We have said before that the Egyptians imported products to elaborate their ointments and perfumes from different places and it is curious to state the fact, that the Bible relates to us, Joseph Jacob’s son, was sold by his brothers to some essences merchants that, from the territories of Galaad in Palestine, they lowered to Egypt to sell their products.
The Bible in its story of the history of the Israelite people tells to us about perfumery in infinity of occasions and it provides innumerable data to us on the use of perfumes.
The Israelites were a town of migrating shepherds who took their flocks from a land to another one in search of good grass, and sometimes fleeing from the droughts they arrived very far from their territories of Canaan. Possibly it is for this reason that we find an important part of the town of Israel installed in Egypt during a long time, where they were retained and forced to work in the heavy works but until, according to it is said in Exodus, Moses, the Liberator, he lead them towards the Land that God had promised to Abraham and to all their descendants. It is more than possible that some Israelites learned the art to elaborate perfumes and ointments in Egypt, but the first news that the Bible give us on its use refers to its religious or liturgical purpose.
When Moses receives the Tables of Law from God on the top of Sinai, also receives the order to construct the Alliance Coffer and the Altar for Perfumes. Moses names to Aaron, Great Priest, for taking charge to burn the incense each morning and each dusk and he must to add equal weight of essences of nataf, onyx and scent galbanic for making a perfume composed according to "the perfumers’ art", prohibiting that this aromatic composition was used for profane uses.
Among the innumerable appointments that on the use of perfumes we find in the Bible and like a proof that this use was extended to all the estates of the society, it is possible to emphasize the advice that Naomi farmer gives to her daughter-in-law Ruth for perfuming herself with the purpose of pleasing to Both, the owner of the fields where she worked; or the case of the rich widow Judith who fixes herself and she perfumes to seduce Holofernes in order to release her town. But it is in Cantar of Cantares where the maximum exaltation shines about ointments and perfumes.
The New Testament also tells to us about perfumes in diverse occasions. Let us emphasize the scene that Maria, sister of Lazar, anoints with perfume the feet of Jesus and she dries to them with her hair, or, the one of Joseph of Arimatea and Nicomedes, that according to the Jewish tradition, anoints the body of Christ before depositing him in the tomb. Finally, we remember the adoration of the Magi in the vestibule of Bethlehem when they offer to young Jesus, gold, incense and myrrh. A perfume had never had a greater destiny.
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