Frankincense

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FRANKINCENSE (lebônâh; Gr. libanos Mat_2:11, Rev_18:13).—Frankincense is in six passages (Isa_43:23; Isa_60:6; Isa_66:3, Jer_6:20; Jer_17:26; Jer_41:5) mistranslated in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘incense,’ but correctly in RV [Note: Revised Version.] . It is a sweet-smelling gum, obtained as a milky exudation from various species of Boswellia, the frankincense tree, an ally of the terebinth. The gum was imported from S. Arabia (Isa_60:6, Jer_6:20); it was a constituent of incense (Exo_30:34); it is often associated with myrrh (Son_3:6; Son_4:6, Mat_2:11); it was offered with the shewbread (Lev_24:7).
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

lebonah, from laban "to be white." A vegetable resin, brittle, glittering, bitter, used for fumigation at sacrifices (Exo_30:7-8; Exo_30:34-36), got by incisions in the bark of the Arbor thuris; the first flow is white and transparent, the after yield is yellowish. It was imported from Arabia (Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20). Arabian frankincense now is inferior to that of the Indian archipelago; the latter frankincense is yielded by the Boswellia serrata or thurifera, growing 40 ft. high in Amboyna and the mountains of India. Arabia may have anciently, as now, imported the best kind. The papyrifera grows on the E. of Africa. The Indian is called looban in Hindu temples, related to libanos and lebonah.
Frankincense, with its sweet perfume, symbolizes prayer accepted before God (Psa_141:2; Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3-4). The angel does not provide the incense; it is "given" to him by Christ, whose meritorious obedience and death and intercession are the incense rendering the saints' prayers well pleasing to God. They do not pray to the angel; he is but the king's messenger, and did not dare to appropriate what, is the king's alone (Mal_1:11). The time of offering the incense, morning and evening, was the chosen time for prayer (Luk_1:10).
Frankincense was among the offerings of the wise men to the infant Savior (Mat_2:11). Son_3:6, "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness, like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" Israel, with Jehovah's pillar of smoke by day and fire by night, and smoke from the altars of incense and atonement, was the type. Jesus, ascending to heaven with the clouds while the question is asked "Who is this King of glory?" (Psa_24:8-10) is the antitype. So Isa_63:1; Isa_63:5, "Who is this?" etc. The bride too comes up with Him from the wilderness, exhaling frankincense-like graces, faith, love, joy, peace, prayer, praise; of her too it is asked, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" (Son_8:5; Rev_7:13-17.)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Frankincense. A vegetable resin, brittle, glittering, and of a bitter taste, used for the purpose of sacrificial fumigation. Exo_30:34-36. It was called frank because of the freeness with which, when burned, it gives forth its odor. It burns for a long time, with a steady flame. It is obtained by successive incisions in the bark of a tree called Arbor thuris. The first incision yields the purest and whitest resin, while the product of the after incisions is spotted with yellow, and loses its whiteness altogether as it becomes old.
The Hebrews imported their frankincense from Arabia, Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20, and more particularly from Saba; but it is remarkable that, at present, the Arabian libanum or olibanum is a very inferior kind, and that the finest frankincense imported into Turkey comes through Arabia from the islands of the Indian Archipelago.
There can be little doubt that the tree which produces the Indian frankincense is the Boswellia serrata of Roxburgh, or Boswellia thurifera of Colebrooke, and bears some resemblance when young to the mountain ash. It grows to be forty feet high.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

לבדנח , Exo_30:34, &c. λιβανος, Mat_2:11; Rev_18:13, a dry, resinous substance, of a yellowish white colour, a strong fragrant smell, and bitter, acrid taste. The tree which produces it is not known. Dioscorides mentions it as procured from India. What is here called the pure frankincense is, no doubt, the same with the mascula thura of Virgil, and signifies what is first obtained from the tree.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

