Incense

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INCENSE.?(1) leb?n?h, which should always be tr. ?frankincense? (wh. see). It was burnt with the meat-offering (Lev_2:1-2; Lev_2:15-16; Lev_6:15 etc.), and offered with the shewbread (Lev_24:7-9). (2) qet?reth, lit. ?smoke,? and so used in Isa_1:13, Psa_66:15; Psa_141:2; used for a definite substance, Lev_10:1, Eze_8:11 etc. (3) thumiama (Gr.), Luk_1:10, Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3; Rev_18:13. The holy incense (Exo_30:34) was made of stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense, but the incense of later times, which was offered daily (Jdt_9:1, Luk_1:8-10), was more complicated. According to Josephus, it had thirteen constituents (BJ V. v. 5). Incense was originally burned in censers, but these were latterly used only to carry coals from the great altar to the ?altar of incense.?
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Exo_30:1; Exo_30:9; Exo_30:34, etc. The altar of incense was more closely connected with the holiest place than the other things in the holy place, the shewbread table and the candlestick. The incense consisted of four aromatic ingredients (representing God's perfections diffused throughout the four quarters of the world): stacte (Hebrew nataph, "a drop," the gum that drops from the storax tree, Styrax officinalis, found in Syria; the benzoin, or gum benjamin, is from Java and Sumatra; the liquid storax of commerce is from a different tree, the Liquidambar Syraciflua), onycha (Hebrew: shecheleth, probably the cap of the wing shell, strombus, abounding in the Red Sea, used for making perfumes), galbanum (a yellowish brown gum, imported from Persia, India, and Africa), and pure frankincense (the chief of the aromatic gums: Son_3:6; Mat_2:11; obtained from India through the Sabeans of S. Arabia; the tree is Boswellia thurifera, the native salai; the gum is called oliban, Arabic looban, from whence the Hebrew lebonah comes).
These were "tempered together," Hebrew "salted"; compare Lev_2:13, but that was in the case of offering what was used as food, and salt is not used in compounding the incense of any other people; still God might herein designedly distinguish Israel from other peoples. Salt symbolized incorruptness; the wine of drink offerings, the blood, and the wood, were the only offerings without it. A portion beaten small was to be "put before the testimony in the tabernacle," i.e. outside the veil, before the golden altar of incense; from its relation to the ark thus it became" most holy," as was also the altar of incense (Lev_30:10). This incense was to be kept exclusively for Jehovah; the penalty of making like incense for ordinary perfume was "cutting off." Incense of other ingredients ("strange," Lev_30:9) was forbidden to be offered.
A store of it was constantly kept in the temple (Josephus, B. J., vi. 8, section 3). Aaron originally offered it, but in the second temple one of the lower priests was chosen by lot to offer it daily morning and evening (Luk_1:9). King Uzziah for usurping the office was smitten with leprosy (2Ch_26:16-21). The morning incense was offered when the lamps were trimmed in the holy place, before the sacrifice. Between the earlier and later evenings, after the evening sacrifice and before the drink offerings, the evening incense was Burnt (margin Exo_30:7-8; Rev_8:1; Rev_8:3-5). A part of the temple was devoted to a family, "the house of Abtines," whose duty it was to compound the incense, according to the rabbis. One of the memunnim, or 16 prefects of the temple, had charge of the incense, that it might be always ready.
When the priest entered the holy place with the incense, the people were all put out of the temple, and from between the porch and the altar (Maimonides); Luk_1:10, "the whole multitude ... were praying without, at the time of incense," silently, which accords with Rev_8:1; Rev_8:3. The priest avoided lengthening his stay within, lest the people outside should fear he had been struck dead for some defect in his offering (Lev_16:13). This gives point to Luk_1:21, "the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple." On coming forth he pronounced the blessing (Num_6:24-26); the Levites broke forth into sacred song, accompanied by the temple music (Mishna); compare Rev_8:5. On the day of atonement the high priest, after offering the bullock for himself, took incense in his left hand and a golden shovel full of live coals from the western side of the brazen altar in his right, and went into the most holy place, his first entrance there (Lev_16:12-13).
