The Cilician fir Abies cilicica grew abundantly in the forests of Lebanon along with cedars, evergreen cypresses, and Grecian junipers. The Hebrew word berosh probably included fir, cypress, and juniper. According to 1 Kings 5:8 and elsewhere, berosh was used in King Solomon’s building projects. The reference in Ezekiel 27:5 to the use of berosh for the timbers/planks of ships could well be talking about fir trees since they are very straight, but the association of berosh there with Mount Senir rather favors the Grecian juniper, which was abundant there.
The Cilician fir is a tall and almost perfectly straight evergreen tree, in the same family with pines, cedars, and cypresses. It can reach a height of 25 meters (82 feet). Its flat seeds are contained in cones that fall from the tree when mature. Firs are the major source for turpentine, used by painters to dilute paint and clean brushes.
The Abies genus is represented throughout the world in temperate climates at high altitudes (for example, in Kenya, Japan, and North America). Since there are no firs or anything quite like them in tropical Africa, translators can use a transliteration, for example, firi or pir. In Ezekiel 27:5 we recommend following Zohary by rendering berosh as “fir.” The majority of English translations are divided among “fir,” “cypress,” and “pine.” In 1-2 Kings and 2 Chronicles we recommend rendering berosh as “fir” or “juniper.” Elsewhere berosh may be considered a generic word referring to cypress, fir, pine, or all of them together. In those places a general word for this type of cone-bearing tree should be used.
The Wild Apple (or Crab Apple) Malus sylvestris is the ancestor of the sweet fruit we know today Malus domestica. The domestication may have occurred in what is now Iran, Armenia, Turkey, or Syria. Apples have grown in Europe, in western Asia, and probably in Turkey and Lebanon, for several thousand years. The question for Bible scholars is whether the puny, rather tart fruit of the wild apple merits the glowing description we find in Proverbs 25:11: “. . . like apples of silver in a set-ting of gold,” and in Song of Songs 2:5: “Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am sick with love.” With that doubt in mind, some scholars have suggested that the tapuach, whose pleasant smell is noted in Song of Songs 7:8, is the apricot. Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) favors the apple on linguistic grounds, citing the Arabic cognate tuffach, which refers to the apple, and Egyptian records from 1298–1235 B.C. that refer to taph (probably the same as tapuach) growing in the Nile Valley. It is possible that improved varieties had already been developed in biblical times. Zohary points out that the apricot appeared in the region much later than the apple.
The apple tree reaches to 5-10 meters (17-33 feet), has a rounded crown, and bears a round fruit about the size of an orange. In the spring the tree is completely covered with pink flowers, which gradually give way to the green of the leaves as they develop. The fruit can be greenish, yellow, or red.
Apples grow well only in temperate climates where the tree is frozen part of the year, so there are no close native relatives in tropical Africa or Asia. However, fruits grown in Europe and South Africa are being shipped to many African countries, and so have become well-known, at least in the cities, usually by a name from a major international language. We recommend transliteration from a well-known language (for example, tufa [Arabic], pom/pomier [French], manzano [Spanish], masa/masiyera [Portuguese], and apel [English]), although translators seeking literary equivalence may wish to find a cultural substitute in the Proverbs and Song of Songs passages.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sycamore” in English is translated in Chichewa as mkuyu or “fig tree.” (Source: Wendland 1987, p. 72)
The use of “sycomore” might be preferable to “sycamore,” since the “o” spelling preserves the Latin (sycomorus) and Greek (sukomorea) better and is used in French.
The Sycomore Fig Ficus sycomorus, also called the Mulberry Fig (compare GermanMaulbeerfeigenbaum), is a type of fig that is found especially in lowland areas in the Mediterranean region. It was known in Egypt as early as 3000 B.C. but also in the Indus Valley in India.
The prophet Amos identified himself as “a dresser of sycamore trees” (Amos 7:14). It is possible that this refers to the practice of making a cut in the immature fruit, which has the effect of accelerating the growth of the fruit. Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology. Baker Book House, 1992) reports that this sudden growth is caused by ethylene gas released when the fruit is cut.
The sycomore fig is not a tall tree (up to 10 meters [33 feet]) but has large low, spreading branches — just right for a short man to climb up in order to see over a crowd of taller people (see the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:4). The fruit, while edible, is not as juicy or sweet as the more common variety. The most unusual thing about the fruit is that it grows in bunches right on the trunk and branches of the tree rather than among the leaves.