fraṇk?in-sens (לבנה, lebhōnāh, from root meaning ?whiteness,? referring to the milky color of the fresh juice: Exo_30:34; Lev_2:1 f,15 f; Lev_5:11; Lev_6:15; Lev_24:7; Num_5:15; 1Ch_9:29; Neh_13:5, Neh_13:9; Son_3:6; Son_4:6, Son_4:14; Isa_43:23; Isa_60:6; Isa_66:3; Jer_6:20; Jer_17:26; Jer_41:5; translated in the last six references ?incense? in the King James Version, but correctly in the Revised Version (British and American); λίβανος, lı́banoš: Mat_2:11; Rev_18:13. The English word is derived from old French franc encens, i.e. ?pure incense?): The common frankincense of the pharmacopeas is a gum derived from the common fir, but the frankincense of the Jews, as well as of the Greeks and Romans, is a substance now called Olibanum (from the Arabic el lubān), a product of certain trees of the genus Boswellia (Natural Order, Amyridaceae), growing on the limestone rocks of south Arabia and Somali-land (Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20). The most important species are B. Carteri and B. Frereana. Some of the trees grow to a considerable height and send down their roots to extraordinary depths. The gum is obtained by incising the bark, and is collected in yellowish, semitransparent tears, readily pulverized; it has a nauseous taste. It is used for making incense for burning in churches and in Indian temples, as it was among the Jews (Exo_30:34). See INCENSE. It is often associated with myrrh (Son_3:6; Son_4:6) and with it was made an offering to the infant Saviour (Mat_2:11). A specially ?pure? kind, lebhōnāh zakkāh, was presented with the shewbread (Lev_24:7).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

The original word is lebonah, which first occurs here, and is afterwards constantly mentioned among the ingredients of the perfume to be consumed upon the incense altar (Lev_2:1-2; Lev_2:15-16; Lev_5:11; Lev_6:15; Lev_24:7; Num_5:15; 1Ch_9:29; Neh_13:5). In some other passages it is used in a figurative sense (Son_3:6; Son_4:6; Isa_43:23; Isa_66:3). In other passages, as an article of distant commerce, it is described as being brought by caravans from Sheba, etc. (Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20). From all which texts we learn that it was an article of foreign and distant commerce, that it was known very early, and that it was probably of a resinous nature, and very fragrant. In the New Testament the same word is employed in the Greek form of libanos, also rendered by 'frankincense.' The original is supposed to be found in the Hebrew laban, 'white;' but it is equally similar to the Arabic laban, signifying 'milk;' and, in a secondary sense, a gummy or resinous exudation from a tree, especially frankincense. There are other words in the Arabic which have a similar meaning, and which it is most probable were all originally derived from the same root as the Hebrew lebonah, and the Arabic laban, applied in both languages to the same substance. This was called by the Greeks libanos, and by the Romans thus, and now commonly as olibanum, from the addition of the letter o to the original name. Several kinds of resinous substances have at different times been confounded together under the names of 'incense' and 'frankincense,' as well as under the Latin thus, which is derived from thuo, 'to sacrifice.'
The ancient writers seem to state that there were two sorts of frankincense, one from the coasts of Arabia, and the other from India, but they more generally speak of it as derived from the former quarter, specially indicating the region of Saba or Sheba, from whence the Scripture also describes it as being brought. The Periplus, however, refers it to Africa. There is, however, no direct evidence for the existence of the tree or shrub producing frankincense in the southern coasts of Arabia. Wellsted could not see it when traveling in the quarter where it should besought; and although Niebuhr affirms that it is cultivated, he adds that it was introduced from Abyssinia, a fact which would not have passed out of memory had it been anciently produced in the country. That it might be described as coming from or produced in Arabia, even though grown in another country, is common to other products which the regions west and north of Arabia received through Arabian merchants. A number of circumstances render it probable that it was obtained by the Arabians from the coast of Africa, to which it was brought from the interior. Mr. Johnson, in his Travels in Southern Abyssinia, states that frankincense, called attar, is exported in large quantities from Berbera, on the Somali coast of Africa; that it is brought thither from the interior, and that a camel load of two hundred and fifty pounds is sold for three dollars. In conformity with this is the statement of Cosmo Indicopleuestes, who describes the land of frankincense as lying 'at the furthest end of Ethiopia, fifty days' journey from Axum, at no great distance from the ocean. The inhabitants of the neighboring Barbaria, or the country of Sozee, fetch from thence frankincense and other costly spices, which they transport by water to Arabia Felix and India.' The substance thus indicated, called on the Continent African or Arabian olib, is rarely met with in this country. Dr. Pereira states it consists of smaller tears than that of the Indian variety, and is intermixed with crystals of carbonate of lime. Even the country which produces the olibanum being itself uncertain, the cautious naturalist will hesitate to indicate with decisiveness the species of tree by which it is afforded. More distinct information on the subject is still needed.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Mat_2:11 (c) This is a type of the fragrant love and the precious worship of those who come to adore and honor CHRIST JESUS.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Frankincense
