Plants of the Bible

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Plants of the Bible
Lytton John Musselman Old Dominion University
23 April 2003
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Plants of the Bible
Symbolism and Spiritual Meaning of Plants in the
Bible
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Overview
Local names
Symbolism -Pomegranate -Cedar -Mustard -Tares
From Sidnaya Monastery, Syria
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About 125 different plants are mentioned in the
Bible. This includes well known crops and also
such obscure plants as almug wood (II Chronicles
28) and costly wood (Revelation 1812). In
addition, there are general terms as weeds and
trees.
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More plants are mentioned in the Old Testament
than in the New Testament

• Isaiah mentions more plants than any other book
  (it is also one of the longest books).
• Song of Solomon mentions more unique plants,
  hapex legomena, than any other book.

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• The vine (Vitis vinifera) and its products are
  mentioned more than any other plant with 372
  references. On the other hand, some plants are
  mentioned only once such as saffron.

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Few plants and plant products are unique to the
New Testament Papyrus Laurel
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Paper is mentioned only in II John 12 Although I
have much to write to you, I would rather not use
paper and ink. . .
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Paper was made from the Egyptian river plant
Cyperus papyrus.
Cyperus papyrus Hula Swamp
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It was shipped to the Phoenician port of Byblos,
the present day Lebanese city of Jbail.
From Egypt
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Our English word paper comes from papyrus and
Bible from Byblos.
Ruins of Byblos
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Laurel (Laurus nobilis), the bay leaf of cooking,
is implied in the victors crown in several New
Testament verses, especially Pauls writings.
It is a common shrub in the Mediterranean region.
you will receive a crown of glory that will
never fade. . . I Peter 54
Laurus nobilis, Chouf, southern Lebanon. March
2002.
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• Several plants are obvious imports to Israel.
  Examples are ebony (Ezekiel 2715) and the
  essential ingredients for the anointing oil and
  incensecalamus, frankincense, and myrrh (Exodus
  30)

Boswellia papyrifera near Kadugli, Sudan
High quality resin
Flowers
Summer condition
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Based on an agrarian society, the Bible
mentions crops frequently.
Threshing wheat in Jordan
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• No clear correlation exists between the number of
  references and the frequency of plants in natural
  vegetation. A good example is the carob Ceratonia
  siliqua, a common tree in much of the Middle East
  yet mentioned only once (the story of the
  prodigal son, Luke 15).

Because of their uniform weight, the seeds of
carob were used to measure precious commodities,
like gold. Hence the word carat in English,
from the Greek, keraton, also the source of
Ceratonia.
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Chamaecyparis thyoides
Cedar of Lebanon

• Local people in different lands use Bible (or
  Quran) names for indigenous plants which never
  grew in their lands. The flora of Eastern North
  America, for example, has many "cedars," which
  are no relation to the cedar of Lebanon of the
  Bible.  

Atlantic white cedar, Dismal Swamp
Juniperus virginiana
Red cedar
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In eastern Sudan, the Beja people call the
large, arborescent Euphorbia abyssinca, zaqqm
after the tree of Hell mentioned in the Quran
(Al-Sfft 3765, Al-Dukhn 4449, Al-Waqiah 5651).
Red Sea Hills
Red Sea Hills, eastern Sudan.
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Symbolism of Bible Plants
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How can understanding the plants help us to
better understand the text?
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• Research Methods
• Linguistics
• 2. Ethnology