In 1 Kings 10:27 the sycomore is used as an image of something plentiful. The last half of this verse says “he [King Solomon] made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.” Translators should take care with the logic here. The verse does not say that Solomon would introduce cedars into the lowlands (the Shephelah), but rather that just as there are plenty of sycomores in the lowlands, there will be plenty of cedars in the land of Israel.
Translators need to deal with both sycomore and fig at the same time. If the translation leans toward foreignization, the translator may want to transliterate both fig and sycomore (sikomori, for example). It may be useful to use the full name sycomore fig in some cases. If a local type of fig is known, the translator could use the local name for the domestic fig (Hebrew te’enah, Greek sukē), and add the word “wild” or “lowland” when referring to the sycomore fig (Hebrew shiqmah, Greek sukomorea).
Where figs are totally unknown, transliterations can be made from an international language, for example, French (sycomore), Spanish (sicomoro), or Hebrew (shiqmah). In contrast to the regular fig, the sycomore grows in the lower elevations (Shephelah), a fact that could potentially come into use in a translation (for example, “lowland fig”).
A tall evergreen, the Grecian Juniper Juniperus excelsa, also known as the Eastern Savin, grew in the mountains of Lebanon along with cedars, firs, and cypress (the Hebrew word berosh probably covered all three of these trees). The association of berosh with Mount Senir in Ezekiel 27:5 argues for the Grecian juniper there, since Mount Senir was known to have plenty of Grecian junipers. Lebanese people up to today refer to the juniper as brotha, a likely cognate with berosh. King Solomon undoubtedly hauled these trees to Jerusalem along with cedars and firs to use in constructing his palace and the Temple of Yahweh.
The Grecian juniper is a conical tree reaching a height of 20 meters (65 feet). Its “leaves” are round rather than flat, and the fruit is an inedible seed-bearing, fleshy cone.
There is no single Hebrew or Greek word that refers specifically to the Grecian juniper. In our discussion of cypress and fir, we have advocated translating berosh generically or as “fir” or “juniper” in 1-2 Kings and 2 Chronicles (where it is typically associated with Lebanon or cedar). If no generic word is available in the receptor language, a descriptive phrase such as “strong, beautiful tree/wood” can be used. In poetical passages, local poetic equivalents could be considered.
More than forty types of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) are found in dry tropical countries all the way from the Canary Islands, across Africa to India. They probably originated in the Middle East, where they are still found in abundance. In Leviticus 23:40 we read that the branches of date palms were to be used for the Festival of Shelters, and in John 12:13 people welcomed Jesus with date palm leaves. In the latter case there is a legitimate question of where they got the leaves, since Jerusalem is rather too high and cold for date palms. But the same could be asked about the prophetess Deborah’s palm (Judges 4:5), which was located between Ramah and Bethel, scarcely lower than Jerusalem. Jericho was known as the “city of palm trees” (temarim in Hebrew). Date fruits were eaten fresh or dried and pressed into “cakes,” and they were sometimes made into a drink. It is possible that in Deuteronomy 8:8 the Hebrew word devash that we normally take as “honey” refers to a syrup made from dates. The leaves were and are used for mats, baskets, fences, and roofs. Date palms are now cultivated intensively in the Jordan and Aravah valleys, around the Dead Sea, and on the coastal plain of Israel. The word “date” entered English from Latin dactylus via Old Frenchdatil. Latin got it from Greek daktylos, meaning “finger.”
The date palm typically grows to a height of 10-20 meters (33-66 feet) and has a cluster of immense leaves at the top. Each year, old leaves wither and droop, and people who own palms cut the old branches off. The tightly packed bunch of immature leaves is called lulav in Hebrew. Date palms start bearing fruit at around five to eight years of age. The sweet fruits, a little smaller than a human thumb, grow in large bunches. Inside the soft fruit is a very hard seed about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long. Date palm trees are either male or female, and there are places where the trees of one sex grow but no fruit is seen, because they lack pollination. Farmers prefer to propagate them by cultivating the suckers that grow at the base of the tree, rather than from seeds, which would produce too many male trees. The fruit appears on the female tree in the summer (June-August).
In Song of Songs 7:7 we find the palm used as a symbol of elegance and grace. In Psalm 92:12–14 we are told that the righteous will flourish like the palm tree, but Job 15:32 says the wicked will wither like a dry palm branch. In 1 Maccabees 13:37 the palm branch is a symbol of peace, but in 1 Maccabees 13:51 it is a symbol of victory (so also John 12.13; Rev 7.9; 2 Macc 10.7).