(לְבוֹנָה, lebonah'; whence λίβανος), an odorous resin, so called from its whitenesss (Plin. 12:14, 32); mostly imported from Arabia (Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20; see also Strabo, 16; Virgil, Georg.), yet growing also in Palestine (Son_4:14; unless perhaps some odoriferous kind of plant is here referred to); and used for perfume (Son_3:6), but more especially in sacrifices for fumigation (Lev_2:2; Lev_2:16; Lev_5:11; Isa_43:23; Isa_66:3; Luk_1:9); and it also was one of the ingredients in the perfume which was to be prepared for the sanctuary (Exo_30:34). Its use as an accompaniment of the meat-offering (Lev_2:1; Lev_2:16; Lev_6:15; Lev_24:7; Num_5:15) arose from its fragrant odor when burnt, in which respect the incense was a symbol of the divine name, and its diffusion an emblem of the publishing abroad of that name (Mal_1:11; comp. Son_1:3); and from this, as prayer is a calling on God's name, the incense came to be an emblem of prayer (Psa_141:2; Luk_1:10; Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3). In this symbolical representation the frankincense especially set forth holiness as characteristic of the divine attributes, so that the burning of it was a celebration of the holiness of Jehovah (Bahr, Symbolik d. Mos. Cultus, 1:466; 2:329, etc.). In this respect its name (=whiteness) likewise became significant. Frankincense was also used in the religious services of the heathen (Herod. 1:183; Ovid, Trist. 5:5, 11; Metam. 6:164; Arnob. adv. Gentes, 6:3; 7:26, etc.). On the altars of Mylitta and the Paphian Venus only incense was burnt (Minter, Relig. der Babylonier, page 55; Der tempel d. himmel. Gottin zu Paphos, page 20; Homer, Od. 8:363; see Damme, s.v. θυήεις; Tacitus, Hist. 2:3). The substance itself seems to have been similar to that now known as such, a vegetable resin, brittle, glittering, and of a bitter taste, obtained by successive incisions in the bark of a tree called the arbor thuris, the first of which yields the purest and whitest kind (ל8 8 זִבָּה, λίβανος διαφανής, or καθαρός); while the produce of the afterincisions is spotted with yellow, and, as it becomes old, loses its whiteness altogether. The Indian olibanum, or frankincense, is imported in chests and casks from Bombay as a regular article of sale. It is chiefly used in the rites of the Greek and Roman churches; and its only medical application at present is as a perfume in sick rooms. The olibanum, or frankincense used by the Jews in the Temple services; is not to be confounded with the frankincense of commerce, which is a spontaneous exudation of the Pinuus abies, or Norway spruce fir, and resembles in its nature and uses the Burgundy pitch which is obtained from the same tree. SEE INCENSE.
The ancients possessed no authentic information respeqting the plant from which this resin is procured (Strabo, 16:778, 782; Diod. Sic. 2:49; Pliny, 6:26, 32; Arrian, Peripl. page 158; Ptolemy, 6:7, 24; Herod. 3:97, 107; Arrian, Alex. 7:20; Virg. AEN. 416; Georg. 1:57, etc.), and modern writers are nearly as much confused in their accounts of it. Even Pliny and Theophrastus, who had never seen it, give merely contradictory statements concerning it. It is described by the latter as attaining the height of about five ells, having many branches, leaves like the pear-tree, and bark like the laurel; but at the same time he mentions another description, according to which it resembies the mastic-tree, its leaves being of a reddish color (Hist. Plant. 9:4). According to Diodorus (5:41), it is a small tree, resembling the Egyptian hawthorn, with gold-yellow leaves like those of the woad. The difficulty was rather increased than otherwise in the time of Pliny by the importation of some shoots of the tree itself, which seemed to belong to the terebinthus (12:31). Garcia de Horto represents it as low, with a leaf like that of the mastic: he distinguishes two kinds: the finer, growing on the mountains; the other, dark and of an inferior quality, growing on the plains. Chardin says that the frankincense-tree on the mountains of Caramania resembles a large pear-tree. The Arabian botanist Abulfadli says it is a vigorous shrub, growing only in Yemen and on the hills, and in respect to its leaves and fruit resembling myrtle; a description which has been thought (Sprengel, Hist. rei bot. 1:12, 257) to apply very well to the Amyris katab (Forskal, Flor. page 80), or (Gesch. d. Botan. 1:16) to the Anyris kafal (Forskal, page 19), or even to the Juniperus thurifera (Martins, Pharmakogn. page 384). Niebuhr, in his Descript. of Arabia, 2, 356, says, "We could learn nothing of the tree from which the incense distils, and Forskal does not mention it. I know that it is to be found in a part of Hadramaut [comp. Wellsted, 1:196; 2:333], where it is called oliban. But the Arabians hold their own incense in no estimation, and make use of that only which comes from India. Probably Arabian incense was so called by the ancients because the Arabs traded in it, and conveyed it from India to the ports of Egypt. and Syria." The Hebrews imported their frankincense from Saba (Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20); but it is remarkable that at present the Arabian libanum, or olibanum, is of a very inferior kind, and that the finest frankincense imported into Turkey comes through Arabia fiom the islands of the Indian Archipelago.
