plane

Zohary (Plants of the Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1982) confidently equates the ‘armon of Ezekiel 31:8 with Oriental Plane Platanus orientalis, mostly on the basis of the fact that Arabs call it dilba, which is derived from the Aramaic. The name ‘armon may come from the Hebrew word ‘erom meaning “naked,” referring to the way the bark peels off, leaving the seemingly naked trunk.

Plane trees may have been abundant in the past, if the common name “Wadi Dilb” is related to the Arabic dilba. In the present day, plane trees are fairly common in the upper Jordan Valley and its tributaries. It is widespread throughout the eastern Mediterranean region and in the hills of Iraq and Iran.

The plane tree is large and wide-spreading, with big branches and lobed, hairy leaves shaped like a hand. In Israel it can reach a height of 20 meters (66 feet) and the trunk 50 centimeters (2 feet) in diameter. Its flowers are small and green. The small seeds are contained in round, bristly fruits, which, when open, release the seeds with plumes that carry them great distances on the wind.

In Genesis 30:37 Jacob presumably chose to use branches of the plane tree because its bark can easily be peeled off in strips, exposing the white or yellow inner layer. In ancient times the plane tree was praised as a shade tree by the Greeks, Romans, and Persians. Ezekiel 31:8 associates planes, cedars, and beroshim (“cypresses” or “Grecian junipers”) with the “garden of God,” suggesting special beauty. In Sirach 24:14 wisdom is compared to the plane as a beautiful, big tree.

True plane trees are limited to Europe and North America, apart from the species that grows in the eastern Mediterranean region and Iran. (A wild maple tree in Britain is misleadingly called a “plane.”) Translators in Asia, Latin America, and Africa will have no local species available for the story of Jacob’s goat-breeding experiment in Genesis 30:37 and will have to consider a transliteration in keeping with the other trees mentioned there (poplar and almond). However, the passage in Ezekiel 31:8, where the plane is used in a metaphorical context, leaves room for local equivalents. Egypt, in this passage, is compared to a mighty cedar, against which other trees, such as the plane and the fir, do not match up. Rendering “plane” here will depend on what the translator does with the other trees.

Platanus orientalis, Wikimedia Commons

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

date palm

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 French datil. 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.”

Date palm, photo by Ray Pritz

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

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)

olive

The olive family has over four hundred species in the world. Many of them grow in Africa, India, and Australia, but it is the one in the Bible, the European Olive Olea europaea, that has become famous. It is likely that the olive was domesticated in Egypt or the eastern Mediterranean basin in the third millennium B.C. The botanist Newberry argued that Egypt was its original home. We know from the Bible that olives grew in the hills of Samaria and in the foothills. There is a wild variety, called Olea europaea sylvestris, that is smaller than the domestic one; it produces a smaller fruit with less oil. The Apostle Paul refers to this wild variety in Romans 11:17 and 11:24. Olives are easily propagated by cuttings and by grafting fruitful species into less fruitful ones. They grow best on hillsides where the rain drains off quickly. The fruit forms by August but does not ripen until December or January.

The olive is not a big tree, reaching up to perhaps 10 meters (33 feet), but with pruning it is usually kept to around 5 meters (17 feet) tall. The leaves are grayish green above, and whitish underneath. The bark of young trees is silvery gray but gets darker and rougher as the tree ages. The trunk also gets twisted and hollow and may reach over a meter in thickness. Olives grow for hundreds of years, and some in Israel have possibly reached two thousand years.

The fruit of the olive is about 2 centimeters (1 inch) long and a bit more than a centimeter (1/2 inch) thick. It has a hard stone inside and a soft skin that covers the oily flesh. Today a mature tree may yield 10-20 kilograms (22-44 pounds) of fruit, which, when processed, will yield 1.3-2.6 kilograms (3.6 pounds) of oil.

