Smell plays an important part in the biblical narrative, from the aromas of burnt offerings in the Old Testament through to the precious perfume used shortly before the Passion to anoint Christ. Exactly how valuable it was became a matter of some debate in the Gospels, and the quantity used by Mary was probably worth the equivalent of a year’s wages.

Vintage Scents. - Pinterest

Bottles, interestingly, have survived from before 500 BC, and Isaiah mentions the ownership of perfume bottles as one of the trappings of wealth, along with bracelets, charms, and nose-rings.

It is a wide-ranging study in which, in addition to chemistry, Dr Sell examines geographical sources, botany, sensory science, medicine, and the arts. Top notes are lily, aldehydes and pepper; middle notes are cassis, gardenia, carnation, jasmine and rose; base notes are cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, amber and oakmoss. The old Temple in Jerusalem must have produced an over-powering stench of sweaty humans, frightened animals, burning flesh, and incense. When Herodotus asked the perfumers of Arabia where they found labdanum, they told him a cock-and-bull story about how they combed it from the beards of goats.

Prophecy Perfume - Etsy UK

For many centuries — until science devised ways of analysing the chemical make-up of smells — the perfumers’ practice was a secretive art.

Psalm 45 is one of several employing the language of fragrance (“All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia”). Frankincense is collected as “tears”: nuggets of a pale-yellow resin that oozes from wounds cut in the incense tree, one of the Burseraceae family. Modern church incense, such as that used on special occasions at Canterbury Cathedral, where Dr Sell now works as a volunteer guide, might also contain rose oil, although the exact recipe of Rosa Mystica, as made by the monks at Alton Abbey, is a secret. Yet there were also many rare and exotic scents available to the people of the ancient world, with names that are no longer instantly recognised, such as onycha, galbanum, styrax, and nard. Of all fragrances that get a mentionb only galbanum, a resin extracted from a flowering umbelliferous plant, is a true native of the Bible lands.

Prophecy Prince Matchabelli perfume - a fragrance for women 1962

The Diocese of Gloucester is looking for two creative, flexible and holistic thinkers who care passionately about nurturing leaders who will share the good news of Jesus Christ and make disciples in all our varied contexts.

One branch led to the land of Havilah, where, as well as gold and precious stones, bdellium was to be found, a fragrant gum resin and an early ingredient of perfume. On the Day of Atonement, Aaron was to burn clouds of incense to obscure the Ark of the Covenant to protect him from seeing God. THE ancient world of the Middle East was the centre of a network of trade routes that enabled aromatic ingredients to be sourced from many hundreds of miles away. In writing to the Corinthians, he talks of sharing the good news of Jesus as spreading the pleasing aroma of Christ.