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.\par

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.

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.

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 ὄνυξ, ’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.

See Incense; Spices.

ONYCHA (shĕchçleth, 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.

on´i-ka (שחלת, sh^eḥēleth; compare Arabic suḥâlat, “filings,” “husks”): “Onycha” is a transliteration of the Septuagint ὄνυχα, ónucha, accusative of ὄνυξ, ónux, 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 sh^eḥēleth 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.”)

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.