Hebrew Bible In the Bible, balsam is designated by various names: (
bosem), (
besem), (
tsari), נָטָף (
nataf), which all differ from the terms used in
rabbinic literature. After having cast
Joseph into a pit, his brothers noticed a caravan on its way from Gilead to Egypt, "with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and
myrrh" (
Gen. ). When
Jacob dispatched his embassy into Egypt, his present to the unknown ruler included "a little balm" (
Gen. ). During the final years of the
Kingdom of Judah,
Jeremiah asks "Is there no balm in Gilead?" (
Jer. 8:22). Still later, from an expression in
Ezekiel , balm was one of the commodities which Hebrew merchants carried to the market of
Tyre. According to
1 Kings 10:10, balsam (
Hebrew:
bosem) was among the many precious gifts of the
Queen of Sheba to
King Solomon.
Greco-Roman In the later days of Jewish history, the neighborhood of
Jericho was believed to be the only spot where the true balsam grew, and even there its culture was confined to two gardens, the one twenty acres in extent, the other much smaller (
Theophrastus). Pliny distinguishes three different species of this plant; the first with thin, capillaceous leaves; the second a crooked scabrous shrub; and the third with smooth rind and of taller growth than the two former. He tells us that, in general, the balsam plant, a shrub, has the nearest resemblance to the grapevine, and its mode of cultivation is almost the same. The leaves, however, more closely resemble those of the
rue, and the plant is an
evergreen. Its height does not exceed two
cubits. From slight incisions made very cautiously into the rind (
Josephus,
Ant. 14.4.1;
War 1.6.6) the balsam trickles in thin drops, which are collected with wool into a horn, and then preserved in new earthen jars. At first it is whitish and
pellucid, but afterwards it becomes harder and reddish. That is considered to be the best quality which trickles before the appearance of the fruit. Much inferior to this is the resin pressed from the seeds, the rind, and even from the stems (see
Theophrastus,
Hist. Plant. 9:6;
Strabo 16:763;
Pausanias 9.28.2). This description, which is not sufficiently characteristic of the plant itself, suits for the most part the Egyptian balsam-shrub found by
Belon in a garden near
Cairo. The plant, however, is not indigenous to Egypt, but the layers are brought there from
Arabia Felix;
Prosperus Alpinus has published a plate of it. (sharp bowel pains). In the era of
Galen, who flourished in the second century, and travelled to Palestine and Syria purposely to obtain a knowledge of this substance, it grew in Jericho and many other parts of the
Holy Land.
Rabbinic literature The terms used in rabbinic literature are different from those used in the Hebrew Bible: (
kataf), (
balsam), (
appobalsamon), and (
afarsemon). but its main use was as a
topical medication rather than as a cosmetic.
Rav Yehudah composed a special blessing for balsam: "Who creates the oil of our land". Young women used it as a perfume to seduce young men.
Arab The balsam, carried originally, says Arab tradition, from
Yemen by the
Queen of Sheba, as a gift to Solomon, and planted by him in the gardens of
Jericho, was brought to Egypt by
Cleopatra, and planted at
Ain-Shemesh (Ain Shams), in a garden which all the old travellers, Arab and Christian, mention with deep interest.
Prosper Alpinus relates that forty plants were brought by a governor of Cairo to the garden there, and ten remained when
Belon travelled in Egypt, but only one existed in the 18th century. By the 19th century, there appeared to be none.
Modern The German botanist
Schweinfurth (1836–1925) claimed to have reconstructed the ancient process of balsam production. ==Lexicon==