"He shall take a (Hebrew the) censer (see Heb_9:4) full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil; and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercyseat that is upon the testimony, that he die not." In the second temple, where there was no ark, a stone was substituted. The truth symbolized by "incense" is the merit of Christ's obedience and atoning death. It is this, when it is by faith made the accompanying foundation of our prayers, which makes them rise up to God as a sweet and acceptable perfume. (See CENSER.) (Rev_8:1-5). The incense of the golden altar of incense within the sanctuary had to be lighted from the fire of the atoning altar of burnt offering outside, otherwise the fire was "strange fire". (See ALTAR; ABIHU; NADAB.)
So Christ intercedes now in the heavenly sanctuary as He died for us outside; and the believer's prayer ascends from his inner heart to God within the heavenly veil, Because it rests on Christ's atoning sacrifice once for all offered "without the gate" (Heb_13:12). The altar of incense was connected with the altar of burnt offering by its horns being sprinkled with the blood of the sin offering on the altar of burnt offering on the day of atonement (Lev_16:16; Lev_16:18; Exo_30:10). Incense symbolizes not merely prayer, but prayer accepted before God because of atonement: "let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense, and the lifting up (answering to the rising up of the incense smoke) of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Psa_141:2).
For prayer was offered by the pious Jews at the times of the morning and evening sacrifices on the altar of burnt offering, which were accompanied with the incense on the altar of incense, thus marking that prayer rests upon propitiation By sacrifice. In Mal_1:11 there is no "shall be" in Hebrew. Probably then the ellipse is to be filled up with is as much as shall be. By the Jews' wide dispersion already some knowledge of Jehovah was being imparted to the Gentiles, and an earnest existed of the future magnifying of Jehovah's name among the Gentiles "from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same." The Gentiles already were having glimmerings of the true light, and in every nation a few were heartily trying to serve God so far as they knew. Their worship, as yet imperfect but sincere, is "pure" in comparison with your "polluted bread" (Mal_1:7; Mal_1:12-15; Act_10:34-35; Act_17:23; Rom_2:14-15; Rom_2:27-29).
The incense which shall yet be offered "in every place" is prayer accepted through Christ (1Ti_2:8). This shall be consummated at Christ's appearing (Zec_14:9; Zep_3:9). The "pure offering" is the "body, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable. unto God" (Rom_12:1); the "broken and contrite heart" (Psa_51:17); "praise, the fruit of the lips"; "doing good," and imparting to the needy (Heb_13:10; Heb_13:15-16; 1Pe_2:5; 1Pe_2:12). In Rev_5:8 it is the golden vials not the incense odors (not thumiamata but fialas, hai) which are the prayers of saints. In Rev_8:3-4 the incense is distinct from, yet offered with, their prayers, the angel presenting them before God. It is not said he intercedes for us, still less that we should pray to him to do so; nay this is expressly forbidden (Rev_19:10; Rev_22:8-9).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Incense. From the Latin "to burn".. "A mixture of gums or spices and the like, used for the purpose of producing a perfume when burned;" or the perfume itself of the spices, etc., burned in worship. The incense employed in the service of the Tabernacle walls compounded of the perfumes stacte, onycha, galbanum and pure frankincense. All incense which was not made of these ingredients was forbidden to be offered. Exo_30:9.
Aaron, as high priest, was originally appointed to offer incense each morning and evening. The times of offering incense were specified in the instructions first given to Moses. Exo_30:7-8. When the priest entered the Holy Place with the incense, all the people were removed from the Temple, and from between the porch and the altar. Compare Luk_1:10.
Profound silence was observed among the congregation who were praying without, compare Rev_8:1, and at a signal from the perfect, the priest cast the incense on the fire and, bowing reverently toward the Holy of Holies, retired slowly backward. The offering of incense has formed part of the religious ceremonies of most ancient nations. It was an element in the idolatrous worship of the Israelites. 2Ch_34:25; Jer_11:12; Jer_11:17; Jer_48:35.
