On Incense

A few days ago I posted something on incense. But because of differences between the computers I was using the spacing was hoorible and the post was impossible to read. I deleted it.

I am trying again, now. As I said then, this paper is part of a very large book I give out to the men my friend Jeff brings to Holy Trinity Cathedral each year. (Jeff is a pastor at an Evangelical Free Church in the East Bay and once a year he takes a handful of men through a year of intense Bible study and a tour of other churches.) Below is the paper.

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On Incense

By Matt Karnes



Occasionally, a Protestant friend will ask me why we Orthodox Christians burn incense. Of all the questions I have been asked by my Protestant friends this is the most puzzling one. I mean burning incense to worship God is straight out of the Bible!
Of course, Orthodox Christians do not play liturgical archaeology, trying to figure out what the early Church did so we can copy them. We just do what we have received, trusting the Holy Spirit to keep our dogma and practice right. But for a Protestant, who is usually interested in doing what the early Church did, and is always interested in doing what the Bible says ought to be done, incense ought to be a no-brainer. There are three lines of complementary reasoning. Let’s look at the evidence.


I. Old Testament History and Prophecy
When God gave Moses instructions for building the Tabernacle (Exodus chs. 30,39, & 40) he said there would be a special altar for burning incense and that incense would burn on that altar forever. But we know that Israel failed to burn this incense. When King Hezekiah began to reign he said to the priests and Levites…

“…our fathers have trespassed, and done [that which was] evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned [their] backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy [place] unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.” (2 Chronicles 29:6-8)

But failure to burn incense to the God was not Israel’s only sin in regards to incense. Beginning in the reign of Solomon they offered incense to idols. Solomon’s error began when he irregularly burnt incense to God in high places instead of in front of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Kings 3:3) and degenerated into burning incense to false gods. (1 Kings 11:6-8). And for the next several hundred years, except for during a few short-lived revivals such as under King Hezekiah, the people of Israel and Judah consistently worshiped false gods by burning incense to them. And God sent his prophets to warn them.
“Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.” (Isaiah 65:7)

“And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.” (Jeremiah 1:16)

“Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For [according to] the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and [according to] the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to [that] shameful thing, [even] altars to burn incense unto Baal…For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.” (Jeremiah 11:12-13,17)

But not only did they offer incense to idols, they offered God’s incense to idols. In describing their spiritual adultery God said to the holy prophet Ezekiel:

“…they have committed adultery, and blood [is] in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through [the fire], to devour [them]. Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger [was] sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.” (Ezekiel 23:37-41)

Did you notice where God stopped talking to the Prophet and started talking directly to his people? The switch happened when God began describing how they committed their adultery with His incense and His oil. It is as though God became so angry at the misuse of things involved in His worship, even angrier than he was because of child sacrifice, that he had to “cut out the middle man” and speak directly to the adulteress.
And God was so disgusted by all of it that he said “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” (Isaiah 1:13) He was sick of Israel’s false piety. He was nauseated by the smell of their hypocritical incense. And he sent Nebuchadnezzar against them to enslave them and destroy the Temple, and incense was no longer offered to the LORD.
Eventually, God allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple. And incense was again offered to the LORD in Zion. But even after the return from exile, the Jews did not regard the worship of God correctly. And God revealed something amazing to the prophet Malachi.
No, he didn’t reveal a time when incense would not be offered. He never had a problem with incense being offered by his worshipers. He was only angered when incense was not offered, when incense was offered to false gods, when His holy incense was defiled, or when people offered incense hypocritically. He never indicated that the incense offerings should stop. Rather, God gave every indication in the Old testament that incense should continue.
What God revealed to Malachi was that a time was coming when God would no longer accept offerings from the hands of the Jews. And instead of incense being burned only in Jerusalem it would be offered around the world.

“For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great among the gentiles, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11)

The Orthodox hold that we are the fulfillment of this prophecy. Not only has God stopped the offering of incense by the Jews, but from the Sun’s rising to its going down, that is, from east to west, all around the world the gentiles are offering incense to the LORD.

