{"id":9123,"date":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/2018\/12\/19\/myrrhe-reichtum-altes-testament\/"},"modified":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T10:00:00","slug":"myrrhe-reichtum-altes-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/2018\/12\/19\/myrrhe-reichtum-altes-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Myrrh as a Symbol of Wealth in the Old Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"<link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Fraunces:ital,opsz,wght@0,9..144,380;0,9..144,520;1,9..144,420;1,9..144,500&#038;family=Space+Mono:wght@400;700&#038;family=Source+Sans+3:wght@400;500;600&#038;display=swap\">\n<style>\n  html, body, #wrapper, #main, .uncode-page, .page-wrapper, .content-wrap{\n    background:#faf5ec !important;\n  }\n  .iomj{\n    --iomh-bg:#faf5ec;\n    --iomh-surface:#f2ead9;\n    --iomh-surface-2:#ece0c8;\n    --iomh-ink:#2a2117;\n    --iomh-ink-soft:#4a3d2c;\n    --iomh-ink-dim:#8a7a5f;\n    --iomh-ember:#c14e1e;\n    --iomh-ember-2:#a63e15;\n    --iomh-line:#ddccac;\n    --iomh-serif:'Fraunces','Iowan Old Style',Georgia,serif;\n    --iomh-mono:'Space Mono','SFMono-Regular',Consolas,monospace;\n    --iomh-sans:'Source Sans 3','Segoe UI',sans-serif;<\/p>\n<p>    background:var(--iomh-bg);\n    color:var(--iomh-ink);\n    font-family:var(--iomh-sans);\n    line-height:1.6;\n    -webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;\n  }\n  .iomj *{box-sizing:border-box;}\n  .iomj img{max-width:100%;}\n  .iomj a{color:var(--iomh-ember-2);}\n  .iomj h1{margin:0;text-wrap:balance;}<\/p>\n<p>  .iomj.iomj-fullbleed{\n    width:100vw;position:relative;left:50%;right:50%;\n    margin-left:-50vw;margin-right:-50vw;\n  }\n  .iomj .iomj-wrap{max-width:680px;margin:0 auto;padding-inline:24px;}<\/p>\n<p>  .iomj .iomj-eyebrow{\n    font-family:var(--iomh-mono);font-size:0.7rem;letter-spacing:0.1em;\n    text-transform:uppercase;color:var(--iomh-ember-2);\n  }\n  .iomj .iomj-meta{\n    font-family:var(--iomh-mono);font-size:0.72rem;color:var(--iomh-ink-dim);\n    margin-top:8px;letter-spacing:0.02em;\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .iomj .iomj-header{padding-block:56px 0;}\n  .iomj .iomj-header h1{\n    font-family:var(--iomh-serif);font-style:italic;font-weight:500;\n    letter-spacing:-0.01em;\n    font-size:clamp(2rem,5vw,2.9rem);line-height:1.08;margin:10px 0 0;\n  }\n  .iomj .iomj-lead{\n    margin-top:20px;max-width:62ch;color:var(--iomh-ink-soft);font-size:1.05rem;\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .iomj .iomj-figure{\n    position:relative;margin:36px 0 0;border-radius:2px;overflow:hidden;\n    border:1px solid var(--iomh-line);background:var(--iomh-surface-2);\n    aspect-ratio:4\/3;\n  }\n  .iomj .iomj-figure img{\n    width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;display:block;\n    filter:grayscale(0.82) sepia(0.28) saturate(1.15) brightness(1.04) contrast(1.05);\n  }\n  .iomj .iomj-figure::after{\n    content:'';position:absolute;inset:0;\n    background:var(--iomh-ember);mix-blend-mode:color;opacity:0.22;\n    pointer-events:none;\n  }\n  .iomj .iomj-credit{\n    margin-top:8px;font-family:var(--iomh-mono);font-size:0.68rem;color:var(--iomh-ink-dim);\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .iomj .iomj-body{padding-block:28px 64px;}\n  .iomj .iomj-body p{font-size:1rem;color:var(--iomh-ink-soft);max-width:66ch;margin:0 0 20px;}\n  .iomj .iomj-body p:last-child{margin-bottom:0;}\n<\/style>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"iomj iomj-fullbleed\">\n<article class=\"iomj-wrap\">\n<header class=\"iomj-header\">\n<p class=\"iomj-eyebrow\">Journal \u2014 Sources<\/p>\n<h1>Myrrh as a Symbol of Wealth in the Old Testament<\/h1>\n<p class=\"iomj-meta\">Field notes &middot; December 19, 2018<\/p>\n<p class=\"iomj-lead\">Anointing oil, a year of beauty treatment for Esther, a sachet worn between the breasts in the Song of Songs \u2014 why myrrh stood for luxury in the Hebrew Bible.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<figure class=\"iomj-figure\"><img src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/8\/86\/Commiphora_myrrha_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-019.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"iomj-credit\">Commiphora myrrha \u2014 illustration: K\u00f6hler&#8217;s Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<div class=\"iomj-body\">\n<p>In the Hebrew Bible, myrrh \u2014 mor \u2014 appears wherever the text wants to signal that no expense was spared. It is one of four spices, alongside cinnamon, sweet cane, and cassia, mixed into the sacred anointing oil in Exodus 30, a formula so exclusive that the same chapter forbids anyone from replicating it for personal use, on pain of being &#8220;cut off from his people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Book of Esther makes the economics explicit. Before any young woman was brought before King Ahasuerus, she spent twelve months in preparation: six months with oil of myrrh, then six more with perfumes and cosmetics \u2014 a full year&#8217;s supply of a single ingredient as a routine cost of entering the palace. In the Song of Songs, myrrh is what the bridegroom is made of, a sachet worn between the breasts overnight, myrrh dripping from fingers onto a door handle \u2014 wealth folded into intimacy rather than ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The expense was real, not just poetic. Myrrh comes from Commiphora trees that grow almost nowhere outside the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, and every grain that reached Jerusalem had already traveled the same incense routes that carried frankincense north \u2014 taxed at every stop, changing hands across a thousand miles of desert before it was worth mentioning in a poem at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journal \u2014 Sources Myrrh as a Symbol of Wealth in the Old Testament Field notes &middot; December 19, 2018 Anointing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incenseofmusic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}