Aloes

Biblical Texts

Aloes appears four times in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament.

• Numbers 24:6: In his prophecy blessing Israel, Balaam likens the tents of Israel to "the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted."
• Psalm 45:8: In a psalm celebrating a royal wedding, the king is told, "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia."
• Proverbs 7:17: The adulterous woman who entices a young man says, "I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon."
• Song of Solomon 4:14: The bridegroom compares the bride to a garden full of precious spices and names aloes among them.
• John 19:39: Nicodemus brings "a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight," and with Joseph of Arimathea buries the body of Jesus.

Background

The Hebrew terms are ahalim and ahaloth, and the Greek term is aloē. The Sino-Korean name chimhyang (沈香) means "sinking fragrance," because wood saturated with resin is heavy enough to sink in water.

The aloes of the Old Testament is commonly identified with the agarwood tree of India and Southeast Asia. The resin-impregnated heartwood of this tree was used as perfume and incense. Because the tree did not grow in the land of Israel, it was probably imported through trade, and it is understood to have been a costly luxury.

Scholars nevertheless differ on exactly which plant the biblical aloes refers to. Some regard the "lign aloes" planted beside the waters in Numbers 24:6 as a poetic figure rather than a reference to an actual plant. The Septuagint is reported to have read the same consonants as "tents." As for the aloē of John's Gospel, some take it to be the same powdered aromatic wood as in the Old Testament, while others identify it with the aloe plant, whose juice was used medicinally.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

In the Old Testament, aloes is paired with other aromatics such as myrrh and cassia to express abundance, preciousness, and the joy of love. Proverbs 7 shows that the same spices could also serve as instruments of seduction.

The amount Nicodemus brought in John 19, calculated in Roman pounds, exceeds 30 kilograms (about 66 pounds). For this reason, many interpreters read the scene as an honor comparable to a royal burial. Because Hebrews 1:8-9 applies Psalm 45 to Christ, some interpreters also connect the fragrance of aloes in Psalm 45:8 with the burial of the crucified King. John 19:40 states that this was done "as the manner of the Jews is to bury." It is therefore distinct from Egyptian embalming, which was intended to preserve the body.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• Church tradition has read the list of spices in Song of Solomon 4:14 as an allegory of the relationship between Christ and the Church. More recently, interpretations that read the text primarily as a song of love between a man and a woman have also gained wide acceptance.
• The Magi are sometimes said, through conflation, to have offered aloes. However, the gifts recorded in Matthew 2:11 are gold, frankincense, and myrrh; aloes is not among them.