The Arabian plant may possibly have degenerated, or it may be that the finest kind was always procured from India, as it certainly was in the time of Dioscorides. Burckhardt, in his Travels in Nubia, page 262, observes: "The liban is a species of gum, collected by the Bedouin Arabs, who inhabit the deserts between Kordofan and Shilluk, on the road to Sennaar. It is said to exude from the stem of a tree, in the same manner as gum arabic. It is sold in small thin cakes, is of a dull gray color, very brittle, and has a strong smell. The country people use it as a perfume, but it is dear. It is much in demand for the inhabitants of Taka, and all the tribes between the Nile and the Red Sea. It is exported to Souakin; the Cairo merchants receive it from Jidda. At Cairo it is considered as the frankincense, and is called incense. There are two sorts, one of which is much coarser than the other. It is also imported into Jidda from Souahel, on the eastern coast of Africa, beyond Cape Gardafui." Colonel James Bird likewise observes: "There are two kinds of frankincense, or loban, one of which is the produce of Hadramaut, and is collected by the Bedouin Arabs, the other is brought by the Sumalis from Africa. The former, which is met with in small globular lumps, has a tinge of green in its color; but the other, which is more like common resin in appearance, is of a bright yellow appearance. What the Sumalis import and name loban mati is less fragrant than the Arabian kind; it is therefore preferred for chewing, but the last is more used for fumigation. Both kinds are exported by the Hindu merchants to India, along with gum, myrrh, and small portions of honey collected in the country near Aden." The Arabs, says Rosenmuller (Alterthumsk. 4:153), call the most excellent species of frankincense cundhur; and that this is an Indian production appears from Colebrooke's observation (Asiatic Researches, 9:377), that in Hindu writings on medicaments an odorous gum is called kundura, which, according to the Indian grammarians, is a Sanscrit word.
They unanimously state it to be the produce of a tree called sallaki, and in the vulgar language salai. When the bark is pierced there exudes a gum of a whitish or yellowish color, externally powdery from friction, but internally pellucid, very brittle, with a balsamic or resinous smell, and a somewhat acrid taste; it burns with a clear blaze and an agreeable odor. The tree grows in the Indian mounr tains, and is one of considerable size, somewhat resembling the sumach, and belonging to the same natural family, terebinthaceae, or turpentine-bearing trees (see Ainslie, Matthew 1 nd. 1:265). It is known to botanists by the name of Boswellia serrata or thurifera (Roxburgh, Flora Indica, 3:388); it has pinnated leaves, the folioles of which are pubescent, ovate acuminate and serrate, and very small flowers disposed in simple axillary racemes. By incisions in the bark a very odorous gum is obtained, which the spice-merchants of London recognised as olibanum or frankin- cense, although it had been sent to England as an entirely different species of perfume (see Oken, Lehrb. d. Botan. II, 2:687 sq.; Geiger, Pharsmac. Botan. 2:1204 sq.). The Boswellia serrata grows to a height of forty feet, and is found in Amboyna and the mountainous districts of India. Another species, the B. papyrifere, occurs on the east coast of Africa, in Abyssinia, about 1000 feet above the sea-level, on bare limestone rocks, to which the base of the stem is attached by a thick mass of vegetable substance, sending roots to a prodigious depth in the rocky crevices (Hogg's Veg. Kingdom, page 249). Its resin, the olibanum of Africa and Arabia, usually occurs in commerce in brownish masses, and in yellow-tinted drops or "tears," not so large as the Indian variety. The last is still burnt in Hindum temples under the names of "rhunda" and "luban" — the latter evidently identical with the Hebrew lebonah; and it is exported from Bombay in considerable quantities for the use of Greek and Roman Catholic churches. From Son_4:14 it has been inferred that the frankincense- tree grew in Palestine (compare Athen. 3:101), and especially on Mount Lebanon. The connection between the names, hoemever, goes for nothing (Lebonah, Lebanon); the word may be used for aromatic plants generally (Gesen. Lex. s.v.); and the rhetorical flourishes of Florus. (Epit. 3:6, "thuris silvas") and Ausonius (Monosyl. page 110) are of little avail against the fact that the tree is not at present found in Palestine. (See Celsii Hierob. 1:231; Bod. a Stapel, comment. in Theophr. page 976 sq.; Gesenius, Heb. Thesaur. page 741; Penny Cyclop. s.v. Olibanum and Boswellia Thurifera). SEE AROMATICS.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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