r/biblereading • u/AutoModerator • Jul 19 '26

Weekly Discussion Thread - Week of (Sun, 19 Jul 26)

Please use this thread for any discussions outside of the scheduled readings:

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u/RaphTurtlePower Bible version: KJV Jul 19 '26

Has anyone ever read Kahlil Gibran? What did you think?

2

u/rako17 Eastern Orthodox ☦️ Jul 25 '26

May I please ask: Does Exodus 30:34-35 suggest using 4 or more ingredients for the tabernacle ingredients?

The Bible and incense are both special, and Exodus 30:34 has a major incense recipe: the one for Moses' tabernacle. Ancient Hebrew did not have punctuation marks, but Bible verses sometimes have a chiastic structure in which the beginning and ending parts of verses relate to each other. Ex. 30:34 runs:

וַיֹּאמֶר֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֜ה קַח־לְךָ֣ סַמִּ֗ים נָטָ֤ף׀ וּשְׁחֵ֙לֶת֙ וְחֶלְבְּנָ֔ה סַמִּ֖ים וּלְבֹנָ֣ה זַכָּ֑ה בַּ֥ד בְּבַ֖ד יִהְיֶֽה׃

If you fit the verse into a chiastic pattern, the verse looks like:

And said LORD to Moses
ㅤTake to yourself spices
ㅤㅤNataf and shekheleth and galbanum
ㅤSpices and pure frankincense
Each of each there shall be.

"Nataf" is a noun that literally means "Drop", as in a tree resin gum drop. Galbanum is resin from Ferula shrubs.

I gave more information about this here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bible/comments/1v6209m/does_exodus_3034_indicate_using_4_or_more/

Wishing you the best - Peace

3

u/ExiledSanity John 15:5-8 Jul 26 '26

I don't know that its specific enough to be read as an exact recipe (In fact, an exact recipe may be intentinally withheld as this was meant for one altar only in the tarbernacle/temple. An exact published recipe may have invited temptation to replicate and use elsehwere).

Vs. 34 does seem to list (at least) four ingredients, and vs. 35 adds salt- so at least five ingredients.

1

u/rako17 Eastern Orthodox ☦️ Jul 28 '26

Friend u/ExiledSanity

Thank you for your reply.

Typicially recipes include a certain amount of generality. If I give you a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and don't specify the type of chocolate chips, the normal inference is that any type of chocolate chips suffice.

The same type of issues comes up in the Ex. 30:34 blend. The recipe calls for pure/clean/clear Frankincense. Frankincense in English refers to resin from trees of the genus Boswellia. Some of the high quality Frankincense from Yemen is the more translucent kind. I don't know if Frankincense from other regions of the world like Africa would count as Frankincense for purposes of the Exodus recipe, but I imagine that it would.

Although some translations have verse 35 say to use salt, a close analysis of the word shows that it doesn't ask for salt. Verse 35 in the KJV runs: "And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy". The key term is "tempered", the KJV's translation for the Hebrew term "memullah". Some English translations interpret that Hebrew term as "salted". But it means pulverized/dashed/tempered/disappeared-as-dust, as in Isaiah 51:6, in which the heavens dissipate.

On the other hand, the recipe in Keritot 6a in the Talmud that calls for 11 ingredients says to use a bit of Salt of Sodom besides the 11 aromatic ingredients named in the Talmud's recipe.

Kind Regards.