is mentioned three times in the Song of Songs (i, 12, iv, 13, iv, 14),
and in the New Testament on two occasions (Mark xiv, 3, and John xii,
3), a box of spikenard ointment, “very costly” and “very precious” is,
in the instance recorded by St. Mark, poured on the Saviour’s head,
and in the narrative of St. John, is used to anoint His feet. On both
occasions we are told that the value of this box or vase was three
hundred pence. It is explained in the Revised Version that the coin
named was equivalent to about 8½d. The price of the ointment used was
therefore over ten pounds.
In the Greek text the word used is nardos pitike. It has been variously
conjectured that the adjective may have meant liquid, genuine or
powdered; the word lends itself to either of those meanings. Or it may
have been a local term, or possibly it may have been altered from a
word which would have meant what we understand by “spike” in botany.
The most likely meaning is “genuine,” for we know that this product
was at that period a perfume in high esteem, and that there were
several qualities, the best, and by far the costliest, being brought
from India. The ointment employed was really an otto, and it was
imported into Rome and other cities of the Empire in alabaster vessels.
Dioscorides and Galen refer to it as nardostachys. The Arab name for it
was Sumbul Hindi, but this must not be confounded with the sumbul which
we know. The word sumbul simply means spike. The botanical origin of
the Scripture spikenard, the nardostachys of Dioscorides, was cleared
up, it is generally agreed, by Sir William Jones in 1790. He traced
it to a Himalayan plant of the valerian order which was afterwards
exactly identified by Royle. A Brahman gave some of the fibrous roots
to Sir William Jones, and told him it was employed in their religious
sacrifices.
Pliny mentions an ointment of spikenard composed of the Indian nard,
with myrrh, balm, custos, amomum, and other ingredients, but the
“genuine” nard alluded to in the Gospels was probably the simple otto.
Pliny also states that the Indian nard was worth, in his time, in Rome,
one hundred denarii per pound.
Horace mentions an onyx box of nard which was considered of equal value
with a large vessel of wine:
Nardo vinum merebere
Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum.