Honey was one of the main foods consumed in ancient Egypt, a necessity to all her people. It was used against infections by being placed on wounds, and also for paying tribute. Honey and wax were used for spiritual as well as practical purposes. Sacred animals were fed cakes sweetened with honey. For example the sacred bull at Memphis, the sacred lion at Leontopolis, and the sacred crocodile at Crocodilopolis.

Pictured above is an ancient form of Egyptian writing called the hieratic script. This is a cursive form of ancient Egyptian which is read from right to left similar to Hebrew and ancient Ethiopic manuscripts. The symbol at the beginning of the line here represents a honeybee and the interpretaion for the symbol is "honey". This is a fragment of a storage jar that labelled its contents as honey. It is dated to the time of Amenhotep III 1390-1352 B.C. in Upper Egypt, Thebes from the 18th dynasty.

In a ceremonial offering known as the "Opening of the Mouth", priests used special instruments to place honey into the mouth of a statue of a god, or the statue or mummy of a king or other great noble. Certain lines in ancient rituals indicate that the Egyptians may have even believed that the soul of a man (his "ka", or double; the part which continues after death) took the form of a bee. Another ritual from the Book of "Am-Tuat", or "the Otherworld", compares the voices of souls to the hum of bees.

It was written in another ritual, contained in the "Salt Magical Papyrus", that bees were created from the tears of the sun-god Ra himself, whom the Egyptians believed to be the creator of the earth and the sea. Ra's right eye was the sun, his left eye was the moon, and he caused the Nile to flood. In the ancient Greek myths, ambrosia (/æmˈbroʊʒə/, Ancient Greek: ἀμβροσία, "immortality") is the food or drink of the Greek gods, often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Olympus by doves and served by either Hebe or Ganymede at the heavenly feast. W. H. Roscher thinks that both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of honey, in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to the supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, and because fermented honey (mead) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces.

Liquid honey does not spoil and due to its high sugar concentration, it kills most bacteria by crenation. Theoretically, honey as a unique mixture of chemical compounds of honeybee and nectar/pollen origins, could presumably acquire the components of an innate immune systems operating in plants and insects.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a profoundly serious threat to public health. Resistance to bacteria is a major problem in hospitals, communities and livestock. Frequencies of bacterial resistance are escalating globally while little to no antibiotics are being developed. With the recent international pandemic our lack of preparedness for a crisis became apparent. Therefore, alternative antimicrobial strategies are also urgently needed.

Since ancient times honey has been used for healing of wounds and as a gastrointestinal remedy. Honey has broad-spectrum activity against pathogenic and food-spoiling bacteria. The potent in vitro activity of honey against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and its successful application in treatment of chronic wound infections not responding to antibiotic therapy evoked interest in honey as antibacterial an agent in modern medicine. Manuka medical-grade honey have potent antibacterial activity and are approved for application in wound management. Manuka honey is produced from the manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium) indigenous to New Zealand and Australia. Exceptionally high concentrations of the antibacterial compound MGO have been found in manuka honey but the contribution this and possible other compounds to the bactericidal activity of manuka honey is still unknown.[7][8 ]

The presence of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) is culpable in the processes of cellular dysfunction, pathogenesis of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) as well as aging. The consumption of foods and substances rich in antioxidant can protect against these pathological changes and consequently prevent the pathogenesis of these and other chronic ailments. [8 ]

Genesis 43:09 - I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:

Genesis 43:10 - For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.

Genesis 43:11 - And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:

Isaiah 7:15 - Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

Proverbs 24:13 - My son, eat thou honey, because [it is] good; and the honeycomb, [which is] sweet to thy taste:

Matthew 3:4 - And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Proverbs 16:24 - Pleasant words [are as] an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Exodus 16:31 - And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it [was] like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it [was] like wafers [made] with honey.

Deuteronomy 6:2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do [it]; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Leviticus 20:24 - But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I [am] the LORD your God, which have separated you from [other] people.

Leviticus 2:11 - No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.

The reading of this verse in Leviticus 2:11 is very interesting because the well known Jaggi Vasudev, known publicly as Sadhguru, who is an Indian yogi and author, stated that honey should never be heated or taken in hot drinks as this will cause it to be harmful to the body.

2 Samuel 17:29 - And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that [were] with him, to eat: for they said, The people [is] hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.

Psalms 81:16 - He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Exodus 3:8 - And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Song of Solomon 4:11 - Thy lips, O [my] spouse, drop [as] the honeycomb: honey and milk [are] under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments [is] like the smell of Lebanon.

Ezekiel 20:6 - In the day [that] I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands:

2 Chronicles 31:5 - And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all [things] brought they in abundantly.

Psalms 119:103 - How sweet are thy words unto my taste! [yea, sweeter] than honey to my mouth!

2 Kings 18:32 - Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.

Ezekiel 27:17 - Judah, and the land of Israel, they [were] thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.

"Every honey bee alive today had a common ancestor in Africa" is one conclusion drawn by a team of scientists that probed the origin of the species and the movements of introduced populations, including African "killer" bees in the New World.

"Our analysis indicates that the honey bee, Apis mellifera, originated in Africa and spread into Europe by at least two ancient migrations," said Charles W. Whitfield, a professor of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is the lead author of a paper to appear in the Oct. 27 issue of the journal Science. "The migrations resulted in two European populations that are geographically close, but genetically quite different," Whitfield said. "In fact, the two European populations are more related to honey bees in Africa than to each other."

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Apis andreniformis, or the black dwarf honey bee, is a relatively rare species of honey bee whose native habitat is the tropical and subtropical regions of Southeast Asia.[1] A. andreniformis was the fifth honey bee species to be described of the seven known species of Apis.[1] Until recently, however, the actual identity of the species was poorly understood. It was not recognized as its own species, but was instead considered to be a part of the species Apis florea.[1] Recent studies have highlighted notable differences between the bees and have thus separated them into distinct species.[1]