What are the…
Holy censers described in the Bible?

also known as: cencers, incensers, altar of incense

Hebrew: מַחְתָּה —transliteration: machtah —meaning: firepan; censer; portable firepan or censer used for handling burning coals and incense

This is a Holy vessel in which incense was presented on “the golden altar” before Jehovah in the Holy Tabernacle and the temple (Exodus 30:1-9).

The priest filled the censer with live coal from the sacred fire on the altar of burnt-offering, and having carried it into the sanctuary, there threw upon the burning coals the sweet incense (Leviticus 16:12-13), which sent up a cloud of smoke, filling the room with fragrance.

The Altar of Incense

the Altar of Incense (Exodus 30:1-10), called also “the golden altar” (Exodus 39:38; Numbers 4:11), stood in the holy place “before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony.”

• INCENSE—On this altar sweet spices were continually burned with fire taken from the brass altar. The morning and the evening services were begun by the high priest offering incense on this altar. The burning of the incense was a type of prayer (Psalm 141:2; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4).

• SIZE AND CONSTRUCTION—This altar was a small movable table, made of acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exodus 37:25-26). It was 1 cubit in length and breadth, and 2 cubits in height.

  In Solomon’s temple, the altar was similar in size, but was made of cedarwood (1 Kings 6:20; 7:48) overlaid with gold. In Ezek. 41:22 it is called “the altar of wood.” (Compare Exodus 30:1-6.)

• In the Temple built after the Exile this altar was restored.

  In 167 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the Temple by erecting a pagan altar to Zeus (or Olympian gods), sacrificing unclean animals (including pigs), and banning Jewish practices. This sparked the revolt led initially by Mattathias and then his son Judas Maccabaeus (aka Judah Maccabee).

  Antiochuss took the golden Altar of Incense away. Exactly 3 years later, the Temple rededicated after being cleansed and the Altar of Incense restored by Judas Maccabaeus as celebrated on the 25th of Kislev (aka Chisleu or Chislev) in the year 148 of the Seleucid era, which corresponds to 164 BC. This event is celebrated to this day as the Festival of Hanukkah.

  After subduing Egypt, Anti′ochus returned in the 143rd year.He went up against Israel and came to Jerusalem with a strong force. He arrogantly entered the sanctuary and took the golden altar, the lampstand for the light, and all its utensils. He took also the table for the bread of the Presence, the cups for drink offerings, the bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, the crowns, and the gold decoration on the front of the temple; he stripped it all off. He took the silver and the gold, and the costly vessels; he took also the hidden treasures which he found. Taking them all, he departed to his own land.

  He committed deeds of murder,
  and spoke with great arrogance.
  Israel mourned deeply in every community,
  rulers and elders groaned…
  and all the house of Jacob was clothed with shame. —1 Maccabees 1:20-28 excerpt, Apocrypha)

  Later Judas Maccabaeus made restorations to the Temple.

  They made new holy vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand —1 Maccabaeus 4:49

  Among the Temple trophies carried away by the Roman general Titus in August 6–10, 70 AD, after his destruction of Jerusalem, the altar of incense is not listed, nor is any mention made of it in Hebrews 9. Titus did take the golden Menorah, the Table of Showbread, silver trumpets, incense censers, and other ritual vessels, and triumphantly displayed them in Rome in 71 AD—prominently parading the Temple spoils through the streets of Rome, as vividly depicted on the Arch of Titus. They were later housed in the Temple of Peace (Forum of Vespasian) in Rome.

  Due to its underlying cedarwood construction, the Altar of Incense may have been completely destroyed by fire when Titus’ soldiers burned Herod’s Temple.

  This 70 AD destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem ended the sacrificial system of of the Jews. They then shifted to rabbinic Judaism (prayer, study, synagogues).

• It was at this altar Zacharias ministered when an angel appeared to him (Luke 1:11).

• It is the only altar which appears in the heavenly temple (Isaiah 6:6; Rev. 8:3-4).

Apostle Paul

Greek: θυμιατήριον —transliteration: thumiatérion or thumiaterion —meaning: censer; incense burner; altar of incense

Paul speaks of the golden censer as belonging to the Tabernacle.

And behind the 2nd veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tablets of the covenant. —Hebrews 9:3, 4

The Greek word thumiaterion, here rendered “censer,” may more appropriately denote, as in the margin of Revised King James Version, “the altar of incense.” Paul does not here say that the thumiaterion was in the holiest, for it was in the holy place, but that the holiest had it, i.e., that it belonged to the holiest (1 Kings 6:22). It was intimately connected with the high priest’s service in the holiest.

The censers in daily use were of brass (Numbers 16:39), and were designated by a different Hebrew name, miktereth (2 Chronicles 26:19; Ezek. 8:11): while those used on the day of Atonement were of gold, and were denoted by a word (mahtah) meaning “something to take fire with;” Septuagint pureion = a fire-pan. Solomon prepared for the temple censers of pure gold (1 Kings 7:50; 2 Chronicles 4:22).

Prophecy in Revelation

The Apostle John witnessed a future event in Heaven—an angel in the Apocalypse (aka The Great Tribuation) has a golden censer and sends God’s judgment upon the Earth.

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. …
Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. —Rev. 8:3, 5