Heb. ii. 31.STACTE. This Greek Word signifies the Gum that distils from the Tree which produces Myrrh. Salmasius distinguishes Stacte from Plaste, in that Stacte is the liquid Part of the Myrrh, which is brought from the Myrrh by Contusion, and which was the purest and most valuable Part of it. It was also called simply, The Perfume, or Myrrh. Plaste was the harder Part, which remain’d after the Myrrh call’d Stacte had been squeezed from it, and which was reduced into Lumps or Cakes; so that it was rather a Kind of Incense than a Perfume. Stacte is found in several Places in Scripture; [in the Latin Vulgate.] For Example, Gen. xxxvii. 25. where it is said, that Ishmaelitish Merchants were carrying into Egypt, aromata, & resinam, & staćten. And Gen. xliii. 11. where Jacob bids his Sons carry with them some Stacte, to the Governour of Egypt, who was Joseph. The Hebrew says, Zeri and Lath. ‘Tis agreed, the first signifies Resina, Balm; But the Signification of Lat or Lath is unknown. Some explain it by Myrrh, others by Turpentine, or Chesnuts, or Ladanum, or Ledum, which is a certain resinous Liquor distilling from a kind of Cistus.
Moses also speaks of Stacte1 in the Enumeration of the Drugs that were to enter into the Composition of the Perfume which was to be offer’d in the holy Place upon the golden Altar. But in this Place the Hebrew reads Neteph, which certainly signifies liquid Myrrh, or in Form of a perfum’d Oil.
Lastly, Ezekiel also speaks of Stacte;2 but the Hebrew has Kidda, which the Septuagint translate by Iris; and St. Jerome in Exod. xxx. 24. by Casia odorifera. It is very likely that it signifies the Essence of Iris.
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