Translators living along the West African coast often substitute the oil palm or the coconut palm for the date palm, which is found normally in desert areas. Others are familiar with the fan palm (Borassus, “ruhn palm”) but they should note that the shape of the leaf of the fan palm is quite different from that of the date palm. I am not aware of a non-European language that has a generic word for palm. Since the function of palm branches in the Festival of Shelters is to build rough shelters, the type of palm tree does not make a lot of difference. The same is true for references where the image of the palm is used as a decoration, as in the description of the Temple (see 1 Kings 6:29 et al.). In cases where the fruit is mentioned, a transliteration is recommended, either from the Hebrew word tamar or from a major language.
In locations where oil and coconut palm trees are found, but no date palms, the oil palm is to be preferred. In places where no palms are found, it is still possible that the date fruit is found in markets, particularly in Muslim-dominated areas, where it may be a popular item for breaking the fast during Ramadan. In northern Nigeria, a dwarf species of date palm (Phoenix reclinata) grows in ravines and bears small edible fruits much like the big palm. At least one translation there (Berom) makes use of the local name.
It would seem then that if the date palm is not known at all, the options here are:
1. use the word for oil or coconut palm (and consider writing a footnote that indicates that the Hebrew words tamar and tomer and the Greek word phoinix refer to a similar tree that has a quite different fruit);
2. transliterate from Hebrew (tomera, tamara) and Greek (fonis, fowinik);
3. transliterate from a major language, for example, nakhal/temer (Arabic), dattier (French), datil/palmera (Spanish), mtende (Swahili), khajoor (खजूर) (Hindi), and hǎizǎo (海枣 / 海棗) (Chinese);
4. use a generic phrase appropriate to the context, for example, “beautiful tree.”
In Chichewa, gwalanga, the word for the local fan palm is used for translation. In rural areas people use the leaves for vegetables. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
The New Testament aloe must be distinguished from that mentioned in some versions of the Old Testament. In Numbers 24:6, Psalm 45:8; and some other places aloe refers to chips of fragrant wood from the agarwood tree found in northern India. However, the New Testament reference to aloe is to the true aloe Aloe vera. This aloe originated in southern Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar. The gel-like substance in the leaves of the aloe has been used as medicine for centuries, especially to treat burns and abrasions of the skin. It is also used as a laxative, and in modern times as an ingredient in all kinds of skin creams, soaps, shampoo, and even as a drink (in Asia), or as an additive to tea.
The leaves of aloe plants are stiff, fleshy spines that come out like fat knife blades from the center of the plant. They have spiny margins and are mostly solid green in color, but some are spotted or blotched. Most aloes have no visible stem, but some do have stems, and can reach a height of more than a meter (3 feet). The plants produce clusters of small red or yellow tube-like flowers that are borne on a stalk.
Aloes are native to southern Africa, Madagascar and Arabia, but are now found in tropical countries throughout the world. Translators in those areas will have local names for the plant. Since the one reference to aloe is a non-rhetorical passage, a transliteration from a major language is advised, but it will depend on what is done with myrrh, the other word in the pair.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “pomegranate” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as kingmernarssûp or “big lingonberry.” “The Greenlandic word kingmernarssûp (modern kimmernarsuup) derives from kingmernaĸ (modern kimmernaq) ‘lingonberry’ (Vaccinium vitis-idaea). The lingonberry is the fruit of a shrub from the heath family which is native to the boreal forest and tundra in the Arctic regions of North America, Europe, and Siberia, including western and southern Greenland. The term for ‘lingonberry’ has been modified with the suffix –ssuaĸ (modern –suaq ‘big’), resulting in a descriptive term meaning ‘big lingonberry.’ (Modern Greenlandic uses the Danish loanword granatæble.)” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
The pomegranate Punica granatum has been grown from ancient times across the Middle East over to Iran and into northern India. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of Southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies, and tropical Africa. Pomegranates are now found throughout the warm parts of southern Europe and across North Africa and Asia all the way to Nepal. Images of pomegranate fruits have been found in Pharaoh’s temple in Karnak, Egypt, dating from around 1480 B.C. In classical Latin the species name was malum punium (apple of Puni) or malum granatum (seedy apple). This has influenced the common name for pomegranate in many languages (for example, GermanGranatapfel, “seed apple”). The English word “pomegranate” itself comes from Latin pomum (fruit, apple) via Old French. The Arabic rummân (رمان) passed into some other languages, including Portuguese romã.
The pomegranate is a small tree, growing to about 3-5 meters (10-17 feet) tall, with narrow, dark green leaves and many thorny branches. It has a lovely red flower. The fruit is a bit smaller than an orange and has a hard skin, which must be cut open to get at the tightly-packed pockets of seeds inside, each seed enclosed in a little bag of juicy pulp. The end of the fruit has a distinctive flower-like shape. The hard skin, which turns from green to red as it ripens, is used as a tanning agent, for medicine, and for ink. The seeds were sometimes made into wine. Pomegranate trees live up to two hundred years.
