Incense offering
Offering on the altar of incense in the time of the Tabernacle and the First and Second Temple period
The incense offering (Hebrew: קְטֹרֶת qəṭōreṯ) in Judaism was related to perfumed offerings on the altar of incense in the time of the Tabernacle and the First and Second Temple period, and was an important component of priestly liturgy in the Temple in Jerusalem.
In the Hebrew Bible
The sacred incense prescribed for use in the wilderness Tabernacle was made of costly materials that the congregation contributed. The Book of Exodus describes the recipe:
And the LORD said unto Moses: Take unto yourself sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And you shall make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together [salted], pure and holy: And you shall beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with you: it shall be unto you most holy. And as for the perfume which you shall make, you shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto you holy for the LORD. Whosoever shall make like unto it, to enjoy the smell thereof, shall even be cut off from his people.
The incense altar was at the end of the Holy compartment of the tabernacle, next to the curtain dividing it off from the Most Holy. According to the Books of Chronicles, there was also a similar incense altar in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Every morning and evening the sacred incense was burned. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, coals from the altar were taken in a censer, or fire holder, together with two handfuls of incense, into the Holy of Holies, where the incense was made to smoke before the mercy seat of the ark of the testimony.
The Book of Exodus lists four components of the incense, while the Talmud lists seven additional components from the oral Torah. The four components from the Book of Exodus are:
stacte (נָטָף naṭaf)
onycha (שְׁחֵלֶת sheħeleth)
galbanum (חֶלְבְּנָה ħelbbinah)
pure frankincense (לְבוֹנָה זַכָּה levonah zakah)
The components are still being studied and are not determined with absolute certainty.
“Incense offering” enters the record as offering on the altar of incense in the time of the Tabernacle and the First and Second Temple period. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Incense, offering and Offering can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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