For the Jews the “big three” trees were the vine, the fig, and the olive. People ate olive fruits, but more importantly, they squeezed the oil from the fruits, and used it for cooking, for lamps, for rubbing on the body, for medicine, and in religion. Jacob poured olive oil on the stone where he saw a vision of angels, declaring it a holy place (Genesis 28:18). Moses, similarly, anointed the Tabernacle and its equipment with olive oil mixed with sweet-smelling resins (Exodus 40:9). Aaron and the priests who served in the Tabernacle were also anointed (Exodus 29:21).

Some types of wild olive grow in Africa, India, and Australia, but are not well-known. The so-called “African olive” produces a black, oil-bearing fruit much like an olive. It is common as a snack in northern Nigeria. The “Chinese olive” is also a species of Canarium and may be a possible cultural substitute, if it produces edible fruit and oil. The “Russian olive” grown in dry regions of the world is a member of the Elaeagnus family and not a true olive. A variety of olive (Olea cuspidate) is used for building in India and Nepal, but it is probably not possible to use it in the Bible except perhaps in a study Bible where you could say that the biblical olive was related to this tree.

Since most of the kinds of olive trees in the world do not have edible fruit, it may not be possible to substitute a local variety. If it is done, however, a footnote would be required saying that the Palestinian kind produced edible fruit and oil. If a variety of Canarium is eaten in your area, you could use the local name for it. Otherwise transliterate from a major language.

Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, Wikimedia Commons

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

Translation commentary on Sirach 24:14

I grew tall like a palm tree in En-gedi: The palm tree here is the date palm, which was a symbol of peace and prosperity. The date palm may reach over 30 meters (100 feet) in height. En-gedi was an oasis on the west shore of the Dead Sea, southeast of Jerusalem. Even though this place was surrounded by hostile terrain, plants grew readily there, but the date palms would have been by far the tallest. Another name for the place was Hazazon-tamar, which means “the rocky place of date palms” in Hebrew (2 Chr 20.2).

The Greek manuscripts have many variations on in En-gedi. As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show, some read “on the seashore.” In En-gedi is almost certainly intended. It is read by the most textually conservative translations, such as An American Translation and La Bible Pléiade. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, which is very careful on textual matters, does not even give a footnote with the alternative “on the seashore.” This Handbook believes that no textual footnote is necessary.

And like rose plants in Jericho: The rose plants are not the flowering bushes known as roses in modern times. The reference is most likely to the oleander, a tall-growing (almost 4 meters, or 12 feet) flowering shrub that grew along stony riverbanks in Palestine. Translators may substitute the name of a similar plant more widely known to their readers, as translators into English have used “roses.” Another possibility is to use a less specific description, such as “tall flowering shrubs.” Jericho is the famous city just west of the Jordan River, near the Dead Sea, mentioned in the book of Joshua. Springs in the area of this city permitted extensive vegetation.

Like a beautiful olive tree in the field: The olive tree symbolized peace and security; see Hos 14.6. It was widely grown in Palestine as a cultivated tree in orchards.

And like a plane tree I grew tall: The plane tree is a tall, fast-growing tree with large leaves. It is very closely related to the tree known in North America as the sycamore, or buttonwood. For this line Good News Translation reads a Greek text that adds “beside the waters.” We recommend that this phrase be included in translation. It is included in New Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, and Luís Alonso Schökel. In our judgment a textual footnote is not necessary.

The Greek verb translated I grew tall occurs three times in verses 13-14. Good News Translation uses it only once, at the beginning of verse 13. Everything else in verses 13-14 in Good News Translation consists of clauses beginning with the word “like.” Since the items in the series in these verses have the same form, Good News Translation is free to put one right after the other without worrying about the length of the sentence. The real point is the series of trees and bushes named, each striking in its own way. Each seems to be placed in a geographical context (Lebanon, Hermon, En-gedi, Jericho, in the field, beside the waters) where that particular tree or bush would conspicuously stand out against its surroundings. Wisdom is like these trees; it stands out, it is conspicuous, it is beautiful, it is desirable.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.