StrongerBible

thumiama

θυμίαμα

GreekG2368incense, incense offering, ...

Appears 6 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Luk 1:10Luk 1:11Rev 5:8Rev 8:3Rev 8:4Rev 18:13
Word studythoo-MEE-ah-mahnoun

What thumiama means

incense: the fragrant spice blend burned as an offering to God, and the burning of it

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

In the Bible incense is not room fragrance. It is a costly blend of spices with a fixed recipe, burned on a small gold altar inside the sanctuary every morning and evening, and Israel was forbidden to mix it for ordinary use. The Greek word covers both halves of that picture: the fragrant material itself, and the daily offering in which it went up in smoke. Which of the two is in view depends entirely on the sentence, and no English word makes the difference visible.

Luke uses it for the moment rather than the powder. While Zechariah is inside at the gold altar, the whole crowd stands praying outside "at the hour of the incense" (Luke 1:10), and the angel appears beside the altar named for it (Luke 1:11). The rite and the substance are bound so tightly together that one word does the work of both.

Revelation then says out loud what the praying crowd already assumed. The golden bowls the elders hold are full of incense, "which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8), and in Revelation 8:3 and 8:4 an angel is given a great quantity of it to add to the prayers of all God's people, so that the smoke rises before God along with what they have asked. The image works because of what incense physically does: it is sweet, it is expensive, and it goes up.

One use has nothing to do with worship at all. In the cargo list of goods the merchants can no longer sell, incense sits among cinnamon, myrrh, and frankincense (λίβανος) as a luxury import (Revelation 18:13). That verse is a useful reminder that this was traded, expensive material before it was ever a symbol of anything.

Nuances

1athe fragrant substance itself: blended incense as material that can be held, poured into a bowl, burned, or sold
TranslatabilityDirect
Rev 5:8Rev 8:3Rev 8:4Rev 18:13
1bthe incense offering: the act of burning it in the sanctuary, and the altar that takes its name from that act
Luk 1:10Luk 1:11

What scholars say about thumiama

BDAG divides the six New Testament occurrences into two senses: the aromatic substance itself (Rev 5:8; 8:3, 4; 18:13) and the act or offering of burning incense (Lk 1:10, with the genitive in 1:11 attached to the altar of incense). LSJ documents the same range in wider Greek, from the incense material to the offering made with it. The word regularly renders Hebrew qetoret in the Septuagint, and its cultic frame of reference is the prescribed compound of Exodus 30:34-38 burned morning and evening on the golden altar. Fitzmyer (Luke I-IX, Anchor Bible) treats the temporal phrase in Lk 1:10 as the hour of the incense offering, the daily rite during which the assembled people prayed outside the sanctuary, and identifies the altar of 1:11 as the golden altar of Exodus 30. On Rev 5:8 and 8:3-4, Beale (The Book of Revelation, NIGTC) notes the identification of the incense with the prayers of the saints and its dependence on Psalm 141:2, and discusses whether the angel's incense in 8:3 is added to the prayers or is itself the prayers; the majority reading takes the incense as accompanying and presenting them. The commercial occurrence in Rev 18:13 belongs to the Roman luxury-trade catalogue and is not cultic. EDNT treats the whole range as one lexeme differentiated by context rather than as homonyms.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. θυμίαμαlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. θυμίαμαlexicon
  • EDNT, s.v. θυμίαμαdictionary
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX (Anchor Bible)commentary
  • G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary)commentary

All attested forms of θυμίαμα

genitive n p

θυμιαμάτων

Rev 5:8, Rev 8:4

genitive n s

θυμιάματος

Luk 1:10, Luk 1:11

accusative n p

θυμιάματα

Rev 18:13

nominative n p

θυμιάματα

Rev 8:3