The Uses of Incense in the Ancient Israelite Ritual

Abstract

2. The first of these ritual uses of spices took the form of adding the powder of the spice as a supplement to a sacrifice, namely a mealoffering (minhdh). In this case, the spice was usually part of the memorial portion ('aZkdrdh) of the meal-offering, and as such was burnt up on the altar. The spice generally employed in meal-offerings was frankincense (lebondh, Lev. ii 1, 15; vi 15 et al.). There is no instance of spices being added to sacrifices of animals or birds, but possibly in these cases it was customary to scatter some spices on the altar from time to time, to catch fire and mingle with the smoke of the offerings and thus ameliorate the stench of the burning flesh. Of course, in the case of an animal or bird sacrifice, no spice was offered up by the sacrificer himself nor demanded of him. But the

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