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Symbolism of Bible Plants
Pomegranates
Cedar of Lebanon
Hold the mustard?
The wheat and the tares
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Pomegranates
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Pomegranates
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Pomegranates
Ancient image of beauty and fecundity
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Pomegranates
Panel at Jerash, Jordan
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Pomegranates
Hatay, eastern Turkey
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Pomegranates
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
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Pomegranates in the Bible
1. Symbol of beauty
Exodus 39 24. Pomegranates were attached to
the bottom edge of the robe these were made of
linen cloth, embroidered with blue, purple, and
scarlet. 25. Bells of pure gold were placed
between the pomegranates along the bottom edge
of the skirt, with bells and pomegranates
alternating all around the edge. This robe was
worn when Aaron ministered to the Lord, just as
the Lord had commanded Moses. New Living
Translation
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Pomegranates in the Bible
1. Symbol of beauty 2. Image of feminine charm
Song of Solomon 4 3 Your lips are like a ribbon
of scarlet. Oh, how beautiful your mouth! Your
cheeks behind your veil are like pomegranate
halves-lovely and delicious. New Living
Translation
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Pomegranates in the Bible
1. Symbol of beauty 2. Image of feminine charm 3.
Desirable food
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Pomegranates in the Bible
Numbers 20 5 Why did you ever make us leave
Egypt and bring us here to this evil place?
Where is the fertile land of wonderful crops
the figs, vines, and pomegranates you told us
about? Why, there isn't even water enough to
drink!' New Living Translation
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Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani
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The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar in Lebanon Psalm 9212
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Distribution of Cedrus libani
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Approximate distribution of cedar in Bible times
on Lebanon.
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Certainly the best known Lebanese plant is Cedrus
libani, Cedar of Lebanon
Tannourine cedar preserve
Cedars of the Lord, Bsherri
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Cedar requires fog from the Mediterranean to
thrive
Less than 3 of the original cedar forest is
extant in Lebanon
Ehden cedar preserve, March 2002
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Cedars are big trees
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They form dense stands
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Chouf cedar reserve
Female cones take 2-3 years to mature
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Chouf cedar reserve
First year cone
Female cones take 2-3 years to mature
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Second year cone
Chouf cedar reserve
Female cones take 2-3 years to mature
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Cone scales with seeds
Mature cones
Seed
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March
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May
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Wood is fine grained and fragrant
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Wood craft is fashioned from broken branches and
damaged trees
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Symbolism
1. Large, stately trees.
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Ezekiel 31 1. And it came to pass in the
eleventh year, in the third month, in the first
day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came
unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, say unto
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude Whom
art thou like in thy greatness? 3. Behold, the
Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair
branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of
high stature and its top was among the thick
boughs.
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Isaiah 2 11. The lofty looks of man shall be
brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be
bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in
that day. 12. For there shall be a day of
Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and
haughty, and upon all that is lifted up and it
shall be brought low 13. and upon all the
cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
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Psalms 29 1. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
give unto the Lord glory and strength. 2. Give
unto the Lord the glory due unto his name
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 3.
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters the God
of glory thundereth the Lord is upon many
waters. 4. The voice of the Lord is powerful
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5.
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars yea,
the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
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A cedar log about 300 years old when it was
toppled, probably by a flood, 7774 years
ago. Preserved on the campus of the
American University of Beirut
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Imagine a boom of logs this size floated to Jaffa!
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Ezra 37. 7. Then they gave money to the masons
and carpenters, and food, drink and oil to the
Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar wood
from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to
the permission they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
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Shipment of logs for Solomons temple
Ruins at Sur
From Tyre, modern day Sur to. . .
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Shipment of logs for Solomons temple
. . .to Jaffa and then overland to. . .
Jerusalem and the temple.
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Symbolism

• Large, stately trees.
• 2. Fine timber, highly valued.

