upon his disciples. Jesus Christ, being resurrected in the spirit, could actually enter into the real “holy place,” the heavens of Jehovah’s presence, and with his ransom sacrifice make it possible for his anointed followers to enter also into heaven. Thus he could be said to have begun, innovated or inaugurated the way into the heavens which would thereafter be used by others.—Heb. 10:19, 20.

We also read of solemn ceremonies involving the offerings by the tribal chieftains at the inauguration of the tabernacle altar in the wilderness. (Num. 7:10, 11, 84-88) There was a special assembly for the inauguration of Solomon’s temple and its great sacrificial altar.—1 Ki. 8:63; 2 Chron. 7:5, 9.

When the temple was rebuilt under Zerubbabel following the Babylonian exile, there were solemn initiation ceremonies in which hundreds of animals were sacrificed. (Ezra 6:16, 17) Later, the walls around the rebuilt Jerusalem were restored under the direction of Nehemiah, and again an elaborate inauguration festival was held, with two large thanksgiving choirs participating in the praising of Jehovah.—Neh. 12:27-43.

In addition to these impressive national ceremonies of inauguration, we read of a man inaugurating or initiating his house (Deut. 20:5), and the superscription of Psalm 30, ascribed to David, designates it as “A song of inauguration of the house.”

When Nebuchadnezzar completed the erection of the huge image of gold on the Plain of Dura, he called together all the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, police magistrates and all administrators of the jurisdictional districts for the impressive ceremonies of inauguration. Nebuchadnezzar thus hoped to unite all his subjects in worship. The three young Hebrews present at this affair refused to compromise their worship of Jehovah by participating in this national religion.—Dan. 3:1-30.

To this day the Jews annually celebrate what they call Hanukkah in the month of December. This is in remembrance of the inauguration (Heb., hhanuk·kahʹ) festival that followed the cleansing of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus in 165 B.C.E. after it had been polluted by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.—John 10:22; see FESTIVAL OF DEDICATION.

INCENSE

A compound of aromatic gums and balsams that will burn slowly, giving off a fragrant aroma. The Hebrew words q^etoʹreth and q^etoh·rahʹ are from the root qa·tarʹ, meaning ‘to burn, fumigate or to smoke, especially, by burning fragrant wood or spices; to make sacrificial smoke or to send up sacrifices in smoke.’ The equivalent in the Christian Greek Scriptures is thu·miʹa·ma, from thu·mi·aʹo.

The sacred incense prescribed for use in the wilderness Tabernacle was made of costly materials that the congregation contributed. (Ex. 25:1, 2, 6; 35:4, 5, 8, 27-29) In giving the divine formula for this fourfold mixture, Jehovah said to Moses: “Take to yourself perfumes: stacte drops and onycha and perfumed galbanum and pure frankincense. There should be the same portion of each. And you must make it into an incense, a spice mixture, the work of an ointment maker, salted, pure, something holy. And you must pound some of it into fine powder and put some of it before the Testimony in the tent of meeting, where I shall present myself to you. It should be most holy to you people.” Then, to impress upon them the exclusiveness and holiness of the incense, Jehovah added: “Whoever makes any like it to enjoy its smell must be cut off from his people.”—Ex. 30:34-38; 37:29.

At a later time the rabbinical Jews added other ingredients to the temple incense, Josephus saying it was made of thirteen sweet-smelling spices. (Wars of the Jews, Book V, chap. V, par. 5) According to Maimonides, some of these extra items included amber, cassia, cinnamon, myrrh, saffron and spikenard.

At the W end of the Holy compartment of the Tabernacle, next to the curtain dividing it off from the Most Holy, was located the “altar of incense.” (Ex. 30:1; 37:25; 40:5, 26, 27) There was also a similar incense altar in Solomon’s temple. (1 Chron. 28:18; 2 Chron. 2:4) Upon these altars, every morning and evening the sacred incense was burned. (Ex. 30:7, 8; 2 Chron. 13:11) Once a year on the Day of Atonement coals from the altar were taken in a censer or fire holder, together with two handfuls of incense, into the Most Holy, where the incense was made to smoke before the mercy seat of the Ark of the Testimony.—Lev. 16:12, 13.

