fennel (galbanum)

Although its identity in the Bible is uncertain, galbanum is probably a gum resin from a plant called Fennel Ferula galbaniflua, which grows in India, Iran and Afghanistan, and especially in the high mountains of Iran. The fennel is related to the parsley family. Today most commercial galbanum comes from Lebanon and Iran.

The fennel plant can grow to 1.5 meters (5 feet) in height. It has fine, shiny leaflets, a thick smooth stem, and a flower head like an umbrella. The seeds are shiny and very small. The plant has a milky juice that comes out by it-self from the joints or oozes out from the stem when it is cut. It forms aromatic greenish or yellowish beads when it dries. The taste is bitter and the smell is strong. A kind of fennel grows in Galilee (Ferula communis), but it does not yield the galbanum resin. Another kind, known from Roman coins from Carthage, grew in North Africa under the name silphion (probably Ferula tingitana).

According to Exodus 30:34, galbanum resin was part of the incense prescribed by Moses for burning in the Tabernacle. In Assyria it was used as a fumigant. It could have been the “gum” mentioned in Genesis 37:25. The Roman writer Pliny considered it a powerful remedy.

Translation  Since fennel is not well known, most translators will need to transliterate from a major language. Some possibilities are:

1. transliteration from Hebrew: helibena, elbenahi, lebena;
2. transliteration from Latin via English: galbanum;
3. substitution of a local type of gum, adding chelbenah or galbanum as a tag or in a footnote.
4. transliteration of the name of the plant with a classifier: gum of ferula (French), feneli (English), hinojo/ferula (Spanish).

Fennel, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

cinnamon

True cinnamon Cinnamomum verum (or Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is a tree found mostly in Sri Lanka, India, and Burma. The Hebrew word qinnamon may ultimately derive from an early form of the Malaysian/Indonesian expression kayu manis, meaning “sweet wood.” As in the case of cassia, there is debate about whether the cinnamon mentioned in the Old Testament could have been imported from the Far East or whether there was perhaps a spice from Arabia or Africa that was named qinnamon, because this name was known at the time of writing. Some scholars believe that there was trade between India and Egypt as early as the second millennium B.C. In fact, the renowned Egyptian queen Hatshepsut is thought to have brought myrrh or frankincense trees from “Punt,” which could have been Somalia or even India, in 1490 B.C. However, she apparently did not bring cinnamon trees, nor are cinnamon and cassia among the spices found in the tombs of Egypt. So the true identity of the biblical cinnamon is still in question.

The true cinnamon tree grows to 10 meters (33 feet) in height. The stem branches plentifully. The leathery leaves are 10-15 centimeters (4-6 inches) in length and have three light-colored, radiating veins. The spongy outer bark is scraped off, revealing a fragrant pale brown inner bark. This inner bark carries the cinnamon flavor. It is cut off and dried, and the bark curls to form little scrolls. The small flowers have an unpleasant smell.

According to Exodus 30:23, cinnamon was an ingredient of the holy oil used to anoint the Tabernacle, ark, and priests. The temptress of Proverbs 7:17 perfumes her bed with it, together with myrrh and aloes. Today the bark of cinnamon is ground into powder and used as a spice for food and as an ingredient in incense and perfume. Even the leaves and unripe berries (“buds”) are marketed as condiments.

Translators in Asia will be able to use their own word for cinnamon. They will even be able to distinguish between cassia and cinnamon. In other areas it is best to transliterate from Hebrew qinnamon or a major language. Since the bark was ground into powder, the words “bark” or “powder” may be useful as classifiers. In Exodus 30:23 and 24 translators will need two words for the closely related cassia and cinnamon.

Cinnamon tree with bark removed, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

cassia

Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) is confident that the substance referred to by the Hebrew words qiddah and qetsi‘ah is oil or powder derived from the leaves, twigs, or bark of the cassia Cinnamomum cassia, a tree found in East Asia. The name “cassia” may possibly come from the Khasi people of north-eastern India and Bangladesh; earlier they lived in the area of Assam and Burma and were involved in the ancient cassia trade. So cassia oil may have been brought into Israel from East Asia. However, with respect to “cassia” and “cinnamon” in Exod 30:23 and 24, Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology. Baker Book House, 1992) argues that these spices were probably not Asian spices as has often been supposed. Quoting research by Lucas and Harris on ancient Egyptian materials, he says that there is no evidence of these Asian spices in tombs in Egypt. If they were being transported by the deprived Israelites, why were they not used by the more prosperous Egyptians? Further, how was Moses to have access to these substances in remote Sinai? Hepper favors southern Arabia and northeastern Africa as sources for fragrant barks and resins.

