In the 5th century B.C.E., the Greek historian Herodotus instructed that great care needed to be taken when harvesting frankincense resin. He warned that multi-colored, venomous winged snakes guarded the groves by living in and among the trees. These snakes had to be driven away before approaching the trees to harvest their resin. The only way to deter the snakes was by burning styrax, a resin from another tree. Was this a myth created to deter people from going near the frankincense groves? Or were there really snakes that lived in the same area with the trees? We’ll never know the origins of this story, but it illustrates that people have gone out of their way to find frankincense for thousands of years.
The frankincense of the Israelites as well as of the Greeks and Romans is also called Olibanum.
Exodus 30:34 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; [these] sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like [weight]: 35 And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure [and] holy: 36 And thou shalt beat [some] of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. 37 And [as for] the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD. 38 Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people.”
This is the struggle that prevents us all from knowing without a doubt IMO - In Exodus, that’s a different “Frankincense” as in, this word comes from a very different set of languages (Old Testament) than the “Frankincense” of the New Testament. They could easily be two entirely different plants.
Isaiah 28:13 "Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;
Like 4 blind men and an elephant. lol
72 Jewish scholars — 6 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel translated the 39 books of the OT from Hebrew to Greek. It’s the Septuagint, or also called LXX. It’s pretty accurate.
It seems that the phrase “entheogenic origin of religion” has been scrubbed from the internet. I’ve coined that phrase in many lifetimes. EASY way to get crucified!
SOMA Amrita and Manna is the real stuff. Ultimately, people need Strict training to do it right or they end up like annoying, Anakin Skywalker.
Grasses are full of DMT…but then people start worshipping leprecauns.
Ironically, only synthetics, free of impurities and toxins is wise.
INDRA stirs the Soma, it comes down into the meditator from the lunar storage tank and voila, religion starts.----But that’s all in the past until samsara becomes nirvana. Cows are able to eat soma and pee out Amrita. The elixer of immortality, Mushrooms grow in their poop, but even their ruminant stomachs aren’t perfect. The Latter Day of plant toxins is all the people’s blunders.
But in the latter day time period, hunans, extracting the toxins gets tricky. Kaneh Bosem is just of short term usefulness in these trobled times. Seriously it shares morphogenetic resonance with Paraquat.
I’d say it came in handy in a barn with animals. I don’t think the Magi or “the astrologers” brought any stinking weed to the baby Jesus. Skoal? Maybe, but not weed.
I’ve played the telephone game too. My Jewish ancestors played it for centuries before they decided to start writing it down. If things were so easy, the frankincense of the ancient Jews would not remain unidentified.
When Luke wrote his account, Jesus was already dead, risen and ascended.
I think you meant that IN Luke’s account, Jesus was likely 2 already. (Which is why Herod has all boys in Bethlehem aged 2 and under killed.) Likely Jesus wasn’t even in Bethlehem any more either. Probably back in Nazareth.
For ridding “those” kinds of smells, burnt sulfur is best (lighting a match, etc.).
ETA: This was all during a time when children drinking beer with breakfast was normal. That beer had alcohol, and people (including children) got drunk on it as often as possible.
Psychoactive compounds have rarely ever been taboo in societies. We’re a very stuck up people as a whole these days. lol
My mom told me the exact same thing and then got mad when I pressed her for the verse. She always did decide on a lot of things that happened off stage in the Bible.
Gold, then as now, is a highly valuable treasure. But frankincense and myrrh… what even are they? According to Simon Cotton for Chemistry World, frankincense and myrrh are sap, drawn from the Boswellia sacra and Commiphora trees, respectively. Frankincense was often burned as an incense, while myrrh made its way into medicine and perfume.
Thus, the verses of “We Three Kings” capture the traditional meaning of the three gifts from the magi. Three aspects of Jesus. Gold for a King. Frankincense for a Deity. Myrrh for a dead man. (The aromatics of myrrh covered the stench of a decaying body. That’s why Jesus was buried with spices. Jn 19:40.)
I heard an interesting theory that Jesus’ family actually had wealth. It was why he could wear a tunic woven without seams, (something only wealthy people could usually afford), and why his disciples were taken aback at his “eye of the needle” teaching, (if He was wealthy, and He was saying wealthy people would find it hard to be saved, then they asked, “Well then who can be saved??”), why he would be welcomed at dinner in rich people’s homes, (the classes usually stayed separate), why being born in a stable would have been especially degrading to a wealthy family, and other such things.
These are all beautiful inferences too, and sometimes it’s a shame that canon makes these nothing but inferences by individuals seeking to fill gaps in on their own.
This particular inference of our Lord being born into and shrugging off Earthly wealth is pretty dang similar to Buddha’s story. According to Wiki:
“Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic.”
Steven Spielberg was producing a movie about a hidden kingdom. Kevin Spacey was cast as the king. There was a knight who was on a quest to find a way into the kingdom, and the key to entry was to find a certain giant Buddha-like statue with passageways inside the body of the statue, and an exit point through the left knee. Spielberg was considering both Mitch Ryan and Mark Hamill as the actor for the knight. He eventually settled for Mark Hamill. When he was asked in an interview why he chose Hamill, he said, “It was easier for Hamill to get through the knee of the idol than for Mitch Ryan to enter the Kingdom of Kevin.”
Isaiah 28:13 "Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;
