Honey In Religion

Honey In Religion


AMONG polytheistic nations (Varro counted 30,000 gods), sacrifices to the gods were a common practice. These oblational services consisted of prayers supplemented with gifts, to win the favor of the gods and to express gratitude for their bounty or to appease their anger and ward off their sinister influence; in a word, sacrifices to the gods were either thank offerings or sin offerings. The hunters sacrificed their prey, the farmers their fruit and harvest products or animals, like horses, bulls, sheep, etc. In some countries, occasionally even women and children were sacrificed.

We find that honey was universally used in consecratory rites when people wished to offer something especially holy and accept-able to a deity as an expression of thanksgiving, penitence or atonement. Sophocles in the fragment of the lost Polydos de-scribes the offerings, dear to the gods:
"Wool of the sheep was there, fruit of the vine, Libations and the treasured store of grapes. And manifold fruits were there, mingled with grain And oil of olive, and fair curious combs Of wax, compacted by the yellow bee."

To the ancient Germanic god, Neckar, there was yearly sacrificed a man, a sheep, a loaf of bread and a beehive.

Honey, the celestial food, collected from the "virtues" of flowers, was considered by all ancients the symbol of purity, love and wisdom. During the Leontic (inhabitants of an ancient Greek town in the province of Syracuse) initiation ceremonies honey was poured on the hands, instead of water, to keep them pure from everything that causes pain, harm or brings defilement. Honey was also thought to purify the tongue from every sin. St. Gregory (Pope, 590–604 A.D.), in Morals on the Book of Job (Vol. II, p. 185), remarked, "When the grace of the Holy Spirit bathes us, it fills us with honey and butter equally. Honey falls from above, butter is drawn from the milk of animals, so honey is from the air, butter from the flesh." In primitive baptism the neophyte drank a cup of milk and honey mixed; "the new-born in Christ" partook of the food of infants. St. Jerome mentions among the "unsanctioned rites" the cup of honey and milk. While honey was used in the early Christian services, by the end of the sixth century its use in the Roman church was discontinued. The Copts and Ethiopians, however, kept it up in their baptismal ceremonies. The wine used in Ethiopia for communion purposes is prepared from honey. Honey, in all probability, symbolized the Land of Promise. The fifth century book, Joseph and Arsenath, relates how the angel had eaten a piece of honeycomb and also put a piece into the mouth of Arsenath, exclaiming, "Now thou hast eaten the bread of life and hast drunk the cup of immortality and received the unction of incorruption." In Persia during the Mithraic feasts honey was used on the hands of the candidates as a cleansing substance instead of water. The Christians ate honey before fast-days, especially on Holy Thursday. On the eve of the Jewish New Year an apple dipped in honey was eaten; fruit and honey symbolized prosperity and peace.

Prehistoric man worshiped the sun, the most glorious object in Nature, as the supreme god, the giver and sustainer of all life. Only the most intellectual amongst the primitive races were sun-worshipers. Honey had a significant part in all their rituals. The Babylonians and Assyrians poured honey on the foundation-stones and walls of the temples. Nebuchadnezzar was a liberal user of honey. The priests anointed themselves with honey and placed some on the altars. At sunrise honey sacrifices were brought to the Sun-God. In one of the Magical papyri (Berlin), the worshiper is thus instructed: "Take honey with the milk, drink it before the rising of the sun, and there shall be in thy heart something that is divine." We find that the same custom existed among the Egyptians and among the Incas of Peru. The Hindus and Persians used honey in profusion during their religious services; they considered honey a sacred substance, a divine food, a cleanser and purifier.

Many rituals of the African tribes in Somaliland, Gallaland, and also of the Bushmen and Hottentots, even today, are intimately associated with honey. The Hottentots dance during full moon and pray for plenty of honey and milk. Their honey harvests are opened with religious ceremonies. No one is allowed to collect honey before a certain time. The priests taste the honey first and then they announce that everyone is permitted to collect his share. In medieval France pilgrimages were conducted to certain shrines to pray for an abundant honey harvest.

There are many evidences in ancient archives which prove the importance of bees and of their products, honey and wax, in the Christian religion. The Lorsch (Hessen, Germany)* manuscript in the Vatican library is an interesting example. It is a supplication to the Lord to protect the bees, these "dear animals," vihu mânaz. The huge bronze baldachin before the main altar of St. Peter's Church in Rome is studded with bees, likewise the tomb of Urban VIII. (Plate X.) The shape of the papal tiara was unquestionably derived from an old-fashioned beehive (skep). On the title-page picture of the German edition of De roomische byen-korf (Roman beehive), by Filips van Marnix, the papal tiara serves as a hive for the bees. One bee represents the pope (king bee), others function as cardinals, bishops and monks saying Mass and attending to burials and confessions. (Fig. 4.) According to a passage of the book, "our dear and loving mother, the holie church of Rome, ought not to scorn or disdaine that we do compare her customs and orders to a Bee-Hive, considering that shee herself doth compare the incomprehensible generation of the Sonne of God from his Father, together with his birth out of the pure and undefiled Virgine Marie unto the Bees; which were in verie deede a great blasphemie, if the bees were not of so great vertue, that by them wee might liken and compare the holie church of Rome. And, seeing, she saith, that God is delighted with the giftes and presentes of the bees, why should not shee herself exceedingly rejoyce with our Bee-Hive."