Plants
Trees, vines, and grains the Bible names.
14 entries
- cultureFig tree
A long-lived tree (Ficus carica) prized for its sweet fruit and broad shade. To sit "under one's vine and fig tree" was the picture of peace…
- cultureOlive tree
A slow-growing, long-lived tree (Olea europaea) whose oil lit lamps, anointed kings, and fed households. Paul uses its grafting as a picture…
- cultureVine
A climbing plant (Vitis vinifera) trained over stones or wooden frames. Its fruit became wine, raisins, and a recurring biblical figure for …
- cultureWheat
The staple grain of the Holy Land, sown in late autumn and reaped in early summer. A single grain falling into the ground becomes Jesus's im…
- cultureMustard seed
The seed of the black mustard plant (Brassica nigra), proverbially small but capable of growing into a shrub tall enough for birds to nest i…
- cultureCedar of Lebanon
A massive, fragrant evergreen (Cedrus libani) from the mountains north of Israel. Its timber built Solomon's temple and became the Bible's s…
- cultureHyssop
A small bushy herb whose bundled stalks were used as a ritual sprinkler — from Passover doorposts to the foot of the cross.
- culturePalm tree
The date palm — whose branches meant royal welcome and whose fruit fed the poor — stood at the centre of Palm Sunday.
- cultureBarley
The poor person's grain — cheaper and coarser than wheat, it fed landless workers and widows across the Bible world.
- cultureThorn
The thorny shrub of the curse — from Eden's punishment to the crown pressed on Jesus's head, thorns mark the presence of sin and suffering.
- culturePomegranate
The jewel-seeded fruit of the Promised Land — carved 400 times on Temple columns and sewn onto the High Priest's robe.
- cultureAlmond tree
The first tree to flower each year in Israel — and the source of a Hebrew wordplay linking Jeremiah's calling to God's watchful alertness.
- cultureSycamore-fig
The wide-branched fig relative that Zacchaeus climbed — a common tree of the poor, whose fruit had to be pierced before it could ripen.
- cultureVineyard
The terraced hillside grapevine plot was Israel's greatest agricultural investment — and God's most persistent metaphor for his people.