It would seem to be symbolical, not of itself, but of that which makes acceptable, the intercession of Christ. In Rev_8:3-4, the incense is of as something distinct from offered with the prayers of, all the saints, compare Luk_1:10 and in Rev_6:8, it is the golden vials, and not the odors or incense, which are said to be the prayers of saints.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

Thus; so called by the dealers of drugs in Egypt from thur, or thor, the name of a harbour in the north bay of the Red Sea, near Mount Sinai; thereby distinguishing it from the gum arabic, which is brought from Suez, another port in the Red Sea, not far from Cairo. It differs also in being more pellucid and white. It burns with a bright and strong flame, not easily extinguished. It was used in the temple service as an emblem of prayer, Psa_141:2; Rev_8:3-4. Authors give it, or the best sort of it, the epithets white, pure, pellucid; and so it may have some connection with a word, derived from the same root, signifying unstained, clear, and so applied to moral whiteness and purity, Psa_51:7; Dan_12:10. This gum is said to distil from incisions made in the tree during the heat of summer. What the form of the tree is which yields it, we do not certainly know. Pliny one while says, it is like a pear tree, another, that it is like a mastic tree; then, that it is like the laurel; and, in fine, that it is a kind of turpentine tree. It has been said to grow only in the country of the Sabeans, a people in Arabia Felix; and Theophrastus and Pliny affirm that it is found in Arabia. Dioscorides, however, mentions an Indian as well as an Arabian frankincense. At the present day it is brought from the East Indies, but not of so good a quality as that from Arabia. The “sweet incense,” mentioned Exo_30:7, and elsewhere, was a compound of several drugs, agreeably to the direction in the thirty-fourth verse. To offer incense was an office peculiar to the priests. They went twice a day into the holy place; namely, morning and evening, to burn incense there. Upon the great, day of expiation, the high priest took incense, or perfume, pounded and ready for being put into the censer, and threw it upon the fire the moment he went into the sanctuary. One reason of this was, that so the smoke which rose from the censer might prevent his looking with too much curiosity on the ark and mercy-seat. God threatened him with death upon failing to perform this ceremony, Lev_16:13. Generally incense is to be considered as an emblem of the “prayers of the saints,” and is so used by the sacred writers.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

Incense was a substance produced by grinding and blending certain spices. When burnt it gave off thick white smoke and a strong smell, characteristics that gave incense its ceremonial usefulness.
Part of Israel’s religious ritual was to burn incense on the altar inside the tabernacle in a symbolic offering of prayer to God (Exo_30:1; Psa_141:2; Rev_8:3; cf. Mal_1:11). In addition to burning incense at certain ceremonies (e.g. Lev_16:12-13), the priests burnt incense every morning and evening, to symbolize before God the unceasing devotion of his people (Exo_30:7-8; Luk_1:10).
Israel’s law allowed only the priests to burn incense (Exo_30:7-9; Num_3:10). This restriction prompted Korah and other Levites to rebel against Moses and Aaron. Moses tested them by telling them to burn incense to see whether God approved. The outcome was that God destroyed them in a fiery judgment (Num_16:1-11; Num_16:35).
The art of preparing incense was well known in Egypt and Arabia, and the Israelites had apparently learnt such skills from these people. But the formula God gave to Moses was to be used only for the incense of the tabernacle (Exo_30:34-38). One ingredient of the incense, frankincense, was also burnt with the cereal offering, and was placed on the sacred bread that was kept inside the tabernacle (Exo_30:34; Lev_6:15; Lev_24:7). The wise men who visited the baby Jesus presented frankincense as an expression of their homage (Mat_2:11).
Spices used in the making of incense came from the gum of certain trees and from various plants and herbs (Song of Son_4:14). Some of these were grown locally, but many were imported from the east and were an important source of income for ancient traders (Gen_37:25; Song of Son_3:6; Isa_60:6; Jer_6:20). (For details of the ointments, medicines, cosmetics and perfumes that were made from spices and vegetable oils see OIL; SPICES.)