High Priest Aaron initially offered the incense upon the altar. (Ex. 30:7) However, his son Eleazar was given oversight of the incense and other tabernacle items. (Num. 4:16) It appears that the burning of incense, except on the Day of Atonement, was not restricted to the high priest, as underpriest Zechariah (father of John the Baptist) is mentioned as handling this service. (Luke 1:8-11) Soon after the tabernacle service began to function, Aaron’s two sons Nadab and Abihu were struck dead by Jehovah for attempting to offer up incense with “illegitimate fire.” (Lev. 10:1, 2; compare Exodus 30:9; see ABIHU.) Later, Korah and 250 others, all Levites but not of the priestly line, rebelled against the Aaronic priesthood. As a test they were instructed by Moses to take fire holders and burn incense at the tabernacle entrance so that Jehovah might indicate whether he accepted them as his priests. The group perished while in the act, their fire holders in hand. (Num. 16:6, 7, 16-18, 35-40) So, too, King Uzziah was stricken with leprosy when he presumptuously attempted to burn incense in the temple.—2 Chron. 26:16-21.

As time went on, the nation of Israel became so negligent in the prescribed worship of Jehovah that they closed the temple and burned incense on other altars. (2 Chron. 29:7; 30:14) Worse than that, they burned incense to other gods before whom they prostituted themselves, and in other ways they desecrated the holy incense, all of which was detestable in Jehovah’s sight.—Ezek. 8:10, 11; 16:17, 18; 23:36, 41; Isa. 1:13.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Law covenant having a shadow of better things to come (Heb. 10:1), the burning of incense under that arrangement seemed to represent prayer. The psalmist declared, “May my prayer be prepared as incense before you [Jehovah].” (Ps. 141:2) Likewise, the highly symbolical book of Revelation describes those around God’s heavenly throne as having “golden bowls that were full of incense, and the incense means the prayers of the holy ones.” “A large quantity of incense was given him [an angel] to offer it with the prayers of all the holy ones upon the golden altar that was before the throne.” (Rev. 5:8; 8:3, 4) In several respects the burning incense served as a fitting symbol of the prayers of the holy ones that are “offered up” (Heb. 5:7) night and day (1 Thess. 3:10), and are pleasant to Jehovah.—Prov. 15:8.

Incense, of course, could not make the prayers of false worshipers acceptable to God. (Prov. 28:9; Mark 12:40) On the other hand, the prayers of a righteous one are effectual. (Jas. 5:16) So, too, when a plague from God broke out, Aaron quickly “put the incense on and began making atonement for the people.”—Num. 16:46-48.

NOT BURNED BY CHRISTIANS

Though incense is burned today in certain religions of Christendom, as also in Buddhist temples, yet we find no basis for such practice by Christians in Scripture. Censers are not listed among church vessels for the first four centuries of the Common Era, and not until Gregory the Great (latter part of the sixth century) is there clear evidence of incense being used in church services. Obviously, this is because with the coming of Christ and the nailing of the Law covenant and its regulations to the torture stake (Col. 2:14), and especially after the temple and its Aaronic priesthood were completely removed, the burning of incense in the worship of God ceased. No authorization for its use in the Christian congregation was given, and early Christians, like the Jews, never individually burned incense for religious purposes.

Early Christians also refused to burn incense in honor of the emperor, even though it cost them their lives. As Daniel P. Mannix observes: “Very few of the Christians recanted, although an altar with a fire burning on it was generally kept in the arena for their convenience. All a prisoner had to do was scatter a pinch of incense on the flame and he was given a Certificate of Sacrifice and turned free. It was also carefully explained to him that he was not worshiping the emperor; merely acknowledging the divine character of the emperor as head of the Roman state. Still, almost no Christians availed themselves of the chance to escape.”—Those About to Die (New York; 1958), p. 137.

Tertullian (2nd and 3rd centuries C.E.) says that Christians would not even engage in the incense trade. (On Idolatry, Chap. XI) This, however, is not the case with the incense merchants doing business with symbolic Babylon the Great.—Rev. 18:11, 13.

INCENSE, ALTAR OF

See ALTAR.

INCEST

See LAW.

INCORRUPTION

Direct references to incorruption are found only in the Christian Greek Scriptures. There the word translates the Greek a·phthar·siʹa, formed of the negative prefix a and a form of phtheiʹro, this latter word meaning to corrupt (2 Cor. 7:2), spoil (1 Cor. 15:33), or ruin (Rev. 11:18), hence to bring to a lower or inferior state; also to put to death or destroy (2 Pet. 2:12). The adjective form aʹphthar·tos (incorruptible) is also used. In considering incorruption, it is helpful to consider first the use of the Greek terms for corruption and corruptibility, remembering, of course, that there is a difference between a thing’s being corrupt and its being corruptible, that is, capable of being corrupted.

CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTIBILITY

Corruption and corruptibility may relate both to things material and to things not material. The crown that Greek athletes sought was corruptible, subject to decay, deterioration or disintegration (1 Cor. 9:25), even gold (dissoluble in aqua regia) and silver being corruptible (1 Pet. 1:18; compare James 5:3); boats can be “wrecked” or, literally, “corrupted through” (from the intensive form di·a·phtheiʹro), suffering breakdown of their structural form. (Rev. 8:9) Man, the fleshly creature, is corruptible (Rom. 1:23), in his imperfect state his body being subject to damaging diseases and eventually to dissolution in death, the elements forming the body breaking down in decay. (Acts 13:36) As regards things not material, good habits can be corrupted or spoiled by bad associations (1 Cor. 15:33), men may become mentally corrupted, turned away from sincerity, chastity and truth (2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 6:5; 2 Tim. 3:8), this resulting in moral decay, a corrupting of the individual’s personality.—Eph. 4:22; Jude 10.

Even perfect human bodies are corruptible, that is, they are not beyond ruin or destruction. For this reason, the apostle Paul could say that the resurrected Jesus was thereafter “destined no more to return to corruption” (Acts 13:34), that is, never to return to life in a corruptible human body. Only God’s action prevented the fleshly body of his Son’s earthly existence from seeing corruption in the grave. (Acts 2:31; 13:35-37) Not, however, that that body was preserved for the resurrected Jesus’ use, since the apostle Peter states that Jesus was “put to death in the flesh, but . . . made alive in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 3:18) It thus seems evident that God disposed of that body miraculously, thereby not letting it see ruinous decay.—See BODY (Christ’s Body of Flesh).

Angels, though spirit creatures, are shown to have corruptible bodies, inasmuch as they are declared to be subject to destruction.—Matt. 25:41; 2 Pet. 2:4; compare Luke 4:33, 34.

Human enslavement to corruption

While Adam, even in his perfection, had a corruptible body, it was only because of his rebellion against God that he experienced corruption. By sinning he came into “enslavement to corruption” and passed this condition on to all his offspring, the human race. (Rom. 8:20-22) This enslavement to corruption results from sin or transgression (Rom. 5:12) and produces bodily imperfection that leads to degradation, disease, aging and death. For this reason, the one ‘sowing with a view to the flesh reaps corruption from his flesh’ and does not gain the everlasting life promised those who sow with a view to the spirit.—Gal. 6:8; compare 2 Peter 2:12, 18, 19.

ATTAINMENT OF INCORRUPTION BY CHRISTIANS

As noted, the Hebrew Scriptures make no direct reference to incorruption, and regularly stress the mortality of the human soul. (See IMMORTALITY; SOUL.) Thus, the apostle says of Christ Jesus that he “has shed light upon life and incorruption through the good news.” (2 Tim. 1:10) Through Jesus, God revealed the sacred secret of his purpose to grant to anointed Christians the privilege of reigning with his Son in the heavens. (Luke 12:32; John 14:2, 3; compare Ephesians 1:9-11.) By resurrecting their Savior Jesus Christ from the dead, God has given such Christians the living hope of “an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance . . . reserved in the heavens.” (1 Pet. 1:3, 4, 18, 19; compare 1 Corinthians 9:25.) Such ones are “born again” while yet in the flesh, that is, granted the position of spiritual sons of God, born of “incorruptible reproductive seed, through the word of the living and enduring God.”—1 Pet. 1:23; compare 1 John 3:1, 9.

Though dealt with by God as his spiritual sons and although having the promise of an incorruptible inheritance, these Christians called to the heavenly kingdom do not possess immortality or incorruption while yet on earth in the flesh. This is seen from the fact that they are “seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good.” (Rom. 2:6, 7) The “incorruptibleness” sought evidently does not mean merely freedom from moral corruption. By following Christ’s example and by faith in his ransom sacrifice these Christians have already “escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:3, 4), “loving our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptness” and ‘showing incorruptness in their teaching.’ (Eph. 6:24; Titus 2:7, 8) The incorruptibleness (along with glory and honor) they seek by faithful endurance relates to their glorification at the time of their resurrection as actual spirit sons of God, and this is evident from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

RESURRECTION TO IMMORTALITY AND INCORRUPTION

As considered in the article on IMMORTALITY, Christ Jesus entered into immortality upon his resurrection from the dead, thereafter possessing an “indestructible life.” (1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Heb. 7:15-17) As the “exact representation of [the] very being” of his Father, who is the incorruptible God (Heb. 1:3; 1 Tim. 1:17), the resurrected Jesus also enjoys incorruptibility.

United with Jesus in the likeness of his resurrection, his joint heirs also are resurrected, not merely to everlasting life as spirit creatures but to immortality and incorruption. Having lived, served faithfully and died in corruptible human bodies, they now receive incorruptible spirit bodies, as Paul clearly states at 1 Corinthians 15:42-54. Immortality therefore evidently refers to the quality of the life they enjoy,