Onycha has been the subject of much discussion. The balance of learned opinion favours the view that it is the operculum of a species of sea-snail found on the shores of the Red Sea. It is known as Unguis odoratus, blatta Byzantina, and devil’s claw. Nubian women to this day use it with myrrh, cloves, frankincense, and cinnamon, to perfume themselves.
The incense made from the formula just quoted was reserved specially for the service of the tabernacle, and it was forbidden, under the penalty of being cut off from his people, for any private person to imitate it. It does not appear, however, that the Israelites continued to use the same formula for their Temple services. Josephus states that the incense of his day consisted of thirteen ingredients. These were, as we learn from Talmudic instructions, in addition to the four gums named in the Exodus formula, the salt with which it had to be seasoned, myrrh, cassia, spikenard, saffron, costus, mace, cinnamon, and a certain herb which had the property of making the smoke of the incense ascend straight, and in the form of a date palm. This herb was only known to the family of Abtinas, to whom was entrusted the sole right of preparing the incense for the Temple. Rooms were provided for them in the precincts, and they supplied 368 minas (about 368 lbs.) to the Temple for a year’s consumption; that was 1 lb. per day and an extra 3 lbs. for the Day of Atonement. In the first century (A.D.) this family were dismissed because they refused to divulge their secret. The Temple authorities sent to Alexandria for some apothecaries to succeed them, but these Egyptian experts could not make the smoke ascend properly, so the Abtinas had to be re-engaged at a considerably increased salary. They gave as a reason for their secrecy their fear that the Temple would soon be destroyed and their incense would be used for idolatrous sacrifices.
The incense now used in Catholic churches is not made according to the Biblical formula. The following is a typical recipe in actual use:—Olibanum, 450; benzoin, 250; storax, 120; sugar, 100; cascarilla, 60; nitre, 150.
Olive Oil.
Among all the ancient Eastern nations olive oil was one of the most precious of products. It was used lavishly by the Egyptians for the hair and the skin, as well as in all sorts of ceremonies. The Israelites held it in the highest esteem before they went to Egypt, the earliest allusion to it in the Scriptures being in Genesis, xxviii, 18, where we read that Jacob poured oil on the stone which he set up at Bethel, evidently with the idea of consecrating it. The Apocalypse of Moses has a legend of Adam’s experience of its medicinal virtues in the Garden of Eden. When he was in his 930th year he was seized with great pain in his stomach and sickness. Then he told Eve to take Seth and go as near as they could get to the Garden, and pray to God to permit an angel to bring them some oil from the tree of mercy so that he might anoint himself therewith and be free of his pain. Eve and Seth were, however, met by the Archangel Michael, who told them to return to Adam, for in three days the measure of his life would be fulfilled.
To the Israelites in the Desert the anticipation of the “corn and wine and oil” of Canaan was always present, and throughout their history there are abundant evidences of how they prized it.
The prescription for the “holy anointing oil” given in Exodus, xxx, 23, is very remarkable. It was to be compounded of the following ingredients:—
| Flowing myrrh | 500 | shekels. |
| Sweet cinnamon | 250 | " |
| Sweet calamus | 250 | " |
| Cassia (or costus) | 500 | " |
| Olive oil | One | hin. |
It is the Revised Version which gives “flowing myrrh,” apparently the gum which exudes spontaneously. The Authorised Version reads “pure myrrh.” The Revised Version also suggests costus in the margin as an alternative to cassia. This oil was to be kept very sacred. Any one who should compound any oil like it was to be cut off from his people.