Cassia

Our translators have rendered two distinct Hebrew words by this term. One of these (Ketzioth) is mentioned in three places (Exo 30:24; Eze 27:19; and in Psa 45:8), in conjunction with myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, and ahalim, or eagle-wood. All these are aromatic substances, and, with the exception of myrrh, which is obtained from Africa, are products of India and its islands. It is probable, therefore, that ketziothis of a similar nature, and obtained from the same countries. It is supposed, however, that the substance referred to is not cassia; but it will be preferable to treat of the whole subject in connection with cinnamon [CINNAMON].

The other word rendered cassia in our Authorized Version is kiddah. It occurs first in Exo 30:24, where cassia (kiddah) is mentioned in connection with olive oil, pure myrrh, sweet cinnamon, and sweet calamus; secondly, in Eze 27:19, where Dan and Javan are described as bringing bright iron, cassia (kiddah), and calamus to the markets of Tyre. There is no reason why the substance now called cassia might not have been imported from the shores of India into Egypt and Palestine. The Arabian Koost (Aucklandia Costus), known in Calcutta by the name of Puchuk, an aromatic substance exported in large quantities from Cashmere into the Punjab, whence it finds its way to Bombay and Calcutta, for export to China, where it is highly valued as one of the ingredients in the incense which the Chinese burn in their temples and private houses.

The bark of an odoriferous tree, from which came one ingredient of the holy oil or ointment, Exo 30:24 ; Psa 45:8 ; Eze 27:19 .\par

Cassia. Exo 30:24; Eze 27:19. The cassia bark of commerce is yielded by various kinds of Cinnamomum, which grow in different parts of India. The Hebrew word in Psa 45:8, is generally supposed to be another term for cassia.

An ingredient in the holy oil used in anointing the high priest (Exo 30:24). An article of Tyre’s merchandise (Eze 27:19). The inner bark of an aromatic plant, like cinnamon. Quddah, from qaadad "to split," namely, the stalks. Also Qetsi’owt from qaatsah, to "scrape off" bark. Used in scenting garments (Psa 45:8).

is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of two Hebrews words.

1. KIDDAH´, קִדָּה, mentioned in Exo 30:24 (Sept. ϊvρις) among the ingredients of the holy oil of anointing, and in Eze 27:19 (Sept. σπαρτίον) as one of the artidles of merchandise in the markets of Tyre. The Sept. (in one passage) and Josephus (Ant. 3:8, 3) have iris, i.e. some species of flag, perhaps the Iris florentina, which has an aromatic root- stock. Symmachus and the Vulg. (in one place) read stacte, "liquid myrrh." The Arabic versions of Saadias and Erpenius conjecture costus (see below). The Chaldee and Syriac, with most of the European versions, followed by Gesenius, Simon, Fürst, Lee, and all the lexicographers, understand the Arabian cassia, or cassiabark, a species of aromatic cortical, resembling cinnamon, but less fragrant and valuable; so called from its rolls being split (from קָדִד, to cleave). See Dioscor. 1:12; Theophr. Hist. Plant. 9:5; Celsius, Hierob. 2:186, 350 sq.d

2. KETSIAH´, קְצִיעָה, named only in the plural in Psa 45:8 (Sept. κασία, Vulg. casia), in connection with myrrh and aloes, as being used to scent garments with. The word comes from the root קָצִוֹ, to abrade, and appears to refer to the peeled bark of some species of cinnamon, perhaps differing in this from the preceding only as designating some oil or prepared aromatic, of which that denotes the raw material (see Celsii Hierob. 2:360). SEE AROMATICS.

