Onycha, ingredient of the ancient jewish incense: An attempt at identification

Abstract

The composition of the ancient holy incense is given to us in Exodus 30:34/5 of the Jewish Publication Society Bible as follows: "And the Lord said to Moses: Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense, of each there shall be a like weight. And thou shalt make of it incense, a perfume, after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy." With rare exceptions, spices and components of incense are of vegetable origin. With regard to the Tabernacle incense, most scholars agree that the term "stacte" is of Latin and Greek origin, and that stacte represents myrrh, the oleoresin from various species of Commiphora trees, indigenous to northwest Africa and Arabia. Myrrh occurs as yellowish to reddish-brown tears, with vanilla-like odor. The French Bible expert Rashi (acronym for Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1045-1105), whom the German theologian Johann Buxtorf (1564-1629), himself a leading commentator on Bible and Talmud, called "consummatissimus ille theologiae judaicae doctor," equates "stacte" with the Hebrew "nataph," meaning to drip. This meaning is identical with that of the Latin "stacte" and the Greek derivation "stact6," all suggesting the bleeding of the substance from the tree.