2) Why design the perfume?

But firstly why would someone so great as the Creator wish to patent an ointment and a perfume? Perhaps the answer to this question may be clearer if we knew why he designed them in the first place. Usually a designer designs something in response to a perceived purpose. People very rarely do things with no purpose, and to go to the effort there is usually a desired outcome. Even a painter will have a purpose in painting: to tell a story, convey an emotion or a landscape or just to decorate a wall. To design a fragrant oil or a perfume indicates the designer was thinking of making a special scent or odour, in fact, something to be smelt. Perfumes for humans have a twofold purpose. Firstly they disguise body odour or household odour and secondly they are meant to be attractive or pleasant to other humans.

The fragrant ointment is to be put on the furniture of the Tabernacle firstly and then, only ceremonially, on Aaron and his sons, the priests. It was not to be placed on human flesh. The perfume also was not to be worn. It was to be “put before the testimony”. It was to be cut small and burnt. For this perfume is in fact the incense, as both are the same word in Hebrew, qeṭôreth; meaning a fumigation from qâṭar to smoke, that is, turn into fragrance by fire. This perfume was burnt on the altar of incense before the Most Holy when the High Priest trimmed the lamps, both morning and evening.

Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. (Exodus 30:7-8 KJV)

This perfume, as it was not to be worn, was probably primarily therefore not about disguising human odour, though, in fact, it would do this, quite effectively. There is some scriptural evidence there is validity in the idea the scent was also to disguise human sweat odour as a secondary purpose. The word for 'sweat' is very rarely mentioned in the scriptures. The two occurrences below are revealing. It seems sweat was a result of curse placed on Adam.

(Gen 3:19 KJV) In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Therefore sweat is associated with sin. The second occurrence indicates that in the ideal worship in the future temple that those that come near to Yahweh will not wear garments to cause sweat. (As an aside this is an interesting detail, as it shows they will be capable of sweating, or have the same physical make up as we do in this dispensation).

But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:

And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.

They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat....Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.(Eze 44:15-20 KJV)

It is to be noted short hair is the best option for reducing sweat also. These two occurrences seem to suggest Yahweh does not appreciate sweat in his service. The garments of the priesthood are lightweight linen. The idea of fine white linen being a symbol of righteousness is a good reason why the priests would wear white linen. In fact they wear blue linen as well as white, but it is likely this was a pale blue. However the beauty of this is that light coloured linen is the best for being the coolest in a warm temperate climate to reduce sweating. White linen garments are both a symbol of righteousness and will reduce sweating.

Smell, fragrance and washing

Which brings us to the reason why the Israelites had to wash. The ritual of washing was a symbolic cleansing related to righteousness.

Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD: (Exo 30:18-20 KJV)

We are in the habit of thinking the laver in the forecourt for washing feet is a symbolic washing related to the 'walk' or way of righteousness and the washed hands symbolic of the acts of righteousness. Job's and David's writings confirm this understanding.

If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. (Job 9:30-31 KJV)

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (Psa 51:2 KJV)

Isaiah confirms the connection between a physical act and the spiritual equivalent.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; (Isa 1:16 KJV)

However, it is clear that the laver is not only just for washing the hands and feet. When Aaron was to make the sin offering of atonement he had to wash all his body or flesh or in water, before putting on his garments.

Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. (Leviticus 16: 3-5).

We see Yahweh's desire for cleanliness on the part of His people in many aspects of the law. It is part of the ritual of the approach of the Levites to the service.

Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. (Num 8:6-7 KJV)

Washing was also part of the concept of separation of the clean from the unclean.

Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath; The soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his flesh with water. And when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things; because it is his food. (Lev 22:5-7 KJV)

In effect everyone who worked in the fields would need to wash, actions such as rescuing a donkey would lead to the need to have a bath before one approached the service of Yahweh. This may be thought of as ritual but there is another facet to this which is explained by the Law.

If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp: But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again. Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. (Deu 23:10-14 KJV)

The practice of burying human waste is still regarded as the most healthy practice in terms of disease control, but it is most effective in reducing foul smells in the camp where Yahweh walks. The most interesting comment is the last sentence. It says the reason why Yahweh enforces this rule is because he does not like to see human waste. It of all things is the symbol of decay. The point that also emerges is that in the process of decay human waste would also have an unpleasant smell. So it may be surmised that Yahweh is interested in covering the smell of decay, and the smell of humanity and in the separation that went with His worship there was to be no reminder of this decay, in any form, including the smell of sweat. In the service of Yahweh the washing both established a ritual method of demonstrating separation and removed the distinctive smell of human sweat. But there is more.

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