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

in?sens (קטרה, ḳeṭōrāh; in Jer_44:21, קטּר, ḳiṭṭēr; in Mal_1:11, קטר, ḳāṭar, ?In every place incense shall be offered unto my name?; the word לבונה, lebhōnāh, translated ?incense? in several passages in Isa and Jer in the King James Version, is properly ?frankincense,? and is so rendered in the Revised Version (British and American)): The offering of incense, or burning of aromatic substances, is common in the religious ceremonies of nearly all nations (Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, etc.), and it is natural to find it holding a prominent place in the tabernacle and temple-worship of Israel. The newer critical theory that incense was a late importation into the religion of Israel, and that the altar of incense described in Exo_30:1 is a post-exilian invention, rests on presuppositions which are not here admitted, and is in contradiction to the express notices of the altar of incense in 1Ki_6:20, 1Ki_6:22; 1Ki_7:48; 1Ki_9:25; compare 2Ch_4:19 (see discussion of the subject by Delitzsch in Luthardt's Zeitschrift, 1880, 113ff). In the denunciation of Eli in 1Sa_2:27, the burning of incense is mentioned as one of the functions of the priesthood (1Sa_2:28). The ?smoke? that filled the temple in Isaiah's vision (Isa_6:4) may be presumed to be the smoke of incense. The word keṭōrāh itself properly denotes. ?smoke.? For the altar of incense see the article on that subject, and TABERNACLE and TEMPLE. The incense used in the tabernacle service - called ?sweet incense? (keṭōreth ha-ṣammı̄m, Exo_25:6, etc.) - was compounded according to a definite prescription of the perfumes, stacte, onycha, galbanum and pure frankincense (Exo_30:34 f), and incense not so compounded was rejected as ?strange incense? (keṭōrāh zārāh, Exo_30:9). In the offering of incense, burning coals from the altar of burnt offering were borne in a censer and put upon the altar of incense (the ?golden altar? before the oracle), then the fragrant incense was sprinkled on the fire (compare Luk_1:9 f). Ample details of the rabbinical rules about incense may be seen in the article ?Incense,? in DB. See CENSER.
Figuratively, incense was symbolical of ascending prayer. The multitude were praying while Zacharias offered incense (Luk_1:10, θυμίαμα, thumı́ama), and in Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3 f, the incense in the heavenly temple is connected and even identified (Rev_5:8) with ?the prayers of the saints.?

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Incense, a perfume which gives forth its fragrance by burning, and, in particular, that perfume which was burnt upon the altar of incense [ALTAR; CENSER]. Indeed, the burning of incense seems to have been considered among the Hebrews so much of an act of worship or sacred offering, that we read not of any other use of incense than this among them. Nor among the Egyptians do we discover any trace of burnt perfume except in sacerdotal use; but in the Persian sculptures we see incense burnt before the king. The prohibition of the Hebrews to make any perfume for private use?'to smell to'?like that prepared for the altar, merely implies, we apprehend, that the sacred incense had a peculiarly rich fragrance before being burnt, which was forbidden to be imitated in common perfumes.
The ingredients of the sacred incense are enumerated with great precision in Exo_30:34-35 : 'Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense; of each shall there be a like weight. And thou shalt make of it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy.' For an explanation of these various ingredients, we must refer to their several names in the present work. The further directions are, that this precious compound should be made or broken up into minute particles, and that it should be deposited, as a very holy thing, in the tabernacle 'before the testimony' (or ark). As the ingredients are so minutely specified, there was nothing to prevent wealthy persons from having a similar perfume for private use: and this, therefore, was forbidden under pain of excommunication: 'Ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people' (Exo_30:37-38).
According to Maimonides, the reason for the use of incense was to prevent the stench which would otherwise have been occasioned by the number of beasts every day slaughtered in the sanctuary, and to render the odor of the sanctuary, and of the vestments of those that ministered, exceedingly grateful.
This is very well; and no doubt the use of incense, which we always find in religions where worship is rendered by sacrifice, had its origin in some such considerations. But we are not to lose sight of the symbolical meaning of this grateful offering. It was a symbol of prayer. It was offered at the time when the people were in the posture and act of prayer; and their orisons were supposed to be presented to God by the priest, and to ascend to Him in the smoke and odor of that fragrant offering. This beautiful idea of the incense frequently occurs in Scripture (comp. Psa_141:2; Mal_1:11; Zec_14:16; Act_10:4; Rev_5:8; Rev_8:4).
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Exo_30:1 (c) A figure of the sweet, fragrant life of the Lord JESUS offered up to GOD during His life of suffering and death of agony wherein and wherewith GOD was well pleased.

(Strange)

Exo_30:9 (c) In this case, the strange incense is a figure of human activities and religious performances which are offered to GOD for His acceptance in competition with and instead of the life of the Lord JESUS. It is human merit substituted for CHRIST's merit.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Incense
(ק2ַ2ְטוֹרָה, ketorah', Deu_33:10; usually קְטֹרֶת, keto'reth, which is once applied likewise to the fat of rams, being the part always burned in sacrifice; once קַטֵּי, kitter'. Jer_44:21; all forms of the verb קָטִּי, prop. to smoke, hence to cause an odor by burning, often itself applied to the act of burning incense; Greek, θυμίαμα and cognate terms; sometimes לְבוֹנָה:, lebonah', Isa_43:23; Isa_60:6; Isa_66:3; Jer_6:20; Jer_17:26; Jer_41:5, frankincense, as elsewhere rendered), a perfume which gives forth its fragrance by burning, and in particular, that perfume which was burned upon the Jewish altar of incense. (See Weimar, De sufftu aromatum, Jen. 1678.) SEE ALTAR.