Under the name cassia (which appears to be identical with this last Hebrews term) the ancients designated an aromatic bark derived from the East, and employed as an ingredient in costly unguents (Theophr. Plant. 9:7; Pliny, 12:43; Dioscor. 1:12; Diod. Sic. 3:46; Athen. 10:449; Plant. Curcul. 1:2, 7; Virg. Geo. 2:466; Martial, 6:55, 1; 10:97, 2; Pers. Sat. 2:64; 1:36). It was obtained from a tree or shrub growing in India and Austria (Herod. 3:110; Diod. Sic. l. c.; Agatharch. in Hudson, 1:61; Arrian, Alex. 7:20; but see Pliny, 12:41), which Pliny (13:43) more closely, but still not adequately describes, and which Columella (3:8) saw in Roman fancy gardens. It is clear that the Latin writers by the term casia understood both the Oriental product now under consideration, as well as some low, sweet herbaceous plant, perhaps the Daphne gnidium, Linn. (see Fee, Flore de Virgile, p. 32, and Du Molin, Flor. Poet. Ancienne, p. 277); but the Greek word, which is first used by Herodotus (2:86), who says (3:110) the Arabians procured it from a shallow lake in their country, is limited to the Eastern product. Dioscorides (l. c.) and Galen enumerate three better sorts of cassia, and there are still in Europe held to be different kinds, but they all are distinguished from the true cinnamon-tree by their darker color, weaker odor, and less lively taste. The tree from which the bark is produced is regarded by naturalists as the Laurus cassia (Linn.), that flourishes in the East Indies and Malatia (Ainslie, Mater. Med. 1:58 sq.); yet the brothers Nees von Esenbeck (De cinnamomo disputat. Bonn, 1823, in the Botan. Zeitung, 1831, No. 34) have shown that this plant (the Laurus cassia) is not a distinct species, but only a wild or original form of the cinnamomum Ceylonicum or Zeylanicum. See the Penny Cyclopaedia, s.v. Cassia; Laurus.

The name Cassia has been applied by botanists to a genus containing the plants yielding senna, and to others, as the Cassia fistula, which have nothing to do with the original cassia. "Cassia-buds," again, though no doubt produced by a plant belonging to the same, or to some genus allied to that producing cinnamon and cassia, were probably not known in commerce at so early a period as the two latter substances. Dr. Royle, in his Antiquity of Hindoo Mledicine, p. 84, has remarked, "The cassia of the ancients it is not easy to determine; that of commerce, Mr. Marshall says, consists of only the inferior kinds of cinnamon. Some consider cassia to be distinguished from cinnamon by the outer cellular covering of the bark being scraped off the latter, but allowed to remain on the former. This is, however, the characteristic of the (Cochin-Chinese) Cinnamomum aromaticum, as we are informed by Mr. Crawford (Embassy to Siam, p. 470) that it is not cured, like that of Ceylon, by freeing it from the epidermis." There is no doubt that some cassia is produced on the coast of Malabar. The name also would appear to be of Eastern origin, as kasse koronde is one kind of cinnamon, mentioned by Burmann in his Flora Zeylonica.

The Hebrews word ketsiah, however, has a strong resemblance to the kooth and koost of the Arabs, of which Kooshta is said by their authors to be the Syriac name, and from which there is little doubt that the κόστος of the Greeks and costus of the Latins are derived. Κόστος is enumerated by Theophrastus (Hist. Pl. 9:7) among the fragrant substances employed in making ointment. Three kinds of it are described by Dioscorides among his Aromata (1:15), of which the Arabian is said to be the best, the Indian to hold the second place, and the Syrian the third. An inferior kind is termed by him κιττώ (1:12), a word which has a strong resemblance to the Hebrews kiddah above. Pliny mentions only two kinds (15:12), the white and the black, brought from India. The Persian writers on Materia Medica in use in India, in giving the above synonymes, evidently refer to two of the three kinds of Costus described by Dioscorides, one being called Koost Hindee, and the other Koost Arabee. Both these kinds are found in the bazaars of India, and the koot or koost of the natives is often, by European merchants, called Indian orris, i.e. Iris root, the odor of which it somewhat resembles. The same article is known in Calcutta as Puchuk, the name under which it is exported to China. The identity of the substance indicated by these various names was long ago ascertained by Garcias. The koost obtained in the northwestern provinces of India is one of the substances brought across the Indus from Lahore (Royle, Illust. Hima. Bot. p. 360). Dr. Falconer, on his journey to Cashmere, discovered that it was exported from that valley in large quantities into the Punjab, whence it finds its way to Bombay (as in the time of Pliny to Patala) and Calcutta for export to China, where it is highly valued as one of the ingrelients in the incense which the Chinese burn in their temples and private houses. He named the species Aucklandia Costus (Linn. Trans. 19:23) (see Smith’s Dict. of Class. Ant. Am. ed., s.v. Cassia; Costum). SEE CINNAMON.

