial woman who comes to the Savior with an alabaster jar with pure spikenard oil which was extremely costly at the time in a pre-figuration of the embalming rites. She is Mary of Bethany (Matthew 26: 6-13) who pours the fragrant oil on Jesus's feet. There is also the unnamed "sinner in the city" who comes into the house of Simon the Pharisee and washes Jesus' feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair and pours fragrant oil on him. However for centuries the Catholic Church conflated this penitent sinner (a whore? an adulteress?) and the disciple sister of Martha and Lazarus, with another Mary, Mary Magdalene, who is, not coincidentally, the patron saint of apothecaries and perfume makers. Perhaps the connection is that Magdalene is one of the "myrrhophores" depicted in a Syrian fresco dating from the 3rd century AD, the women who bring myrrh resin to embalm Jesus's body and finding the sepulchre open and devoid of its rightful inhabitant, thus being the first witness to the Anastasis.3

Maybe the most lush and sensual passage comes from the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs, or Canticles), a true catalogue of aromatics, honoring the bride and groom, the symbolic symbiosis of the believer and God, and an apotheosis of sexual love, where rose of Sharon, henna, saffron, pomegranates and lily of the valley are also mentioned alongside the other essences already mentioned above. I will leave you with only some of its sensual verses to savor for yourself...

How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your
perfumes than all manner of spices!
Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk
are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like
the smell of Lebanon.
A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring,
a sealed fountain.
Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits:
henna with spikenard plants,
spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind
of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices, a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters, flowing streams
from Lebanon. Beloved
Awake, north wind; and come, you south! Blow on my garden,
that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden,
and taste his precious fruits. Lover
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my
honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.

Ref. [1] E. W. G. Masterman, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
[2] Abba oil
[3] Susan Haskins, 1995, Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor, Riverhead Trade

Pic credits:Dieric Bouts, 1440s, Christ in the House of Simon (anointing) via Wikipedia Commons; Three Wise Men, Byzantine mosaic from Sant'Apollinare Nuovo,. Ravenna, Italy via Wikipedia Commons

 

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