Altar of Incense

Biblical Text

The altar of incense was a small altar in the holy place of the tabernacle on which incense was burned. The New Korean Revised Version refers to it as "the altar for burning incense" (Exodus 30:1), "the incense altar," and "the golden incense altar" (Exodus 40:5); the King James Version calls it "an altar to burn incense upon" (Exodus 30:1) and "the altar of gold for the incense" (Exodus 40:5). The instructions for making it appear in Exodus 30:1-10, and the account of its construction by Bezalel appears in 37:25-29.

• Materials and dimensions: It was made of shittim (acacia) wood, one cubit long, one cubit wide, and two cubits high. Horns projected from its four corners, and the whole was overlaid with pure gold. It had a crown (molding) of gold and rings through which staves were inserted for carrying it.
• Location: It was placed before the veil that screened off the Most Holy Place, opposite the mercy seat above the ark of the testimony (Exodus 30:6). It stood in the holy place together with the table of showbread and the lampstand.
• Use: Aaron burned incense on it when he dressed the lamps in the morning and when he lit them in the evening, so that the incense would be perpetual (30:7-8). Burning "strange incense" other than the prescribed incense, or offering a burnt sacrifice, meat offering, or drink offering on it, was forbidden. Once a year atonement was made upon its horns with the blood of the sin offering (30:9-10). The ingredients and formula for the incense are set out separately in 30:34-38.

Background

The name means "the altar for burning incense." The Hebrew text calls it an "altar" (mizbeach), and it is also called the "golden altar" to distinguish it from the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle court. Unlike the altar of burnt offering, on which animals were burned as sacrifices, the altar of incense was used for incense alone.

Leviticus 4:7 prescribes that the blood of the sin offering be put on the horns of the altar of incense. The temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon also contained an altar overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:20-22; 7:48). The incident in which King Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense and was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:16-21) shows that offering incense was a duty entrusted to the priests.

Significance Across Scripture

Scripture associates incense with prayer. Psalm 141:2 says, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense."

In the New Testament the altar of incense appears in Luke 1:8-11. While Zechariah was burning incense in the temple, the people were praying outside, and an angel appeared on the right side of the altar of incense. Revelation depicts the smoke of incense ascending before God with the prayers of the saints from the golden altar before the heavenly throne (Revelation 8:3-4). Revelation 5:8 likewise speaks of "golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints."

Interpretation and Debated Points

• Prayer and a type of Christ: Many Protestant commentators read the altar of incense as a symbol of the prayers of the saints. Some go further and see it as a type of Jesus Christ, who intercedes before God (compare Hebrews 7:25). Interpretations that assign symbolic meaning to each dimension or material, however, go beyond what the text directly states, and some criticize them as excessive allegory.
• The problem of Hebrews 9:4: Hebrews 9:4 states that the Most Holy Place had "the golden censer." Interpreters differ over whether this refers to a censer or to the altar of incense, and they also discuss how to reconcile the verse with the statement in Exodus that the altar of incense stood in the holy place. Two views are representative. One holds that the altar of incense functionally belonged to the Most Holy Place (compare 1 Kings 6:22). The other holds that the reference is to the censer used on the Day of Atonement.
• Distinction from the Day of Atonement censer: On the Day of Atonement the high priest took fire from the altar of burnt offering in a censer, entered the Most Holy Place, and burned incense there (Leviticus 16:12-13). The text records this rite as using a separate censer rather than the altar of incense.
• Incense in worship: The Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and some Anglican traditions burn incense in worship and explain it as a symbol of prayer. Most Protestant churches do not use incense in worship, holding that the Old Testament rituals have been fulfilled in Christ.

In the Korean Church

In sermons and Bible studies on the tabernacle, the altar of incense is commonly presented as the furnishing that represents prayer. The incense that burned without ceasing morning and evening serves as a sermon illustration encouraging persistent prayer, and it is sometimes mentioned in connection with early-morning prayer meetings.