From ancient times to the present, honey had been regarded in the scriptures of nearly all major religions around the world as a pure, nutritious food with medicinal uses, commonly applied to wound healing, burns, ulcers, and nutritional supplementation.
Exodus told of the Israelites, enslaved in Egypt, leaving Egypt under Jehovah's guidance for Canaan, the promised land flowing with milk and honey.
Led by the Israelite prophet Moses, they crossed the wilderness and escaped their sea of suffering. They arrived in Canaan, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and west of the Jordan River.
From then on, that land flowing with milk and honey, which granted people happiness and peace, came to be seen as a symbol of Heaven.
Jesus was nailed to the cross. Three days later, he rose from the cross and appeared before his eleven disciples. They were delighted and astonished, unable to believe that Jesus had truly risen. Jesus showed them the wounds on his hands and feet. The disciples gave Jesus a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb filled with honey. He took them and ate the fish and honey before them, proving that he had risen in the flesh.
At a religious council held in Clermont, France, Urban II delivered an incendiary speech to the attendees, denouncing the "brutality" of the Eastern Muslims and calling upon people to reclaim the "Holy Land," Jerusalem. He also tempted them with the material wealth of the East, saying that gold, milk, and honey were everywhere there.
Some who joined the Crusades truly hoped to change their impoverished circumstances through war, but there were also those who fought to protect pilgrims.
At least, that had truly been the case for the Knights Templar in the beginning.
After the holy city of Jerusalem was captured by the