II. The New Testament and the Early History of the Church
II. The New Testament and the Early History of the Church
From Matthew to Revelation the New Testamant shows that incense is used to worship God.
The Gospel of Matthew records the first gifts given to Jesus. These gifts, as everyone knows, included incense. This makes complete sense given that in ancient cultures gods were worshiped with offerings of incense. Thus the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 1:11 began with the Magi who worshiped Jesus.
In the Book of Revelation, which the Orthodox look to as more of an instruction manual for worship than as an omen of things to come, one reads of John seeing an angel burning incense before the throne of God, and of an angel throwing a burning censer to earth.
In between the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Revelation lies the rest of the New Testament. And, not surprisingly, it does not contain a command from Jesus or any of the Apostles that can be interpreted as a command to stop burning incense to God. On the contrary, we know that the Apostles continued to worship at the Temple, where incense was continuously being offered to God. That seems to be all there is to it. But is it really? What about St. Stephen and the other deacons?
When thinking about Stephen there seem to be two things to consider. First is the Iconography. The Iconography of the Orthodox Church follows certain rules. The most important of which is, only paint what others before you have painted. This is important because we know that Stephen burned incense before the Lord from the Icons. Every extant Icon of him shows him holding a censer. Now why should this matter? Because the Orthodox regard innovation with great suspicion. The last thing an Orthodox Christian, especially an Iconographer, would want to be called is an innovator. If, say, in the 12th century icons suddenly appeared showing Stephen with a censer in his hand when hitherto Icons showed no censer there would have been riots. There would have been councils called. Iconographers would have been anathematized. Bishop would have been deposed. But there is no record of any such disturbance.
The second part about Stephen and the other deacons is the very name deacon. If we look at the description of angels as ministering spirits in Hebrews 1:14 we will see why this matters. Here is the text arranged inter-linearly (Greek text in root form):

Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to
eisi ouchi pas leitourgikos pneuma apostello eis


minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
diakonia dia mello kleronomeo soteria?


Two of the four words used to describe angels are liturgy and deacon. And what is the Orthodox deacon’s main liturgical role? It is to offer incense and prayers to God. What is the liturgical role of the angel in Revelation 8: 3-5? It is to offer prayer and incense to God. In this, at least, the angel and the deacons share their work.
And this explains why so many Christians before A.D. 318 went to the deaths rather than burn a pinch of frankincense before a stature of the Roman emperor. They knew from Scripture and from watching their deacons in Church that incense is only to be burned to God.
Here, I think I should mention the argument made by some protestant anti-Catholic polemicists. It has been said by some of them that there is no reference to incense in Christian worship prior the the 5th century. I do not know how to answer this except to say that, perhaps, this is a case of confusion coming about because the Liturgy of St. Pope Gregory (also called the Liturgy of Pre-sanctified Gifts) is an evening liturgy and includes the famous verse “Let my prayer arise as incense, and the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice”. But this should not be a cause for confusion since the Jews chanted this same verse in their evening prayers long before there ever were Christians. And among the Jewish services early Christians adapted for their own use was the evening prayer service.



III. Worship and the Heavenly Temple

When Moses built the tabernacle he was following a pattern that God showed to him in Heaven.

“And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, [after] the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make [it].” (Exodus 25:8-9)

“Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, [that] thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” (Hebrews 8:5)

Additionally, in the Jew’s Talmud holds that Moses followed the pattern of heavenly things:

“It was taught: R. Jose b. Judah says, An ark of fire and a table of fire and a candlestick of fire came down from heaven; and these Moses saw and reproduced, as it is written, And see that thou make them after their pattern, which is being shown thee in the mount. Will you then say the same [of the tabernacle], for it is written, And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which hath been shown thee in the mount! — Here it is written ‘according to the fashion thereof’, whilst there ‘after their pattern’.” (Menacoth 29a)


This idea of the heavenly temple is further reinforced by a striking correspondence between the Book of Numbers and the Book of Revelation. In Numbers chapters two and three is the record of the placement of the Israelites around the Tabernacle. They are arranged in groups. Moses’ family, the 12 tribes, the three sons of Levi and the 8 grandsons of Levi. There were 24 groups and each group had a leader.

