Plant World of the Bible: -

© 2012 Hans Arne Jensen. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 07/27/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4567-8835-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-2285-0 (ebk)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLANTS OF THE BIBLE DESCRIBED ALPHABETICALLY ACCORDING TO THE ENGLISH PLANT NAMES

BIBLE PLANTS AND PLANT PRODUCTS ARRANGED ACCORDING TO SUBJECT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LITERATURE

ABREVIATIONS

ANCIENT AUTHORS

DATING

ALSO BY HANS ARNE JENSEN

To my daughter Anne Marie

About the great wisdom of King Solomon:

He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall…

(1 Kings 4,33).

PREFACE

The Bible is rich in narratives, parables or descriptions of events in which plants or plant products are mentioned. The Bible reader need only turn a few pages before meeting a whole world of known and unknown plants such as: aloe, barley, bdellium, cedar, fig, frankincense, pomegranate, olive, vine and general terms like ‘the lily of the fields’.

The Old Testament in particular is rich in plant names. In the New Testament plants occur less frequently, but well-known examples are that bread and wine constitute central objects in the Last Supper and that the fig tree and the ‘lily of the fields’ are included in some important parables.

When reading or listening to the Bible it is, accordingly, useful to possess knowledge about the contemporaneous flora and the extended use of plants and plant products in the areas where the biblical events occurred.

The aim of the book is to introduce the reader to the fascinating PLANT WORLD OF THE BIBLE. Not only Bible readers, but everyone interested in botany, archaeology, or history can find subjects of interest in the book, for references are made both to the rich use of plants in the Bible as well as to finds and use of plants in the surrounding coeval cultures.

The description of the plants and the contemporaneous use has been supplemented with illustrations. A number of these illustrations are from the same period as the biblical text. For further details, see page 2

The plants of the Bible have for many years been my specific interest, and the first book on the subject Biblens Planter (‘Plants of the Bible’) was published in 1974.

The contents of this book are an updated version of my latest book in Danish: Bibelens Planteverden from 2004. The quotations from the Bible have been borrowed from The Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Anglicized Edition. 1995.

Much information on biblical plants and the plant names in Hebrew, Arabic and other related Semitic languages have been obtained from Professor M. Zohary’s book Plants of the Bible from 1982.

The author is also in debt to Dr. F. Nigel Hepper’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants from 1992. This book contains valuable botanical and historical information and references to a large number of sources related to identification of biblical plants. In H.N. and A.L. Moldenke’s book Plants of the Bible from 1952 a thorough list of older references is found.

PLANT WORLD OF THE BIBLE includes a comprehensive list of biblical plants, found in archaeological excavations in Israel and surrounding countries. For the first time it is now possible, for most of the biblical plants, to refer to archaeological finds, dated to the biblical period.

Information on plants in Ancient Egypt is utilized as a valuable source of information in our attempt to understand the contemporaneous use of a number of plants in the Mediterranean area.

The book is arranged alphabetically according to the English name of the plant or plant product as given in the Bible. This is followed by a botanical name and the current English name of the plant in question.

Then follows a description of the context in which the plant or plant product is mentioned in the Bible. The aim has been to include all relevant references in order to provide a concordance on biblical plants. This information is supplemented by information on identification of the biblical Hebrew or Greek plant names. Some of the plant names can without reservation be referred to a well-known botanical species (e.g. barley, wheat, fig, cedar); others can be assigned to a group of plants (e.g. resin), and as an example of an uncertainly identified plant can be mentioned the cypress wood, used for the construction of Noah’s Ark.

This section is followed by a brief botanical description and when possible references to archaeological finds, classical literature, origin of the species and some information on the use and cultivation of the plant from the past to the present. The book comprises the biblical flowering plants and plant products such as manna and strong drink.Microorganisms mentioned in the Bible causing human disease (inflammation, fever, leprosy), plant disease (rust, smut), mould or fermentation of wine and beer are not covered.

In the Bible, expressions related to plants or plant communities are frequent: root, stem, branch, bud, leaf, straw, hay, field, forest and wilderness. Those words can usually not be related to specific plants and are, accordingly, not specifically mentioned.

The important cultivation and handling of plants: ploughing, planting, harvesting, threshing, cleaning and grinding of cereals as well as maintenance of fruit plantations - are frequently referred to in the Bible. These names are listed only if they are related to the name of a cultivated plant.

Bread and wine were among the most important plant products, and they are frequently mentioned in the Bible as well.

It is not possible, however, to conclude that the most common plant references in the Bible are an indication of the importance to people in everyday life, since for instance, the imported cedar timber and the balm and resin are paid a lot more attention than many of the important plants of the country.

The author wishes sincerely to thank: The Danish Arts Council’s Committee for Literature for supporting translation of the book into English, archaeologist Peter Crabb for cooperation and extensive help during the translation and professor, Dr. Arnold Larsen, Ft. Collins, USA and other colleagues for valuable comments to the manuscript, and my wife Lisbeth for patience and support during preparation of the manuscript.

ILLUSTRATIONS

IN PLANT WORLD OF THE BIBLE

It would seem impossible to illustrate a book on the PLANT WORLD OF THE BIBLE with illustrations from the same period as the biblical text.

The unique, beautiful and well-preserved facsimile colour plant pictures reproduced in this book originate, however, from the period 1st Century BC to 3rd Century AD. They are taken from the manuscript Codex Vindobonensis Medicus Craecus I.

The main part of that manuscript contains a herbarium along with illustrations of medical herbs and their descriptions taken mainly from the works on pharmaceutics by Pedanios Dioscorides. He lived in the 1st Century AD in Anazarbos in Cilicia, and it is after him the manuscript is called the Vienna Dioscorides.

The manuscript also includes works by Krateuas (1st Century BC) and by Galen (circa 130-200 AD).

Among the illustrations at the beginning of the manuscript is a dedicatory picture with the representation of the imperial princess Anicia Juliana together with a transcription that expresses the warmest thanks for her erection of a church at Honoratae, a suburb of Byzantium.

Because the erection of the church is known from the year 512-13, the manuscript must have been completed about this time.

Johannes Chortasmenos newly bound the book in 1406 by order of the monk and medical man Nathanael of the Prodromos monastery in Constantinople.

Later, a user transcribed the beautiful uncial letters into italics, which were commonly used at that time. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the book was in possession of the Turks. They added to the Greek text names of the plants in Arabic and Turkish, which can be seen on some of the colour plant plates.

In the 16th Century, moreover, the names of the plants were transcribed into Hebrew, perhaps by Hamon, the Jewish family doctor of Sultan Suliman II. The doctor’s son sold this book in 1569 to Emperor Maximilian II for 100 gold ducats.

This botanical and historical treasure, which in a miraculous way through nearly 1,500 years has avoided destruction, is now in the possession of the Austrian National Library. To day they serve as a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Plant World of the Bible.

The black and white illustrations are reprinted from the sources mentioned in the following. After each title is stated on which pages the illustrations are placed in the present book:

Baillon, H., 1867-1895: Histoire des plantes: vii, 4, 5, 12, 21, 22, 26, 29, 35, 37, 38, 39, 45, 47, 51, 62, 72, 78, 87, 88, 92, 93, 100, 111, 114, 115, 121, 123, 125, 135, 138, 141, 152.

Benzinger, J., 1894: Hebräische Archäologie: 8, 55, 101, 102, 106, 108, 117, 132, 141, 143.

Dujardin-Beaumetz & Égasse, E., 1889: Les plantes médicinales: 40, 52, 74, 75, 103, 108, 119, 133, 141, 148, 150

Engler, A. & Prantl, K., 1887-1915: Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien: iii, iv, viii, 10, 11, 14, 16, 26, 28, 33, 41, 43, 48, 50, 56, 61, 63, 65, 66, 67, 81, 90, 109, 113, 128, 129, 130, 131, 138, 140, 149, 151.

Jensen, H.A., 1998: Bibliography on seed morphology: 17, 68, 84, 104.

Le Maout, E. & Decaisne, J., 1868: Traité géneral de botanique: 3, 6, 15, 47, 54, 106.

Moldenke, H.N. & Moldenke, A.L., 1952: Plants of the Bible: 81, 93.

Skottsberg, C. (ed.), 1911: Växternes liv, bd. 10 & 11: 86, 128.

Wettstein, R.R.v., 1911: Handbuch der Systematischen Botanik: 96, 112.

Woenig, F., 1886: Die Pflanzen im alten Aegypten: 40, 52, 74, 75, 103, 108, 119, 133, 141, 148, 150.