Indeed, the burning of incense seems to have been considered among the Hebrews so much of an act of worship or sacred offering that we read not of any other use of incense than this among them. Nor among the Egyptians do we discover any trace of burned perfume except in sacerdotal use; but in Persian sculptures we see incense burned before the king. The offering of ‘incense has formed a part of the religious ceremonies of most ancient nations. The Egyptians burned resin in honor of the sun at its rising, myrrh when at its meridian, and a mixture called kuphi at its setting (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 5, 315). Plutarch (De Is. et Os. c. 52, 80) describes kuphi as a mixture of sixteen ingredients. “In the temple of Siva incense is offered to the Lingam six times in twenty-four hours” (Roberts, Oriental Illust. p. 368). It was also an element in the idolatrous worship of the Israelites (Jer_11:12; Jer_11:17; Jer_48:35; 2Ch_34:25).
1. The incense employed in the service of the tabernacle was distinguished as קְטֹרֶת הִסִּמַּים(ketdoeth has-sammim; Exo_25:6, incense of the aromnas; Sept. ἡ σύνθεσις τοῦ θυμιάματος; Vulg. thymiamata boni odores; A.V. “sweet incense”). The ingredients of the sacred incense are enumerated with great precision in Exo_30:34-35 : “Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte (נָטָ, nataph), and onycha (שְׁחֵלֶת, shecheleth), and galbanum (חֶלְבְּנָה. chelbenah); these sweet spices with pure frankincense (לְבֹנָה, lebonah): of each shall there be a like weight. And thou shalt make of it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy.” See each of these ingredients in its alphabetical place. All incense which was not made of these ingredients was called קְטוֹרָה זָרָה(ketorah zarah), “strange incense,” Exo_30:9, and was forbidden to be offered. According to Rashi on Exo_30:34, the above-mentioned perfumes were mixed in equal proportions, seventy manehs being taken of each. They were compounded by the skill of the apothecary, to whose use, according to Rabbinical tradition, was devoted a portion of the Temple, called, from the name of the family whose especial duty it was to prepare the incense, “the house of Abtines.” So in the large temples of India “is retained a man whose chief business it is to distil sweet waters from flowers, and to extract oil from wood, flowers, and other substances” (Roberts, Oriental Illust. p. 82). The priest or Levite to whose care the incense was intrusted was one of the fifteen ממונים(memunnim), or prefects of the Temple. Constant watch was kept in the house of Abtines that the incense might always be in readiness (Buxtorf, Lexicon Talmud. s.v. אבטינם). In addition to the four ingredients already mentioned, Jarchi enumerates seven others, thus making eleven, which the Jewish doctors affirm were communicated to Moses on Mount Sinai. Josephus (War, 5, 5, 5) mentions thirteen. The proportions of the additional spices are given by Maimonides (Cele hammnikddsh, 2, 2, § 3) as follows: of myrrh, cassia, spikenard, and saffron, sixteen manehs each; of costus, twelve manehs; cinnamon, nine manehs; sweet bark, three manehs. The weight of the whole confection was 368 manehs. To these was added the fourth part of a cab of salt of Sodom, with amber of Jordan, and an herb called ‘the smoke-raiser” (מעלה עשׁן, maaleh aishan), known only to the cunning in such matters, to whom the secret descended by tradition. In the ordinary daily service one maneh was used, half in the morning and half in the evening. Allowing, then, one maneh of incense for each day of the solar year, the three manehs which remained were again pounded, and used by the high priest on the day of atonement (Lev_16:12).
