Healing Oils of the Bible
by the people of Biblical times to a number of resinproduclng desert trees and shrubs, which makes identification of Biblical plants difficult and sometimes impossible. Sometimes even balm was confused with myrrh, since both could be referred to simply as "resin" or "aromatic gum" as was also frankincense, galbanum, onycha, cistus, and shittim (also known as gum arablc). The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) doesn't use the word myrrh in Genesis. It uses the words "gum" and "resin."
The Bible word from which the King James Version translated the word "myrrh, was not the Hebrew "mor." King James relied heavily on the fourth century Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerom
e (The Vulgate) and not the more ancient texts in Hebrew. In t he Vulgate, the word in Latin was "labdanum" which can mean "myrrh." But in the original Hebrew the word was "lot" which is the resinous Rose of Sharon {Cistus Creticus that Cistus flourishes in Eastern Mediterranean Sea} also called "rock rose" or "cistus." Rock rose produces a medicinal resin and oil with some of the same properties as true myrrh.
It should be pointed out that throughout history oil of myrrh has been often mixed with other oils because of its unique ability to preserve fragrances and potency and make them last longer. Therefore, it is possible that the oil carried by the Midianltes, though most likely the oil of the Rose of Sharon, also contained myrrh as a fixative. So King James' reference to myrrh would not necessarily be incorrect. What the Midianites carried may well have been a mixture of cistus and myrrh.
These points illustrate the difficulty in identifying oils and their species throughout the Bible.
The Bible word from which the King James Version translated the word "myrrh, was not the Hebrew "mor." King James relied heavily on the fourth century Latin translation of the Bible by St. Jerom
e (The Vulgate) and not the more ancient texts in Hebrew. In t he Vulgate, the word in Latin was "labdanum" which can mean "myrrh." But in the original Hebrew the word was "lot" which is the resinous Rose of Sharon {Cistus Creticus that Cistus flourishes in Eastern Mediterranean Sea} also called "rock rose" or "cistus." Rock rose produces a medicinal resin and oil with some of the same properties as true myrrh.It should be pointed out that throughout history oil of myrrh has been often mixed with other oils because of its unique ability to preserve fragrances and potency and make them last longer. Therefore, it is possible that the oil carried by the Midianltes, though most likely the oil of the Rose of Sharon, also contained myrrh as a fixative. So King James' reference to myrrh would not necessarily be incorrect. What the Midianites carried may well have been a mixture of cistus and myrrh.
These points illustrate the difficulty in identifying oils and their species throughout the Bible.
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