Oil tree (Hastings' Dictionary)

This Heb. expression is tr‘ (Is 411°) AV, RV text ‘oil tree,’ RVm ‘oleaster’; (1 Καὶ 0539: 381-88) AV ‘olive trees,’ m. ‘trees of oil’ or ‘oily trees,’ RV ‘olive wood’; (Neh 815 AV ‘pine branches,’ RV ‘branches of wild olive.’ It is clear from Neh that the plant in question is not the olive, as that is mentioned in the same sentence by its own name.

The difference between the latter and the wild olive is so small that it is quite unlikely that it would have been mentioned by a separate name in so brief a list of trees used for the same purpose. A candidate for ‘éz- shemen must fulfil the following conditions, sug- gored by the passages cited above. (1) It must an oily or fat tree (shemen signifies ‘fat’ as well as ‘oil’; its Arab. equivalent semen is the word for ‘clarified butter’).

This would apply to a tree producing a terebinthine oil or resin, such as constitutes what is known in Eng. as fat wood, found in pitch pine and other similar trees. The Arab. has the expression luish for such fat wood.

Faggots of it are sold in the market for torches, and much used at weddings and other festivities, (2) It must be an emblem of foray and pro- eperity, fitted to be associated with the myrtle, the acacia, the fir (οὗ, see Frr), the pine (177,, see PINE), and the box (xa, see Box).

(3) It must be a tree capable of furnishing a block of wood of the size, beauty, and hardness required for carving an image 10 cubits high, to be placed in the Holy of Holies, and for making doors and OINTMENT OINTMENT 593 (4) Its foliage must be suftliciently doorposts. (5) It must grow dense to be suitable for booths. in the mountains, and be easily accessible from Jerusalem and the other cities ot Palestine. The wild olive has already been excluded. The oleaster, Eleagnus hortensis, M.B.

, never grows large enough to furnish such a block of wood as was required for the image. It is also never used for house carpentry. Its foliage is not dense, and its branches are usually thorny, and would be unlikely to be selected for a covering for booths. The zakkim, Balanites ἌΠΡΥΡΟΙΒηδ: Del., grows only in the torrid valley of the Lower Jordan, has a small trunk, and very thorny branches, and a sparse foliage.

Its fruit yields a sort of balsam, which is its only claim to be called a tree of oil or fatness. The only trees which fulfil all these conditions are the fatwood trees. The genus Pinus furnishes three species, P. Pinea, L., the stone or maritime ine, P. Halepensis, Mill., the Aleppo pine, and . Bruttia, Ten., which is Eeuhiars only a variety of the last. Any of these would furnish foliage suitable for booths, and all are constantly used for this Dae doce in the East.

Their massive trunks could easily furnish the log required for the carved image, and the doors and doorposts. They are constantly used in house carpentry. Their heartwood is fat enough to entitle them to be called ‘trees of fatness.’ They are spontaneous, growing in the wilderness (i.e. uncultivated places, and so fit to be associated with the other trees mentioned with them, Is Z.c.) We are inclined with Celsius (Hierob. i. 309) to tr.

‘éz-shemen, ‘ fat- wood trees,’ and to suppose that the reference is to the pines. In the article ASH we have argued that dren prob- ably stands for Pinus Pinea, L. This in no way invalidates the inclusion of the same tree under the general head of fatwood or resinous trees. In one of the paste (Is 4119) AV and RV tr. amin tidhar, ‘ pine,’ RVm ‘plane.’ The same word (Is 6018) is tr? AV and RV ‘pine,’ RVm referring to tormer passage.

It is very doubtful whether tidhar refers to the pine (see PINE). OINTMENT (no? mirkahath, 1 Ch 9 ; in general ᾿ξ shemen, sometimes coupled with agyp mishhah, as in Ex 30%; LXX μύρον Ex 30%, Ps 1333, Ca 155, Pr 27°, Am 6°; elsewhere ἔλαιον ; Vulg. unguentum).— Oily, fragrant materials smeared on the surface of the body to allay the irritation caused by the heat ia Eastern lands, and to conceal the odour of per- spiration.

The use of materials of this kind is common in almost every country, and is of ancient date. In Egypt unguents are mentioned even in texts of the Ancient Empire, and in those of the Middle and New Empire they are frequently re- ferred to. There were nine sacred oils used for the purposes of ceremonial anointing: mt (prob- ably cedar oil), Att or Ati (a Libyan product), hknnu {an oil containing ‘many spices from Arabia’), neknem, sfti, sgnn (rose oil), mrh (oil of myrrh), s-ti hb, and fuau.

Besides these there were other sweet-scented salves and ointments in ordinary use, aber, tpt, th-hennu, ete. The holy anointing oil made by Bezalel for Moses (Ex 8095.) consisted of 1 hin of olive oil (about 10 Ib.), 500 shekels of flowing myrrh (about 15 lb.), 250 shekels of sweet cinnamon (about 74 lb.), 250 shekels of sweet calamus, and 500 shekels of cassia (or costus). The Jewish authors who re- yard the ‘shekel of the sanctuary’ as twice the ordinary shekel, double these weights.