A store of it was constantly kept in the Temple (Joseph. War, 6, 8, 3). The further directions are that this precious compound should be made or broken up into minute particles, and that it should be deposited, as a very holy thing, in the tabernacle “before the testimony” (or ark). As the ingredients are so minutely specified, there was nothing to prevent wealthy persons from having a similar perfume for private use: this, therefore, was forbidden under pain of excommunication: “Ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people” (v. Exo_30:37-38). So in some part of India, according to Michaelis (Mosaische Recht, art. 249), it was considered high treason for any person to make use of the best sort of calcambak, which was for the service of the king alone. The word which describes the various ingredients as being “tempered together” literally means salted (מְמֻלָּה, memulnlach). — The Chaldee and Greek versions, however, have set the example of rendering it by mixed or tempered, as if their idea was that the different ingredients were to be mixed together. just as salt is mixed with any substance over which it is sprinkled. Ainsworth contends for the literal meaning, inasmuch as the law (Lev_2:13) expressly says, “With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” In support of this he cites Maimonides, who affirms that there was not anything offered on the altar without salt, except the wine of the drink offering, and the blood, and the wood; and of the incense he says, still more expressly, that “they added to it a cab of salt.” In accordance with this, it is supposed, our Savior says. “Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mar_9:49). Ainsworth further remarks: “If our speech is to be always with grace, seasoned with salt, as the apostle teaches (Col_4:6), how much more should our incense, our prayers unto God, be therewith seasoned!” It is difficult, however, to see how so anomalous a substance as salt could well be combined in the preparation; and if it was used, as we incline to think that it was, it was probably added in the act of offering. SEE SALT.
The expression בִּד בְּבִד(bad bebad), Exo_30:34, is interpreted by the Chaldee “weight by weight,” that is, an equal weight of each (comp. Jarchi, ad loc.); and this rendering is adopted by our version. Others, however, and among them Aben-Ezra and Maimonides, consider it as signifying that each of the spices was separately prepared, and that all were afterwards mixed.
2. Aaron, as high-priest, was originally appointed to offer incense, but in the daily service of the second Temple the office devolved upon the inferior priests, from among whom one was chosen by lot (Mishna, oma, 2, 4; Luk_1:9) each morning and evening (Abarbanel, On Lev_10:1). A peculiar blessing was supposed to be attached to this service, and in order that all might share in it, the lot was cast among those who were “new to the incense,” if any remained (Mishna, Yoma, 1. c.; Bartenora, On Tamid, 5, 2). Uzziah was punished for his presumption in attempting to infringe the prerogatives of the descendants of Aaron, who were consecrated to burn incense (2Ch_26:16-21; Joseph. Ant. 9, 10, 4). The officiating priest appointed another, whose office it was to take the fire from the brazen altar. According to Maimonides (Tamid Unus, 1', 8; 3:5), this fire was taken from the second pile, which was over against the S.E. corner of the altar of burnt offering, and was of fig-tree wood. A silver shovel ( מִחְתָּהmachtah) was first filled with the live coals, and afterwards emptied into a golden one, smaller than the former, so that some of the coals were spilled (Mishna, Tamid, 5, 5; Yoma; 4, 4; comp. Rev_8:5). Another priest cleared the golden altar from the cinders which had been left at the previous offering of incense (Mishna, Tamid, 3, 6, 9; 6:1).
The times of offering incense were specified in the instructions first given to Moses (Exo_30:7-8). The morning incense was offered when the lamps were trimmed in the holy place, and before the sacrifice, when the watchman set for the purpose announced the break of day (Mishna, Yoma, 3:1, 5). When the lamps were lighted “between the evenings,” after the evening sacrifice and before the drink-offerings were offered, incense was again burnt on the golden altar which “belonged to the oracle” (1Ki_6:22), and stood before the veil which separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies, the throne of God (Rev_8:4; Philo, De Anim. ison. §3).
When the priest entered the holy place with the incense, all the people were removed from the Temple, and from between the porch and the altar (Maimonides, Tamid Ulmus, 3, 3; compare Luk_1:10. The incense was then brought from the house of' Atines in a large vessel of gold called כִּ(caph), in which was a phial (בזי,ִ bazik, properly “a salver”) containing the incense (Mishna, Tamid, 5, 4). The assistant priests who attended to the lamps, “he clearing of the golden altar from the cinders, and the fetching fire from the altar of burnt-offering, performed their offices singly, bowed towards the ark of the covenant, and left the holy place before the priest, whose lot it was to offer incense, entered. Profound silence was observed among the congregation who were praying without (comp. Rev_8:1), and at a signal from the prefect the priest cast the incense on the fire (Mishna, Tamid, 6, 3), and, bowing reverently towards the Holy of Holies, retired slowly backwards, not prolonging his prayer that he might not alarm the congregation, or cause them to fear that he had been struck dead for offering unworthily (Lev_16:13; Luk_1:21; Mishna, Yoma, 5, 1). When he came out he pronounced the blessing in Num_6:24-26, the “magrephah” sounded, and the Levites burst forth into song, accompanied by the full swell of the Temple music, the sound of which, say the Rabbins, could be heard as far as Jericho (Mishna, Tamid, 3:8). It is possible that this may be alluded to in Rev_8:5. The priest then emptied the censer in a clean place, and hung it on one of the horns of the altar of burnt-offering. SEE CENSER.