The pomegranate was one of the seven “special” foods mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8 that the Israelites would find in Canaan. The fruit was one of several brought back to the camp of the Israelites by the men who scouted out Canaan (Numbers 13:23). In Song of Songs 4:3 the bride of the king is said to have cheeks like halves of a pomegranate, a reference, probably, to their red color. The flower-shaped end of the pomegranate fruit made it an attractive decoration, for example on the fringe of the priests’ robes (Exodus 28:33f. and on the columns and furniture of the Temple (2 Kings 25:17).
In Jewish tradition the pomegranate stands for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 commands of the Torah. For this reason and others many Jews eat pomegranates on the Jewish New Year Festival (Rosh Hashanah). Jewish tradition also holds that the pointed calyx of the pomegranate is the original “design” for a royal crown.
The Babylonians believed chewing pomegranate seeds before battle made them invincible. The Qur’an mentions pomegranates three times, twice as examples of the good things God creates, once as a fruit found in the Garden of Paradise.
The pomegranate is only recently being grown outside of the Mediterranean area. In West Africa it has not yet become a popular fruit. Where it is known at all, it is called rummân (from Arabic). In Song 4.3 and 6.7 the refer-ences to the pomegranate are rhetorical. There a cultural equivalent representing redness or beauty could be used. Elsewhere in the Bible transliteration is advised, following a major language. The word pome simply means “fruit,” so the basic word to transliterate from is granate (compare granada in Spanish). A possible expression is “garinada fruit.” The Latin phrase Punica granatum for pomegranate means the “grenade” of Punica (= Carthage), a city in present-day Tunisia. The Latin word granatum means “filled with many grains or seeds.” Reflecting this, Bambara of Guinea uses “karanati fruit.” One could also use the Hebrew rimmon as a base. Areas influenced by Arabic may find a word like rummân, for example, roomaanoo in Mandinka. A footnote could describe the fruit as similar to a guava, red and seedy.
Although the pomegranate has been introduced recently throughout Africa, it is not well-known, so the name will most likely need to be transliterated. As the English name is quite long, the translator is advised to translate from another source or look for ways to shorten it, such as “granata fruit.”
Three species of oak are found in Israel, the main ones being the Tabor oak and the Kermes (or common) oak. Both go by the name ’elon or ’allon in Hebrew. The similarity to the Hebrew word ’el (“god”) is significant, since these trees have long been associated with worship and with burial. Since the Tabor oak is the biggest, it is likely that ’elon and ’allon most often refer to that one. English versions have sometimes mistakenly translated the Hebrew word ’elah (“terebinth”) as “oak.”
According to Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, Baker Book House, 1992), forests of Kermes oak (Quercus calliprinos or Quercus coccifera) covered the hill country of Israel from Carmel to Samaria in biblical times. The Kermes oak forest is the most familiar and important type of vegetation in Israel.
The Tabor Oak Quercus macrolepsis (= Quercus aegilops = Quercus ithaburensis = Valonea oak in Israel) apparently replaced the original common oak during the Arab period (800–1400 A.D.), but has itself been nearly destroyed in more recent times by the efforts of charcoal makers, limestone burners, and the Turkish rail-way. Tabor oaks are deciduous and are found mostly in Carmel.
The large Tabor oak reaches a height of 25 meters (82 feet), branching at around 5.5 meters (18 feet). The Kermes oak is more like a large shrub, normally branching at ground level. The Tabor oak loses its leaves every winter; the Kermes oak is evergreen and prickly.
Oaks were used to mark grave sites (see Genesis 35:8), and it is possible that the references to “oak of Moreh” or “oaks of Mamre” may hint at burial sites of famous people. They were probably also important in divination, if the reference in Judges 9:37 (see Translation commentary on Judges 9:37) to a “Diviners’ Oak” can be taken as typical. References to people named Allon (1 Chronicles 4:37) or Elon (Genesis 46:14 et al.) may suggest that the oak was a symbol of strength or beauty, or both.
Oaks grow mainly in temperate areas (Europe, North America, North Asia, and Japan) and the Mediterranean area, including North Africa. Translators in tropical areas will not have a local variety as an option. In historical contexts, therefore, it will be necessary to transliterate from a major language. In poetic contexts such as the prophets, the oak typically represents a large and very strong tree, and a local species with those characteristics can be considered.
