"HONEY" IN THE BIBLE

I find it interesting to take a Greek or Hebrew word in the Bible and look at all its occurrences, as found through an analytical concordance. In that way, you can trace how that word is used in different settings, get a better idea of exactly what it means, and see how certain biblical authors picked up identical phrases from earlier writers and utilized them in another context. As an example, I chose the word “honey” (debash in Hebrew and meli in Greek). In addition, there are five different Hebrew words translated as “honeycomb” in the Bible, and these usually appear in parallel or in conjunction with debash.

The exact meaning of debash appears on the surface to be somewhat nebulous since its occurrences with “honeycomb” obviously associate it with the product of bees, but II Chronicles 31:5 calls it a product of the field. In comparing several scholarly sources, it appears that most of them agree that debash is a general term that can refer both to the product from bees or syrup made from grapes, dates, figs or carob fruit. One thing is obvious – “honey” is definitely sweet to the taste. Proverbs 27:7 builds on this fact in its wise observation: “One who is stuffed spurns honey, but to a hungry person, even something bitter tastes sweet.” Let's consider some of the ways this word is utilized.

Of course, the most recognizable expression in which the word appears is “a land flowing with milk and honey.” This phrase occurs sixteen times in the Old Testament referring to the Promised Land of Canaan, and obviously it is a hyperbolic term meaning a very fertile land suitable for dwelling and raising crops and livestock. In that respect, it reminds me of the old song “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” a sort of promised land for hobos who won't have to lift a finger in order to be stuffed with food forever. Even the timid spies sent out to check out the land admit that it is a land of milk and honey before pointing out the dangers there also (Numbers 13:27).

As to why these two food items are coupled together, Olivier notes that the first item comes from animals while the second one comes from plants. However, The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery feels that the significance comes from the fact that milk represents one of the bare necessities for existence while honey is more of a luxury food. By either reckoning, the pair of nouns probably can be treated as a merism, a figure of speech in which two opposite items together representing everything in between as well. Another common biblical merism is the pair “Alpha and Omega.”

The phrase is even utilized after the Israelites have occupied the land for some time. Thus, in the somewhat enigmatic prophecy found in Isaiah 7, God promises that before the child Immanuel grows up, the land will again be producing milk and honey for himself and all the people. That these blessings on the land all come from God is made clear in Ezekiel 16:13,19. For some strange reason, The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery expresses the exact opposite view and states that “milk and honey” denotes that the people of Israel will be driven away from their land and forced to subsist on whatever food they can pick up in the wilderness. Read the Isaiah 7 passage yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Variations on the “milk and honey” expression are found in Deuteronomy 8:7-9 (“a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, etc.”) and II Kings 18:31-32 (“a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey”). Interestingly, this last description comes from the lying lips of the Rabshakeh, who is trying to talk the Jews into surrendering to his army by promising them he will take them to a land just like their own.

Conversely, the wicked will not enjoy “brooks of honey and butter” according to Job's friend Zophar (Job 20:17).

Honey was considered desirable enough to be suitable as a gift to give to pharaoh (Genesis 43:11), David and his troops (II Samuel 17:29), and a prophet (I Kings 14:3). In addition, hidden stores of honey and other foodstuffs were an acceptable ransom to Ishmael that saved the lives of some Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 41:8).

Honey features in the Exodus story in some additional ways. The manna in the wilderness was compared to wafers made with honey (Exodus 16:31). And Moses in Deuteronomy 32:13 says in a hyperbolic expression that God cared for the people in the wilderness by nursing them with honey and oil from rocks. Psalm 81:16 promises that if the Jews repent, God will care for them again in the very same way.

Honey and honeycomb appear several times in the Book of Proverbs to make various points. Proverbs 16:24 compares pleasant words to a honeycomb in that both are sweet to the soul and body. In 24:13-14, to “eat honey” appears to be a figure of speech for acquiring wisdom. Prov. 25:16 gives the practical advice that eating an excess of honey can be too much of a good thing. In the same way, the following verse applies this principle to visiting with your neighbor and overstaying your welcome. A modern saying in the area of entertainment is to always leave your audience wanting more. I would also say that his applies to some preachers who make their point in about 20 minutes and then continue to hammer it in for another hour until you are sick of hearing it. Prov. 25:27 then applies that same advice to showing that a person should not try to seek to amass more and more honors in life. Take that to heart, you overachievers!

Proverbs 5:3 characterizes the loose woman as having lips that drip honey and speech as smooth as oil. In other words, she promises pleasure but can't really be trusted. Interestingly, the beloved woman in Song of Songs is described by her lover in similar erotic terms: “Your lips drip nectar my love; honey and milk are under your tongue.” (4:11; also see 5:1)  Presumably, however, she does not share any other characteristics of the loose woman.

Honey only appears in two undisputed contexts in the New Testament. One is as a description of John the Baptist's diet (along with locust). This, along with his rough garb (both described in Matt. 3:4; Mk. 1:6), mark clearly his ascetic lifestyle. At the end of Luke's Gospel (24:42), at least some translations have the resurrected Jesus eating a piece of boiled fish and from a honeycomb. But as Bruce Metzger points out, that last phrase is missing in a wide variety of earlier manuscripts and thus was probably added later on. His explanation is that the addition could have been due to the fact that the early church began to utilize honey in both the communion and baptismal ceremonies.

The second NT reference is found in Revelation 10:9-10 where John is told by an angel to take the small scroll and eat it. It is sweet to taste but is bitter in the stomach. The symbolism here is that God's Word is always sweet even if it does contain messages of judgment. This whole image is taken from Ezekiel 3:3 in which the prophet is told to eat a scroll which is sweet to taste. And it also represents God's word to an unrepentant nation. This same description of God's word as being sweet is found in the two wisdom psalms: Ps. 19:10 and 119:103.

Despite the mainly positive images of honey in the above references, there are a few more that appear to have negative overtones. Surprisingly, despite the fact that honey is one of the blessings from God and even appropriate to give as an offering to prominent people, we then run into Leviticus 2:11 where the people are instructed to give no cakes prepared with leaven or honey for their grain offerings. Several commentators I read beat around the bush a bit without committing themselves on the reason why these items were prohibited in that particular ritual. The most reasonable statement was that by Gordon Wenham: “No rationale for the ban on the use of yeast in sacrifice is provided in the Bible. Most commentators reckon that yeast and honey were prohibited because they cause fermentation. This they believe was unacceptable it suggested corruption. Another explanation is that yeast is a living organism and only dead things could be burned on the altar in sacrifice. However, see Lev. 23:17,20 and 2 Chron 3:15.” Allis adds that the latter cited regulation “seems to be intended to guard against the inference that leaven and honey were unclean in themselves.”

But if honey is not unclean, why are both Samson and Jonathan criticized for eating it? Both situations are easy to explain. Samson was dedicated to God as a nazarite at his birth, and his mother was told that he should drink no wine, not cut his hair, and abstain from unclean food. Of course, we know that Samson was far from being a teetotaler and got into big trouble when his hair was cut, but what about the fact that he ate honey (Judges 14)? His big sin here was not that he ate honey, but that he took it from an animal's carcass. That made it an unclean food, and he compounded his sin by giving it to his parents as well. In I Samuel 14 we see that Jonathan was made to be another inadvertent “sinner” when he found some honey to eat after his father Saul got his troops to make a vow that they would not eat again until the enemy was defeated. Jonathan was not present when that vow was made, however, and so he fell unknowingly under its curse. And again, the problem wasn't that he had eaten honey, but that he had eaten any food at all.

So “honey,” however you define it, remains an image of one of God's blessings to mankind.