On the day of atonement the service was different. The high-priest, after sacrificing the bullock as a sin-offering for himself and his family, took incense in his left hand, and a golden shovel filled with live coals from the west side of the brazen altar (Jarchi, On Lev_16:12) in his right, and went into the Holy of Holies. He then placed the shovel upon the ark between the two bars. In the second Temple, where there was no ark, a stone was substituted. Then, sprinkling the incense upon the coals, he stayed till the house was filled with smoke, and, walking slowly backwards, came without the veil, where he prayed for a short time (Maimonides, Yom hakkippur, quoted by Ainsworth, On Leviticus 16; Outram, De Sacrificiis, 1, 8, § 11). SEE ATONEMENT, DAY OF.
3. With regard to the symbolical meaning of incense, opinions have been many and widely different. While Maimonides regarded it merely as a perfume designed to counteract the effluvia arising from the beasts which were slaughtered for the daily sacrifice, other interpreters have allowed their imaginations to run riot, and vied with the wildest speculations of the Midrashim. Phile (Quis rer. div. haer. sit. § 41, p. 501) conceives the stacte and onycha to be symbolical of water and earth; galbanum and frankincense of air and fire. Josephus, following the traditions of his time, believed that the ingredients of the incense were chosen from the products of the. sea, the inhabited and the uninhabited parts of the earth, to indicate that all things are of God and for God (War, 5, 5, 5). As the Temple or tabernacle was the palace of Jehovah, the theocratic king of Israel, and the ark of the, covenant his throne, so the incense, in the opinion of. some, corresponded to the perfumes in which the luxurious monarchs of the East delighted. It may mean all this, but it must mean much more. Grotius, on Exo_30:1, says the mystical signification is “sursum habenda corda.” Cornelius a Lapide, on Exo_30:34, considers it as an apt emblem of propitiation, and finds a symbolical meaning in the several ingredients. Fairbairn (Typology of Scripture, 2, 320), with many others, looks upon prayer as the reality of which incense is the symbol, founding his conclusion upon Psa_141:2; Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3-4.
Bahr (Sym. d. Mos. Cult. vol. 1, c. 6:§ 4) opposes this view of the subject of the ground that the chief thing in offering incense is not the producing of the smoke, which presses like prayer towards: heaven, but the spreading of the fragrance. His own exposition may be summed up as fallows. Prayer, among all Oriental nations, signifies calling upon the name of God. The oldest prayers consisted in the mere enumeration of the several titles of God. The Scripture places incense in close relationship to prayer, so that offering incense is synonymous with worship. Hence incense itself is a symbol of the name of God. The ingredients of the incense correspond severally to the perfections of God, though it is impossible to decide to which of the four names of God each belongs. Perhaps stacte corresponds to יְהֹוָה (Jehovah), onycha to אֵֹלהַים (Elohimn), galbanum to חִי (chai), and frankincense to קָדוֹש ׁ(kadosh). Such is Bahr's exposition of the symbolism of incense, rather ingenious than logical. Looking upon incense in connection with the other ceremonial observances of the Mosaic ritual, it would rather seem to be symbolical, not of prayer itself, but of that which makes prayer acceptable, the intercession of Christ. In Rev_8:3-4, the incense is spoken of as something distinct from, though offered with, the prayers of all the saints (comp. Luk_1:10); and in Rev_5:3 it is the golden vials, and not the odors or incense, which are said to be the prayers of saints. Psa_141:2, at first sight, appears to militate against this conclusion; but if it be argued from this passage that incense is an emblem of prayer, it must also be allowed that the evening sacrifice has the same symbolical meaning. SEE PERFUME.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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