More Bling for YHWH

August 6, 2009, 12:58 pm by dc-agape.

Exodus 30

This chapter is broken into five sections. The first part of the chapter is about the burning of incense.  This includes the shape, size, and full description of the Altar of Incense.  The second section is about the price of Atonement during the yearly census.  Here is the only source of tithing that includes money.  The third section deals with the Basin used to cleanse the priests prior to entering the Tent of Meeting and making sacrifices.  Here is where two contradictions occur.   The fourth section is about the Anointing oil.  The final section of the chapter goes into detail about what incense is appropriate to use in the Tent of Meeting.  These two sections give specific recipes for the oil and the incense.

The Altar of Incense is a special alter that was to be used only for burning a perfume twice a day.  When the High Priest tended the lamps in the Tent he was to have this Altar filled with incense.  Nothing else could be burned in this Altar.  It was a third of the size of the Altar of Burnt Offerings.  Which would explain why YHWH didn’t want anything but incense burned in this alter.  The outer dimensions were to be only 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft (0.5m²) and 3 foot (0.9m) high.  The top of this Altar was as high as a modern kitchen counter.  It is not clear if this included the “horns”, but it would seem to indicate that since the horns were to be of “one piece with it” that the burning surface was lower than three feet.  As with the Altar of Burnt Offering this would let us know that the Israelites of 3000 years ago were much shorter than modern humans.  It would certainly be uncomfortable to work day after day, having to bend down to add incense to the altar.  In modern day use of incense burners these hang at shoulder height or about 5 ft (1.8m). 

The next section is about YHWH promise to not send plagues among the Israelites if each year, during the census, every man above the age of 20 gives 1/2 shekel to the Priest.  This price of Atonement has not changed and its value today is 1/5 oz (6 grams).  Here YHWH is not so precise, no indication of which material the 6 grams are made of is given.  Silver has become the accepted material, but that is due to the Tradition of Man.  Of course, YHWH did not keep his promise on preventing plagues.  In fact, numerous times YHWH uses plagues to punish his people, even though they had (assumedly) paid the Atonement (Lev 26:25, Num 14:37, Num 25:8, Num 31:16, 2^nd Sam 24:15).

The third section is about how the priests must wash themselves with water prior to entering the Tent of Meeting.  Actually it was only rinsing the dirt of their hands and feet.  No soap was required, so this was only a ritual.  Here is where two contradictions occur as well.  The first contradiction includes the use of water.  If the people are complaining about not having water, how do the priests wash their hands and feet with it (Num 20:2)?  Or do the priests have special benefits where they had water when the people did not?  The second contradiction is about the “lasting ordinance”.  “For generations to come” would indicate that this process was eternal.  Neither the Judaic nor the Christian religions practice this ritual today.  Here the commandments of YHWH have been eliminated from Tradition.

The last two sections are about the Anointing Oil and the Incense recipes.  Both recipes call for very expensive ingredients.  But YHWH has spared no expense in the worship of himself with the Tent, the Altars, the Priestly Garments, or the Ark.  To be exact, the oil required 12.5 lbs (6kg) of myrrh ($8.50/1oz – $1,700.00US total), 6.25lbs (3kg) of cinnamon ($13.60/lbs – $85.00US total), 6.25lbs (3kg) of cane (pricing unavailable), 12.5 lbs (6kg) of cassia ($9.31US/oz – $1863.33US), and 4 qt (1.1L) of olive oil ($4.98US).  How all this was to be dissolved in such a small amount of oil is questionable.  But more important is the cost of these items.  The total price of this Anointing Oil would have been (in today’s value – $3,653.31US).  The incense was not any less expensive.  Even though amounts are not indicated the four ingredients were: gum resin (today’s price $6.65US/6.5g), onycha ($150.00US/16 oz), galbanum ($50.00US/oz), and frankincense ($10.00US/5mm).  The gum resin was more valuable than the myrrh itself.  The onycha was made from mollusk shells.  The galbanum was made from the roots of a plant that only lives in Syria and Persia.  Frankincense is a resin from a tree that only grows in southern Arabia.  So during the 1400 years that YHWH required this combination of oil and incense, the Israelites would have to trade with the native people of Syria, Persia, and southern Arabia…since YHWH did not proved the required materials to grow in Israel.  We can assume that during the 40 years in the desert the Israelites had enough of these raw materials to continue to make the Oil and Incense, even though none of these items were native to the area.   To end this section YHWH makes it clear that if anyone ever made these two mixtures for any reason other than to worship him, that person would be “cut off from his people”.  This was more serious a punishment than death.  To be “cut off” meant that they were exiled from Israel and that they no longer had YHWH to protect them.  I am not sure that this was such a bad thing though.  YHWH tempter was so great that throughout the OT he continued to punish his chosen people.  Most of the time while nations like the Egyptians and the Philistines grew stronger!

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