![\"Dubai](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/06\/800px-Bag_of_frankincense_at_Dubai_spice_souk.jpg\")
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Continuing with my self-imposed writing assignment:<\/p>\n
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Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin consisting of small white chunks and beads that can easily be ground into a powder. When burned, this powder gives off a pleasant odor like that of balsam. The resin, milky white in color, was probably produced in the central district of Hadramawt, along the Indian Ocean coast of southern Arabia. From there, it was exported to Palestine and other parts of the Mediterranean world. The caravan routes for transporting Ara\u00adbian incense and the products of Africa and India began in Sheba, the modern Yemen. The main route went north via the valleys and oases of the peninsula, through Mecca, and to Ma\u2019an, where it split into two branches. One of these went west to Gaza and Egypt and the other north to Damascus.<\/span><\/p>\n The importance of this trade cannot be overestimated. The temples, and later the churches, of the eastern Mediterranean were hungry for frankincense, as were upper-class private dwellings. (The prophet Ezekiel, for instance, condemns a rich and unrigh\u00adteous woman who sat \u201cupon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.\u201d)[1]<\/a> Frankincense was used extensively in the rituals of the temple at Jerusalem.[2]<\/a> It was a major and essential ingredient of the incense that was holy to the Lord, and the use of this incense for any unauthorized purpose was expressly forbidden in the law of Moses.[3]<\/a> Such incense was burned on a specially dedicated and designed altar of incense by the high priest each morning and evening.[4]<\/a> That altar stood just before the veil of the holy of holies in the temple, flanked on one side by the altar of \u201cthe bread of the presence\u201d and on the other by the seven-branched candelabra.[5]<\/a> Once a year the high priest was directed to carry a censer of burn\u00ading incense as he entered the holy of holies and approached the mercy seat.[6]<\/a> But the substance also played a role in the ordinary daily service of the temple. Of the Levites, the Old Testament says, \u201cThey shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.\u201d[7]<\/a> Frankincense and oil were added to the cereal offerings.[8]<\/a> Frankincense was placed with the \u201cbread of the presence\u201d before the holy of holies.[9]<\/a> Such extensive use required large amounts of the precious material. In Herod\u2019s day, we know that the temple con\u00adsumed more than 600 pounds of incense each year, specially pre\u00adpared according to a secret formula. Huge stores of the substance were kept in the temple treasury.[10]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The fragrance of the incense symbolized the prayers of God\u2019s people, ascending upward to the divine throne. \u201cLet my prayer be set forth before thee as incense,\u201d says the Psalmist, \u201cand the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.\u201d[11]<\/a> This notion continued into New Testament times. John the Revelator saw the four beasts and the twenty-four elders of his vision fall down before the Lamb of God, \u201chaving every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.\u201d[12]<\/a> When, however, the worship of the temple or the Church became merely an empty form, when the people lacked the proper spirit of sincere worship and devotion, the prophets were there to relate the Lord\u2019s condemna\u00adtion. Thus, in the days of Lehi, the prophet Jeremiah lashed out against such empty and meaningless worship: \u201cTo what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba? . . . Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.\u201d[13]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Ezekiel 23:41.<\/span><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Also at the derivative Jewish temple at Elephantine in Egypt. On this, see \u201cAdvice of the Governors of Judah and Samaria to the Jews of Elephantine,\u201d in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, <\/em>2d ed. (Princeton: Prince\u00adton University Press, 1955), 492. Many critics of the Book of Mormon, incidentally, have ridiculed the idea that a pious Jew, such as Nephi is alleged to have been, would ever have dreamed of building a temple outside of Jerusalem (2 Nephi 5:16). The Ele\u00adphantine temple, however, near Aswan in upper Egypt, shows that the Book of Mormon is plausible on this point, and that its critics are incorrect. It was probably constructed at almost exactly the same time that Nephi built his temple in the Americas and func\u00adtioned with the apparent approval of the authorities at Jerusalem. See Hayim Tadmor, in H. H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People <\/em>(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 179-80; also Bezalel Porten, \u201cDid the Ark Stop at Elephantine?\u201d Biblical Archaeol\u00adogy Review <\/em>21\/3 (May\/June 1995): 54-67, 76-77. Later, yet another Jewish temple, that of Onias, was built at Leontopolis.<\/span><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Exodus 30:9, 34-38; Leviticus 10:1-3.<\/span><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Exodus 30:1-10. Luke 1:8-11 reflects this practice, although it suggests that, by the time of Christ, other priests were permitted to officiate in this service in place of the high priest.<\/span><\/p>\n [5]<\/a> K. Galling, \u201cIncense Altar,\u201d in George Edward Buttrick, et al., eds., The Interpreter\u2019s <\/em>Dictionary of the Bible, <\/em>4 vols. and a supplement (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962-1976), 2:699-700, supplies references for the idea that at least one type of Israelite incense altar was itself borrowed from Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Leviticus 16:12-13. The censers of ancient Israelite temple worship were of an inter\u00adesting form, with the incense itself often resting in a \u201chand,\u201d carved in cupping shape, at the end of a long handle which had been hollowed out to allow air to pass through in order to keep the incense burning. See L. E. Toombs, \u201cIncense, Dish for,\u201d in George Edward Buttrick, et al., eds., The Interpreter\u2019s Dictionary of the Bible, <\/em>4 vols. and a sup\u00adplement (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962-1976), 2:698-99, for a very brief article on the sub\u00adject, with further references. The angel of Revelation 8:3-4 stands at the altar with a censer from which the prayers of the Saints ascend, mingled with incense. An intrigu\u00ading image, I think, for Latter-day Saint temple-goers.<\/span><\/p>\n [7] Deuteronomy 33:10.<\/span><\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Leviticus 2:1-2, 14-16; 6:14-18; compare Isaiah 43:23; Jeremiah 17:26; 41:5.<\/span><\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Leviticus 24:7.<\/span><\/p>\n [10]<\/a> 1 Chronicles 9:29; Nehemiah 13:5, 9.<\/span><\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Psalm 141:2. Anciently, it was common to raise the hands heavenward as a gesture of prayer, as we today fold our hands or our arms. Some may find this significant. I do.<\/span><\/p>\n