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2 Samuel 7 1. And it came to pass, when the
king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him
rest round about from all his enemies 2. That
the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I
dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God
dwelleth within curtains.
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Symbolism
1. Large, stately trees. 2. Fine timber, highly
valued. 3. Fragrant.
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Leviticus 14 1. And Jehovah spake unto Moses,
saying, 2. This shall be the law of the leper
in the day of his cleansing he shall be brought
unto the priest 3. and the priest shall go
forth out of the camp and the priest shall look
and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed
in the leper, 4. then shall the priest command
to take for him that is to be cleansed two living
clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and
hyssop
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Symbolism
1. Large, stately trees. 2. Fine timber, highly
valued. 3. Fragrant. 4. Live in high
mountains, in verdant forests.
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II Kings 19 23. 'Through your messengers you
have reproached the Lord, And you have said,
"With my many chariots I came up to the heights
of the mountains, To the remotest parts of
Lebanon and I cut down its tall cedars and its
choice cypresses. And I entered its farthest
lodging place, its thickest forest.
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Artist Rudy Rahme has sculpted some dead
trees into objects of religious veneration,
a continuation of the ancient respect for forest
giants.
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What is the smallest seed in the Bible?
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Probably the poppy
Poppy
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Probably the poppy
Poppy
Mustard
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What is the plant with the smallest seed
mentioned in the Bible?
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Brassica alba White mustard
Mustard??
Brassica nigra Black mustard
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Brassica alba
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Mustard seed is not the smallest seed, only the
smallest of crop seeds.
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Wheat
Flax
Chickpea
Barley
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Wheat
Flax
Chickpea
Mustard
Barley
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Jesus said It The Kingdom of God is like a
mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you
plant. . . Mark 4 31.
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Jesus said It The Kingdom of God is like a
mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you
plant. . . Mark 4 31.
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What feature makes mustard seed like the Kingdom
of God?
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Perhaps its unusually rapid germination.
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Mustard seed 24 hours after sowing
Leaven is also a symbol of the Kingdom of God.
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Symbolism of Mustard
Is it normally a tree?
Or, is this a monstrosity?
Exegesis will depend theology
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MustardWhat is mustard in the Bible?
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There is no archeological or ethnobotanical
evidence of mustard, Brassica alba or B. nigra,
culture in Bible times.
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Is mustard, Greek sinapis, Eruca sativa, known in
English as rocket or arugula?
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Eruca sativa, widely used in the Middle East
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Eruca sativa, native and widely used in the
Middle East
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What are tares Greek zizanion in the Bible?
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Harvesting wheat near Medaba, Jordan. June 1999.
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Zizanion is translated into English as tares,
darnel, or weeds.
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Parable of the Tares Matthew 13 24-30 The
Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good
seed in his field. But while everyone was
sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the
wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and
formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.
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The owners servants came to him and said, Sir
didnt you sow good seed in your field? Where
then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this,
he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want
us to go and pull them up?
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No, he answered. Because while you are pulling
the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest. At that
time I will tell the harvesters, First collect
the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned
then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.
Wheat harvested near Medaba, Jordan with roots.
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According to this parable, zizanion should have
the following features 1. The seed was good,
i.e., pure seed, not contaminated with
weeds. 2. Be associated with wheat and have
similar growth features. 3. Is distinguishable
from the wheat at harvest. 4. Is pulled up
first, then removed from the field
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Candidates for tares 1. Lolium temulentum 2.
Cephalaria syriaca
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Evidence from peasant farming
Cephalaria syriaca
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Farmers in Jordan referred to Cephalaria
syriaca as zawan, or tares.
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Farmers in Jordan referred to Cephalaria
syriaca as zawan, or tares.
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There is an Arab proverb that says
The tares zawan of your own field are better
than the wheat of the Crusaders
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In higher rainfall areas Lolium temulentum is
more common than Cephalaria syriaca. Lolium
temulentum is still a common weed in wheat fields
in this region.
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(No Transcript)
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Durum wheat
Durum wheat
Lolium temulentum
Lolium temulentum
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Tares
Wheat
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Conclusion Tares could be any weed that grows
synchronously with wheat and has similar fruits.
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Jesus Explanation of the Parable

• Matthew 13
• 36. Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went
• into the house. His disciples said, "Please
  explain
• the story of the weeds in the field."
• 37. "All right," he said. "I, the Son of Man, am
  the
• farmer who plants the good seed.
• The field is the world, and the good seed
• represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds
• are the people who belong to the evil one.

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• 39. The enemy who planted the weeds among the
  wheat
• is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the
  world, and the
• harvesters are the angels.
• "Just as the weeds are separated out and burned,
  so it
• will be at the end of the world.
• I, the Son of Man, will send my angels, and they
  
• will remove from my Kingdom everything that
  causes
• sin and all who do evil,
• and they will throw them into the furnace and
• burn them. There will be weeping and gnashing
• of teeth.
• New Living Translation

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Bible Plant web site
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Dedicated to my friend, F. Nigel Hepper,
Bible plant authority and devoted Christian
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With thanks to
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American University of Beirut and Old Dominion
University
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John Musselman, eager field companion.
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My favorite field companion and Bible teacher,
Libby Musselman
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Solo Deo Gloria
Wadi Jhannem, northern Lebanon