As expected, we see the corresponding number of leaders in the temple in Heaven: “And round about the throne [were] four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” (Rev. 4:4)

There is also the correspondence of the seven lights to consider. In the throne room of God in are seven lamps or candlesticks (Rev. 4:5) while in the Tabernacle there was a 7-branched lamp.

In addition to the echoes of the Heavenly Temple to be seen in the Tabernacle, there is correspondence between the throne room of God and Solomon's Temple that bears on this matter. Before the throne of God there is a glassy sea (Rev. 4:5) while in Solomon's Temple there was a bronze sea ten cubits in diameter. But there was no sea in Tabernacle Moses erected in the wilderness. When was the existence of the Heavenly sea revealed? I don’t know. But there is an extremely bizarre text known as the Zohar used by Jewish Kabbalists (who are reported to be wizards) that says the plan for the Temple was revealed to David who relayed it to Solomon.

“Then he began to expound to them this verse: A song of degrees for Solomon (li-shelomoh). Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord guard the city, the watchman waketh but in vain (Ps. CXXVII, 1-2). Said he: ‘Was it Solomon who composed this Psalm when he built the Temple? (for li-shelomoh could be understood to mean "of Solomon"). Not so. It was King David who composed it, about his son Solomon, when Nathan came to him (David) and told him that Solomon would build the Temple. Then King David showed unto his son Solomon, as a model, the celestial prototype of the Temple, and David himself, when he saw it and all the activities connected with it, as set forth in the celestial idea of it, sang this psalm concerning his son Solomon.” (Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 164a)

This seems to make sense, given David’s provision for the building of the Temple (1 Chronicles 22 & 29) and especially since God actually appeared to David at the threshing floor of Ornan (2 Chronicles 3:1). David could hardly provide the necessary material for the Temple if he did not know the pattern of the Temple!

Having established that the Temple and Tabernacle on earth are merely copies of the Heavenly Temple, that is the throne room of God, we can now look at incense. When St. John saw Heaven he saw that

“… another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.” (Revelation 8:3-4)

You might ask, but what does this prove? Doesn't this just point to some spiritual truth? No. I do not think so. It is truth and it is spiritual, but that does not make it insubstantial. It does not make it less real. Think about that. Is Heaven less real than earth? Not at all.
Interestingly, this is a theme the Protestant writer, C.S. Lewis returned to over and over again. In his preface to Paradise Lost he wrote, “Everything except God has some natural superior; everything except unformed matter has some natural inferior.” Consider our experience of love. Isn’t it drastically inferior to God’s experience of love? The same is true of earth and Heaven. This place is barely real at all when compared to Heaven. Lewis called this world the Shadowlands, because that is all it is, a shadow of something more real. In his book the Last Battle, Lewis explains the idea like this…

"Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away amoung the mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the glass there may have been a looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different — deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked like it meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean. It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: "I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia so much is because it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!"

Is there really an angel in heaven offering incense before the throne of God? Yes. There is. And that angel and his incense are more real than the deacons and the incense they burn in Orthodox Christian temples.
So, given all of this, let me ask my protestant readers a question: Why don’t you worship God the way he is worshiped in Heaven, the way Malachi said He would be worshiped on earth, the way the Orthodox have always worshiped Him? Can you be sure you are really worshiping God if you are not doing it according to the instructions He has given? Othodox doesn’t just mean “right believing” it also means “right worshipping”. So consider this your invitation.
There is nothing stopping you from worshiping God the way he wants to be worshiped. There is nothing stopping you from joining the community of believers that has existed since Pentecost so many years ago. Taste and see that the Lord is good.