Cassia. Exo 30:24. The bark of a tree like the cinnamon, and one of the ingredients of the holy anointing oil. It was brought from India by the Tyrians. The Hebrew refers, in Psa 45:8, to another kind of spice, remarkable for its fragrance, but not yet identified.

The bark of an aromatic plant resembling, cinnamon, the Arabian cassia. It was used in the holy anointing oil; and, with myrrh and aloes, will perfume the garments of Christ as King. It was one of the articles of merchandise of Tyre. Exo 30:24; Psa 45:8; Eze 27:19.

By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Gerson B. Levi

The term given as the translation for "ḳiddah" (Ex. xxx. 24; Ezek. xxvii. 19) and "ḳeẓi'ot" (Ps. xlv. 9). Ancient commentators agree in identifying the two. Onkelos to Ex. xxx. 24 renders "ḳiddah" by "ḳeẓi'ah"; Rashi does the same. Cassia belongs to the cinnamon group and resembles the ordinary species, though its fragrance is fainter. It is indigenous to Eastern countries, and in Biblical times was used along with myrrh and aloes both as a perfume (Ps. xlv. 9) and as an ingredient of the anointing-oil (Ex. xxx. 24). It formed one of the many commodities in which Tyre traded (Ezek. xxvii. 19).

CASSIA.—1. qiddah. Exo 30:24, Eze 27:19. 2. qetsi‘ôth, Psa 45:8. Both these words apparently refer to some kind of cassia wood. The cassia bark from the Cinnamomum cassia is very similar in smell and properties to Cinnamon (wh. see).

E. W. G. Masterman.

kash´a: Two Hebrew words, (1) קדּה, ḳiddāh, which is mentioned, along with myrrh, cinnamon, calamus and olive oil, as one of the ingredients of the “holy anointing oil” (Exo 30:24); it was, too, one of the wares in which Vedan and Javan traded with Tyre (Eze 27:19); it is identified in the Peshitta and the Targum with (2). (2) קציעות, ḳ^ecı̄‛ōth (plural only, probably referring to the strips of bark), a word from which is derived the Greek κασία, kası́a, and hence, cassia (Psa 45:8). It is probable that both (1) and (2) refer to Cassia lignea, the inner bark of Cinnamomum cassia, a plant growing in eastern Asia closely allied to that which yields the cinnamon of commerce. It is a fragrant, aromatic bark and was probably used in a powdered form. Both as an ingredient in unguents and as one of the perfumes at funerals, cassia, like cinnamon, was much used by the Romans. The cassia of Scripture must be clearly distinguished from the entirely distinct Cassia lanceolata and C. obovata which yield the familiar senna. The proper name KEZIAH (which see) is the singular form of ḳ^ecı̄‛ōtȟ.

Psa 45:8 (c) This tells of the sweet worship and adoration which proceeds from the lips of GOD’s people (probably the ivory palaces), to the praise and the glory of the Lord JESUS.

The fragrant dried flowers of the

ancient cinnamon tree that were used in

anointing oil and as perfume.

A type of tree that grows in tropical Asia. The bark of cassia is used as a spice that tastes similar to cinnamon but is not as high quality.

The "cassia" mentioned in the Bible comes from the cassia bark tree (Cinnamomum cassia). It is one of the ingredients used in holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:24). It was also a valuable trade item (Ezekiel 27:19). comes from the cassia bark tree (Cinnamomum cassia).

In Psalm 45:8, the reference seems to be to a different plant called Indian orris (Saussurea lappa).

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