Asian cassia trees grow to 10 meters (33 feet) tall. They have distinctive opposite leaves with three lighter-colored veins or ribs radiating from the base. Their rather small flowers droop in bunches.

Cassia is closely related to the well-known spice, cinnamon. In fact, much of the “cinnamon” sold in North America is cassia. Europeans and South Americans tend to use the real cinnamon from Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Since cassia is native to East Asia, translators there will know it by a local name. Since the passages that refer to cassia are non-rhetorical, translators elsewhere may transliterate this term from a major language. Cassia is of the genus Cinnamomum, which is completely different from the genus Cassia of which there are many species in Africa. So transliterations based on “cassia” are potentially misleading in Africa. To avoid a wrong association with African cassia (which is not aromatic), African translators could do one of the following:

1. transliterate from the Hebrew qiddah;
2. transliterate from English (kasiya) and write a footnote saying this tree has no relationship to the cassia tree of Africa;
3. substitute a well-known sweet-smelling gum.

Cassia, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

rue

In the Holy Land at the time of Jesus there was only one wild species of rue common, the Mountain Rue Ruta chalepensis, and it is likely the one referred to by Jesus in his rebuke of the Pharisees in Luke 11:42. Rue is common throughout the Middle East, from Syria to Sinai up to the present. Because of its strong smell it is used in cooking and in medicine up to the present. It was used by the Greeks, Romans, and Jews against snakebite and the stings of bees, wasps and scorpions, not to mention its effectiveness against insanity, epilepsy, and even “the evil eye.”

Rue is a small, shrubby plant that produces many branches at ground level, with many yellow flowers and very sharp-smelling leaves. It can reach up to 1 meter (3 feet) in height.

The ancient Jewish Talmud states that cultivated plants should be tithed. It is possible that the disagreement between Jesus and the Pharisees arose because by New Testament times the people were cultivating rue, dill, and similar plants that had not been cultivated before, and the Pharisees then applied the laws of the Talmud to these little plants, thus complicating the lives of the common people, while at the same time they ignored issues of justice and compassion.

Depending on what translators do with “mint” in Luke 11:42, they may find a cultural substitute for “rue” or a generic phrase for “mint and rue and every herb.” Since the context is not rhetorical and the plant genus is limited to the Middle East, a transliteration of “rue” will be appropriate. Transliterations can be made from the Greek pēganon or from a major language.

Rue flowers, photo by Gloria Suess

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

nigella

The English versions of Isaiah 28:25 and 27 reveal the confusion of the translators who have encountered the Hebrew word qetsach. It has been rendered “fitches,” “dill,” “fennel,” and “caraway.” Against all of these renderings, Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) confidently asserts that the word qetsach refers to the nigella plant Nigella sativa, also called by the names “nutmeg flower,” “black cumin,” “black seed,” “charnushka,” and “kalonji.” The Aramaic and Arabic equivalent is qatscha. Jews, Arabs, and Europeans use nigella seeds to decorate cakes and bread up to the present. It is also used as a spice in cooking.

Nigella is planted and harvested annually. It grows to around 30 centimeters (1 foot) in height and has a lacy leaf like dill or carrot and a greenish-blue flower with five petals. The base of the flower becomes a seedpod that contains many round, black, sharp-smelling seeds.

Nigella is used by Isaiah as one of several species in a parable he tells to the leaders of Israel. A farmer, he says, does not destroy the results of one season’s work while preparing for that of the next season. This is spoken to know-it-all scoffers who claim that God’s ways are completely fixed. Against that Isaiah says that God’s ways are according to the conditions of his creatures, as a farmer plants and harvests according to the needs of the various crops.

The abundance of names for nigella is an indication of its popularity around the world. Fortunately the Latin name nigella is now replacing the confusing name “black cumin.” This is good because cumin is a totally different plant. Likewise, “nutmeg flower” and “black caraway” are losing favor. So translators can avoid the confusion brought on by the English by transliterating from a major language.

Nigella, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

mustard

There is by no means full agreement about the precise identity of the plant in Jesus’ famous references to the mustard seed. Two types of mustard grow in the Holy Land and probably grew there in Bible times: Black Mustard Brassica nigra and White Mustard Sinapis alba. Both species were either cultivated or gathered in Bible times, probably more for the oil, which was used in medicine and cooking, than as a spice. Both types are cultivated today.

Mustard plants are related to some other well-known food plants, such as collards, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, rutabaga, and Chinese cabbage. They are planted and harvested each year. They grow to 2 meters (7 feet) in height and have branches like a tree. At the ends of the branches there are bright yellow flowers with four petals, like nearly all the members of the Brassicaceae family. The seeds are small among the seeds of garden plants, being about 2 millimeters (1/12 inch) in diameter, but they are not by any means the smallest of all seeds.

The point of the mustard seed parable of Jesus is that something small can produce something very large and complex, like the kingdom of God, or like the amazing deeds of a person with faith.

At least thirty kinds of mustard are known in the world, twenty-one of them in Europe. Others are found in Northeast Africa, India, Japan, and China. The quality in focus in all of the Gospel references is the smallness of the mustard seed compared to the large size of the resulting plant. The translator must keep that in mind, even if a relative of the mustard is found. If no effective equivalent is available, it will be necessary to transliterate “mustard” from a major language.

White mustard plants, photo by Nigel Hepper
Mustard seeds with pin, photo by Ray Pritz

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also mustard seed.

mint

The Horse Mint Mentha longifolia is the most common of the mint plants in the Holy Land, found on the banks of streams throughout the country. The Jews called it dandanah, a Hebrew word that does not occur in the Old Testament. They served its leaves along with milk and cucumbers, made a hot drink by boiling them, or used them, as the Romans and Greeks also did, in medicine and cooking. According to Moldenke (Plants of the Bible. Chronica Botanica. Ronald Press, 1952), people scattered mint leaves on the floors of synagogues, and the fragrance was released as people entered and stepped on them.

The horse mint is larger than the other kinds of mint, reaching up to 2 meters (7 feet). It has small, soft leaves with sawlike margins, and lavender-colored flowers.

In Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 Jesus accuses the Pharisees of legalistically tithing not only from their major food crops—olives, dates and wheat, for example — but even from the leaves they pluck for their soup, including mint, and then ignoring issues of justice and poverty.

At least twenty-five kinds of mint are found in temperate areas of the world. It is well known in West Africa as an additive to tea. Depending on what translators do with the other species mentioned in Matthew and Luke (dill, cumin, and rue), if they do not have these species locally, they may transliterate “mint” from a major language. In simplified versions they may cover all these species with a generic phrase such as “all kinds of little plants in the garden.”

Horse mint, photo by Nigel Hepper

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

dill

The King James Version translates the Greek word anēthon in Matthew 23:23 as “anise,” but scholars now agree that the plant Jesus refers to is the dill Anethum graveolens, a garden herb. The translation of the Hebrew word qetsach (קֶצַח) as “dill” by New Revised Standard Version, updated edition and others in Isaiah 28:25 and 27 is now seen as erroneous (see nigella).

Dill is an annual plant that can reach 50 centimeters (20 inches) in height. Like the carrot, parsley and fennel, it has fine leaves. Its yellow flowers form a shape like a covered cup. The leaves and seeds have a pleasant, spicy smell.

As in the case of cumin and mint, Jesus used dill to condemn the skewed values of the religious leaders, who were blind to the misfortunes of the poor but fastidiously tithed even small garden seeds.

Dill is known in western Asia and in India as well as in Europe and America. Depending on what is done with the other plants in Matthew 23:23, namely mint and cumin, the translator may choose to transliterate “dill” from the original Greek anēthon or from a major language. It is debatable whether the context here is rhetorical or not, so transliteration of the three species is acceptable, although substituting cultural equivalents is also possible and effective. It is important to keep in mind the parallel passage of Luke 11:42, which does not include dill.

Dill, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)