CINNAMON

sin'-a-mun (qinnamon; kinnamomon): Mentioned, like cassia, as a perfume. In Exodus 30:23 it is one of the ingredients of the "holy anointing oil"; in Proverbs 7:17 it is, along with myrrh and aloes, a perfume for a bed; in Song of Solomon 4:14 it is a very precious spice. Cinnamon is (Revelation 18:13) part of the merchandise of "Babylon the great."

Cinnamon is the product of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, a laurel-like plant widely cultivated in Ceylon and Java. It has a profuse white blossom, succeeded by a nut from which the fragrant oil is obtained. The wood is the inner bark from branches which have reached a diameter of from 2 to 3 inches; the epidermis and pulpy matter are carefully scraped off before drying. In commerce the cheaper Cassia ligra of China is sometimes substituted for true cinnamon, and it is thought by some authorities that this was the true cinnamon of the ancients.

See, however, CASSIA.

E. W. G. Masterman

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.