Gifts Fit for a King

CROSSING THE ARABIAN DESERT

In Bible times, some spice plants grew in the Jordan Valley. Other spices, however, had to be imported. A variety of spice products are mentioned in the Bible. Among the more familiar are saffron, aloe, balsam, cinnamon, frankincense, and myrrh. Besides these, there were the common food condiments such as cumin, mint, and dill. 

Where did the exotic spices come from?  Aloes, cassia, and cinnamon were found in what is today China, India, and Sri Lanka.  Spices such as myrrh and frankincense came from trees and bushes that grew in desert areas stretching from southern Arabia to Somalia in Africa. And nard, or spikenard, was an exclusive Indian product from the Himalayas. 

To read Israel, many spices had to be transported across Arabia. Partly as a result of this, during the second and first millennia B.C.E., Arabia because "the great monopolistic carrier of goods between East and West," explains  The Book of Spices Ancient towns, fortresses, and caravan stops found in the Negeve of southern Israel mark the routes of spice traders.  These settlements also  "reflect the hugely profitable trade . . .from south Arabia to the Mediterranean," reports the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO.

Caravans laden with these aromatic spices  regularly traveled distances of some 1,100 miles (1,800 km) across Arabia (Job 6:19) The Bible refers to a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants carrying such spices as "labdanum gum, balsam, and resinous bark" from Gilead to Egypt.  (Genesis 37:25) Jacob's sons sold their brother Joseph as a slave to these traders.  

Next time: Gifts Fit for a King- "THE BEST-KEPT SECRET OF ALL TIME" 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2015