This was to be compounded after the art of the perfumer (see art. CONFECTION). Probably these scented substances, or some of them, were brought into the market in powder, as in Ca 3° these spices are called ‘the powders of the merchant.’ There are VOL. 111.—38 G. E. Post.

different descriptions given by Rabbinical writers of the process whereby the anointing oil was com- pounde , but most probably it was simple pulveriza- tion of the ingredients, and boiling them in the oil ; for, as Pliny has remarked, the strength of the oint- ment is greater when the ingredients are boiled together (xiii. 2); but see Otho’s Lezicon, s.v. *Oleum.’ The making of ointment in this wav was recognized by Hebrew writers (see Job 41%).

© As the passage in Ex 30 is assigned to P, the date of the prescription cannot be determined, but it may be late. Pliny says that unguents were not known among the Greeks at the time of the Trojan war; but he has overlooked the ῥοδόεντι δὲ xpiev ἐλαίῳ ἀμβροσίῳ of Il. xxiii. 186 and the λιπαροὶ κεφαλὰς καὶ καλὰ πρόσωπα of Od. xv. 332, and the several references to Alm’ ἔλαιον, Il. x. 577, xiv. 171; Od. iii. 966, vi. 96, etc.

He assigns the invention to the Persians, because a chest of per- fumes was among the spoils taken by Alexander ; but the Egyptians had unguents much earlier, and probably also the Indians preceded the Persians in this respect. There are references to anointings in the ancient Indian poy (see, for example, Hito- ee i. 98. For Egyp. origin see P. Aegineta, vii. 18).

Pliny gives a large number of formule for sweet- smelling unguents, including one which resembles the holy anointing oil, containing myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, nard, costus, laurel, lily, and fenugreek. The myrrh, he says, gives consistency and sweet- ness, the cinnamon strengthens the odour, and the costus (or cassia) makes it more pungent. See CASSIA, CINNAMON, Myrre. RVm substitutes ‘costus’ for ‘ cassia’ in Ex 30%, and it is probable that this is the material indicated by the word kiddah.

Costus is the dried root of a composite lant Aplotaxis auriculata, imported like frank- incense through Arabia from India, and is a much esteemed ingredient in hair-unguents. It was formerly supposed to be the root of Costus Arab- icus, but this is erroneous. For the uses of these ointments see ANOINTING in vol. i. p. 100, and OIL, above, p. 591f. For further references to the classical use of toilet oils, see Athenzeus, xii. 78.

Unguents are said by Pliny to keep best in boxes of alabaster (xiii. 3), and to improve with age, becoming very precious when old; hence Patroclus’s body was anointed with ointment nine years old (JZ. xviii. 350). The very recious alabaster box of ointment mentioned in τὸ 267, Mk 14%, Lk 757 was thus the best of its kind; and the odorous ingredient in this unguent, spike- nard, the root of Nardostachys Jatamansi, imported from India, was one of the costliest of perfumes.

This perfume is called in Mk 145 and Jn 12% νάρδος πιστική, the latter word meaning either ‘genuine’ or ‘liquid,’ or else it may be from an Indian name of the plant pisitd (Houghton in PSBA x. 144). The making of the hol y oil by unauthorized persons was forbidden, and it has been supposed that it was compounded once for all, on account of the large quantity of ingredients specified, whose weight amounted to about half a hundredweight (see More Nebhochim, iii. 45).

It was used to anoint the tabernacle, the table, the vessels, the candle- stick, the altars, the laver and its base, and Aaron and bis sons (but the anointing of the priests was not observed in the second temple; Saubert, de Sacerd. Ebr. v.), also David and Solomon, possibly Joash; but the Talmudists say that he, Saul, and Jehu were anointed with common oil.

The consistence of the oil may be interred from Ps 133%, which says that it trickled down on Aaron’s beard, where it lay on the collar (not skirt) of his outer garment. It was therefore of a very thick treacly consistence, becoming prob- ably more fluid when warmed. The act of anointing OLAMUS 594 is figured in Lepsius, Denkméiler, iii. 76b, 230, and is described in Wilkinson, i. 426. In the Gizeh Museum is the stele of a ‘ keeper of the ointments of the king,’ ef.

the royal store of Hezekiah, Is 39°. The passage in Pr 27" where of the person who tries to hide the contentious woman it is said, *Whoso hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself,’ is very obscure. LXX, regarding it as connected rather with the succeeding than with the preceding verse, renders it, ‘The north wind is a harsh wind, but in name it is called “‘auspicious.

”’ In the RV it is translated, ‘ his right hand encountereth oil,’ which seems to be the literal rendering ; but it is not much more intelligible. The Vulgate gives oleum dextere sue vocabit. It seems to refer to the difficulty of retaining a slippery, oily material in one’s hand. For more ᾿νε ἢ interpretations see Rosenmiiller’s Scholia, ix. 653; Maurer’s Comment. iii. 505, and esp. Toy, Proverbs, p. 488 f. ἢ Por older literature see, on the whole subject, Scheidius and Weymar in vol. xii.

of Ugolini. A. MACALISTER. OLAMUS (‘MAauos), 1 Es 9*=Meshullam of the sons of Bani, Ezr 10®.—The name appears else- where as Mosollamus (1 Es 8“ 9"),