Onycha
ONYCHA
An ingredient of the sacred incense, whose fragrance perfumed the sanctuary alone, Exo 30:34 . It is conjectured to mean the Blatta Bryzantina of the shops; an article which consists of the cover or lid of a species of muscle, and when burnt emits a musky odor. The best onycha is found in the Red Sea, and is white and large.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Onycha
Onycha. A dark brown gum resin which was obtained from the stem and leaves of a species of the rockrose, also known as ladanum. Onycha was used as an ingredient in the holy anointing oil ( Exo 30:34). It was highly valued for its fragrance and medicinal qualities.
The rockrose was a bush growing to a height of about one meter (three feet) and having large white flowers measuring eight centimeters (three inches) across. Some scholars believe the substance referred to as myrrh in ( Gen 37:25) and ( Gen 43:11) was onycha.
Fuente: Plants Animals Of Bible
Onycha
a modified form of the Greek , a finger-nail, is used in the A.V. for the Heb. , sheche’leth (prop. a shell, from a root signifying to scale or peel off), which occurs only in Exo 30:34 (Sept. ; Vulg. onyx) as one of the ingredients of the sacred perfume. Similarly in Sir 24:15, wisdom is compared to the pleasant odor yielded by galbanum, onyx, and sweet storax. Most versions, Hebrew interpreters and Talmudists, understand the Unguis odoratus, the well-known Constantinople sweet-hoof’ (Blatta Byzantina) of the shops. It consists of the shells of several kinds of muscles, which when burned produce a scent similar to that of the castoreum. (See passages of Arabic and other authors in Bochart, Hieroz. 3:796 sq.) There can be little doubt that the of Dioscorides (2:10) and the onyx of Pliny (32:10) are identical with the operculum of a Strombus, perhaps S. lenztiginosus. There is frequent mention of the onyx in the writings of Arabian authors, and it would appear from them that the operculum of several kinds of Strombus were prized as perfumes. The following is Dioscorides’s description of the : The onyx is the operculum of a shell-fish resembling the purpura, which is found in India in the nard-producing lakes; it is odorous, because the shell- fish feed on the nard, and is collected after the heat has dried up the marshes: that is the best kind which comes from the Red Sea, and is whitish and shining; the Babylonian kind is dark, and. smaller than the other; both have a sweet odor when burned, something like castoreum. It is not easy to see what Dioscorides can mean by nard-producing lakes.
The , nail, or claw, seems to point to the operculum of the Strombid, which is of a claw shape and serrated, whence the Arabs call the mollusk the devil’s claw; for Unguis odoratus, or Blatta Byzantina for under both these terms apparently the devil-claw (Teufelsklau of the Germans) is alluded to in old English writers on Materia Medica has by some been supposed no longer to exist. Dr. Lister laments its loss, believing it to have been a good medicine, from its strong aromatic smell. Dr. Gray,; of the British Museum, says that the opercula of the different kinds of Strombidae agree with the figures of Blatta Byzantina and Unguis odoratus in the old books; with regard to the odor he writes, The horny opercula when burned all emit an odor which some may call sweet, according to their fancy. Mr. Daniel Hanbury procured some specimens in Damascus in October (1860), and a friend of his bought some in Alexandria a few months previously. The article appears to be always mixed with the opercula of some species of Fusus. As regards the perfume ascribed to this substance, it does not appear to deserve the character of the excellent odor which has been attributed to it, though it is not without an aromatic scent. See a figure of the true Blatta Byzantina in Matthiolus’s Comment. In Dioscor. (2:8), where there is a long discussion on the subject; also a fig. of B. Byzant. and the operculum of Fusus in Pomet’s Histoire des Drogues (1694, pt. ii, p. 97). Mansfield Parkyns, writes Mr. Hanbury, in his Life in Abyssinia (1:419), mentions among the exports from Massowah a certain article called dufu, which he states is the operculum of a shell, and that it is used in Nubia as a perfume, being burned with sandal-wood.
Without this authority of the ancient versions, the Syriac etymology of the word, namely, to run in drops, exude, distil, would lead to the idea of a resinous and odoriferous substance of the vegetable kingdom. Accordingly Bochart (l. c.) would refer the word to a kind of resin called bdellium, a transparent aromatic gum found in Arabia; while Jarchi explains it of a smooth root, resembling a nail. Bahr gives the preference to this view (Symbol. 1:422), on the ground that the odor of the burned shells is not pleasant. But this is not a sufficient reason for rejecting the common explanation, as its properties might be essentially modified by mixture with other aromatic substances. Whatever is meant by the sea-nail, whether the shells or the operculum of any of the marine mollusca, the scale-like covering of their eggs, or any other production or part of an animal, it seems improbable that any such substance could have been one of the constituent spices of the most holy perfume; not only because we know of none bearing any powerful and agreeable odor, but specially because all marine creatures that were not finned and scaled fishes were unclean, and as such could not have been touched by the priests or used in the sanctuary. If, therefore, the substance denoted were of such an origin, it could only have been used by the Hebrews in ignorance of the fact. For further information on this subject, see Rumph, Amiboinische Rar-itdten- Kamnme,- cap. xvii, p. 48 (the German ed. Vienna, 1766); and comp. also Sprengel, Comm-enf. ad Dioscor. 2:10; Forskal, Desc. A sinm. p. 143 (Unguis odoratus); Philos. Transactions, 17:641; Johnston, Introd. to Conchol. p. 77; Gesennius, Thesaur. p. 1388.,
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Onycha
a nail; claw; hoof, (Heb. sheheleth; Ex. 30:34), a Latin word applied to the operculum, i.e., the claw or nail of the strombus or wing-shell, a univalve common in the Red Sea. The opercula of these shell-fish when burned emit a strong odour “like castoreum.” This was an ingredient in the sacred incense.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Onycha
An ingredient of the anointing unguent (Exo 30:34). Shechecleth means literally, “a shell or scale”, the horny cap of a shell. The operculum or “cover” of the strombus or “wing shell”, which abounds in the Red Sea, is employed in compounding perfume, and was the medicine named blatta Byzantina or unguis odoratus in the middle ages. Pliny (H. N. 32:46) and Dioscorides (Matthew Med. 2:11) mention a “shell”, onyx, “both a perfume and a medicine”; “odorous because the shell fish feed on the nard, and collected when the heat dries up the marshes; the best kind is from the Red Sea, whitish and shining; the Babylonian is darker and smaller; both have a sweet odor when burnt, like castoreum.” The onyx “nail” refers to the clawlike shape of the operculum of the strombus genus; the Arabs call this mollusk “devil’s claw.” Shell fish were unclean; hence, Gosse conjectures a gum resin.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Onycha
ONYCHA (shchleth, Exo 30:34).One of the ingredients of the sacred composition which gave a sweet smell when burned (cf. Sir 24:15, where apparently the same substance is referred to as onyx). Onycha was obtained from the claw-like [hence the name from Gr. onyx nail] operculum of some mollusc of the genus strombus. A similar product is still used in Upper Egypt for fumigations.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Onycha
oni-ka (, sheheleth; compare Arabic suhalat, filings, husks): Onycha is a transliteration of the Septuagint , onucha, accusative of , onux, which means nail, claw, hoof, and also onyx, a precious stone. The form onycha was perhaps chosen to avoid confusion with onyx, the stone. The Hebrew sheheleth occurs only in Exo 30:34 as an ingredient of the sacred incense. It is supposed to denote the horny operculum found in certain species of marine gasteropod molluscs. The operculum is a disk attached to the upper side of the hinder part of the foot of the mollusc. When the animal draws itself into its shell, the hinder part of the foot comes last, and the operculum closes the mouth of the shell. The operculum, which may be horny or stony, is absent in some species. The horny opercula when burned emit a peculiar odor, and are still used in combination with other perfumes by the Arab women of Upper Egypt and Nubia. (See Sir S. Baker, The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, cited by EB, under the word Onycha.)
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Onycha
One of the ingredients of the holy ‘perfume’ which was burnt as incense. Exo 30:34. The Hebrew is shecheleth; onycha is from the Greek , ‘nail or claw,’ and it is supposed to refer to the operculum or claw of one or more species of the Strombus , a shell fish: the claw gave a sweet odour when burnt.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Onycha
A component of the sacred ointment, made from the shells of a species of mussel, possessing an odor.
Exo 30:34
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Onycha
Onycha. Spoken of in Exo 30:34, was one of the ingredients, of the sacred perfume. It consists of the shells of several kinds of mussels, which, when burned, emit a strong odor.