The illustrations in PLANT WORLD OF THE BIBLE are by kind permission of the publisher Rhodos, Denmark reproduced from Bibelens Planteverden 2004.

PLANTS OF THE BIBLE DESCRIBED ALPHABETICALLY ACCORDING TO THE ENGLISH PLANT NAMES

ACACIA

Acacia tortilis (Forssk.) Hayne subsp. raddiana (Savi) Brenan. (Umbrella-thorn)

Acacia

Acacia wood was among gifts accepted as offering for the Lord (Ex 25.5; 35.7.24) and it said to have been used when the Israelites made the ark and the poles for carrying it (Ex 25,10 ff; 35,10ff; 37,1 ff; Deut 10,3). For explanation of Ex, Deut and ff, see ‘ABBREVIATIONS.

Acacia wood is also said to have been used for the upright frames of the Tabernacle, and for the pillars holding the curtain separating the holy place from the most holy, and the bars for the frames of the sides of the Tabernacle (Ex 26,15 ff; 36,20 ff).

Furthermore, acacia wood should be used when making the table for the Tabernacle, the poles for carrying the table, and for the altar to burn incense upon, and for the poles to carry the altar (Ex 25.23ff; 27,1 ff; 30,1 ff; 37,25 ff; 38,1 ff).

According to a prophecy of Isaiah, Israel is assured of God’s help: I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, (Isa 41,19).

About the glorious future of Judah: … a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Wadi Shittim. (Joel 3,18).

The place-name Shittim, plural of the Hebrew shittah (acacia wood), appears also in some other verses in the Bible (Num 25,1; Josh 2,1; 3,1; Mic 6,5). It is likely that those locations were in areas with many acacia trees. Beth-Shittah (house of the acacia), appears in Judg 7,22.

Translation of the Hebrew word shittah as ‘acacia wood’ is supported by the fact that the Arabic plant name sunt, a linguistic equivalent of the Hebrew shittah, designates certain species of acacia in Egypt, Arabia and southern Israel (Zohary 1982).

The wood used for making the ark and other parts of the Tabernacle is assumed to be from Acacia tortilis subsp. raddiana (syn. Acacia raddiana Savi), which is the most common tree in Sinai. The tree is also common on Mount Carmel.

Under optimal growing conditions the tree can be 6-8 m tall; in the desert the height is less and the shape of the tree bush-like, crooked and wind-swept. The branches have 3-4 cm long white thorns, and the fruit is a slender curved pod.

In Israel four other species of Acacia occur. Of these, two do not grow in Sinai, one is very rare and one has a more branching shape than A. tortilis subsp. raddiana and is unsuited for construction work.

Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.), which today is a common tree in Israel, has also been suggested. This can, however, be excluded, since the species was first introduced into Israel in the 17th or beginning of the 18th Century.

Many Acacia species produce a sticky substance called gum arabic (or gum elastic, gum acacia). The gum was known by the old Greeks and is described by Hippocrates. The Romans used it as a binder in medicine and in dyeing.

Pieces of wood of Acacia tortilis subsp. raddiana were found at Tel Beersheba, Negev, in layers dated to the 10th-8th and to the 3rd-1st Century BC, and in Arad, Negev, from the 10th-8th Century BC (Liphschitz & Waisel 1973).

In Ancient Egypt the leaves were used for treatment of wounds and in medicine (Manniche 1989).

Immature pods from several Acacia species can be used for dyeing, since the content of tannin is high. Seeds of some species have been used as a detergent.

The wood is orange-brown and very durable. It was used for closing the mummy-coffins in Ancient Egypt. In the Mediterranean area it has also been used for production of charcoal, as fuel and as timber.

ALGUM

ALMUG

Red Sandalwood

Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great quantity of almug wood and precious stones. From the almug wood the king made supports for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come or been seen to this day. (1 Kings 10,11-12).

Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting Lebanon timber … (2 Chr 2,8).

Moreover, the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir brought algum wood and precious stones. From the algum wood, the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; there never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah. (2 Chr 9,10-11).

During transcription of 2 Chr 9,10-11 it is assumed that a writing mistake occurred, because the word algum and not almug as in 1 Kings 10,11-12 has been used.

It appears from the text that the rare and expensive wood, mentioned together with gold and precious stones, originates from the unknown site Ophir.

In 2 Chr 2.8 it is assumed that by mistake the algum