Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)

III
PHARMACY IN THE BIBLE

Pour bien entendre le Vieux Testament il est absolument nécessaire d’approfondir l’Histoire Naturelle, aussi bien que les mœurs des Orientaux. On y trouve à peu près trois cents noms de végétaux; je ne sais combien de noms tirés du règne animal, et un grand nombre qui désignent des pierres précieuses.—T. D. Michaelis, Göttingen, 1790.

To some extent the habits and practices of the Israelites were based on those of the Egyptians. But in the matter of medicines the differences are more notable than the resemblances. In Egypt the practice of medicine was entirely in the hands of the priesthood, and was largely associated with magical arts. It appears, too, that the Egyptian practitioners had acquired experience of a fairly wide range of internal medicines. Among the Israelites the priests did not practise medicine at all. Some of the prophets did, and they were expected to exercise healing powers. Elijah and Elisha were frequently called upon for help in this way, and the prescription of Isaiah of a lump of figs to be laid on Hezekiah’s boil (2 Kings, xx, 7) will be recalled. But among the Israelites physicians formed a distinct profession, though it cannot be said that in all the history covered by the Scriptures they performed the same functions. The physicians of Joseph’s household whom he commanded to embalm his father (Genesis 1, 2) were rather apothecaries. That, of course, was in Egypt. There is a curious allusion to physicians in 2 Chronicles, xvi, 12, where it is said that when Asa was exceedingly ill with a disease in his feet “he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” Possibly this means that he employed physicians who practised incantations. Some commentators think, however, that the passage has reference to himself, his name signifying a physician. In the apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus physicians are alluded to in language which suggests that at the time it was written there were doubts about the necessity of physicians. Until recently this work was attributed to Joshua or Jesus, the son of Sirach. It so appeared in the Greek manuscripts. But a Hebrew manuscript discovered in 1896 shows that the author was Simon, son of Jeshua, and critics agree that the date of its composition was rather less than 200 years before Christ.

This book, “Ecclesiasticus,” is professedly a collection of the grave and short sentences of wise men. Those relating to medicine and physicians are brought together in the first part of the 38th chapter. They appear to be quoted from different authors, and several of the verses are merely parallels. Thus we have, “Honour a physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him; for the Lord hath created him.” And again, “Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him; let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him.” But the author of a verse inserted between these appears to regard the physician as less essential. He says, “My son, in thy sickness be not negligent; but pray unto the Lord, and He will make thee whole.” The 15th verse is somewhat enigmatic, and may or may not be complimentary. It runs, “He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hand of the physician.” In the recently discovered manuscript is the passage not previously known, “He that sinneth against God will behave arrogantly before his physician.” Probably into this may be read the converse idea that he that behaves arrogantly towards his physician sinneth before God.

In the same chapter we are told that “the Lord hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them.” Possibly this was directed against the Jewish prejudice against bitter flavours. Then the writer asks, “Was not the water made sweet with wood?” and he says “of such” (the medicines) men to whom God hath given skill heal men and take away their pains; and “of such doth the apothecary make a confection.”

The idea that physicians get their skill direct from God is prominent in these passages, and is perhaps truer than we are willing to admit in this age of curricula and examinations.

Medicines of the Jews.

The Papyrus Ebers was supposed by its discoverer to have been compiled about the time when Moses was living in Egypt, a century before the Exodus. There is no evidence in the Bible that the Jews brought with them from the land of their captivity any of the medical lore which that and other papyri not much later reveal. It is not certain that in the whole of the Bible there is any distinct reference to a medicine for internal administration. It is assumed that Rachel wanted the mandrakes which Reuben found to make a remedy for sterility, but that is not definitely stated. Nor is it certain that the Hebrew word Dudaim, translated mandrakes, meant the shrub we know by that name. Violets, lilies, jasmin, truffles, mushrooms, citrons, melons, and other fruits have been proposed by various critics. There are three passages in Jeremiah where Balm of Gilead is mentioned in a way which may have meant that it was to be used as an internal remedy. These are c. viii. v. 12, c. xlvi. v. 11, and c. li. v. 8. In two of these the expression “take balm” is used, but it is quite possible to understand this as meaning employ balm, and in all the passages the sense is metaphorical.

The Mishnah, the book of Jewish legends, which forms part of the Talmud, mentions a treatise on medicines believed to have been compiled by Solomon. Hezekiah is said to have “hidden” this work for fear that the people should trust to that wisdom rather than to the Lord. The Talmud also cites a treatise on pharmacology called Megillat-Sammanin, but neither of these works has been preserved. In the Talmud an infusion of onions in wine is mentioned as a means of healing an issue of blood. It was necessary at the same time for someone to say to the patient, “Be healed of thine issue of blood.” This remedy and the formula to be spoken are strongly reminiscent of Egypt.

The Talmud, though it was compiled in the early centuries of our era, undoubtedly reflects the Jewish life and thought of many previous ages, and consequently indicates fairly enough the condition of therapeutics among the ancient Hebrews. Among its miscellaneous items are cautions against the habit of taking medicine constantly also against having teeth extracted needlessly. It advises that patients should be permitted to eat anything they specially crave after. Among its aphorisms are salt after meals, water after wine, onions for worms, peppered wine for stomach disorders, injection of turpentine for stone in the bladder. People may eat more before 40, drink more after 40. Magic is plentifully supplied for the treatment of disease. To cure ague, for instance, you must wait by a cross-road until you see an ant carrying a load. Then you must pick up the ant and its load, place them in a brass tube which you must seal up, saying as you do this, “Oh ant, my load be upon thee, and thy load be upon me.”

Towards the time of Christ the sect of the Essenes, ascetic in their habits and communistic in their principles, cultivated, according to Josephus, the art of medicine, “collecting roots and minerals” for this purpose. Their designation may have been derived from this occupation.

The Apothecary

is, or was, familiar to readers of the Old Testament, but in the revised translation he has partially disappeared. The earliest allusion to him occurs in Exodus xxx., 25, where the holy anointing oil is prescribed to be made “after the art of the apothecary”; and in the same chapter, v. 29, incense is similarly ordered to be made into a confection “after the art of the apothecary, tempered together.” The Revised Version gives in both cases “the art of the perfumer,” and instead of the incense being “tempered together” (c. xxx, v, 35) the instruction is now rendered “seasoned with salt.” A further mention of the art of the apothecary, or in the Revised Version, the perfumer, is found again in connection with the same compounds in Exodus xxxvii., 29. In 2 Chronicles xvi., 14, the apothecaries’ art in the preparation of sweet odours and divers kinds of spices for the burial of King Asa is again alluded to, and this time without any apparent reason the Revised Version retains the old term. The next quotation (Nehemiah, iii, 8) is particularly interesting. The Authorised Version says “Hananiah, the son of one of the apothecaries,” worked on the repair of the walls of Jerusalem by the side of Haraiah of the goldsmiths. In the Revised Version Hananiah is described as “one of the apothecaries.” Hebrew scholars tell us that the idiom employed shows that these men belonged to guilds of apothecaries and goldsmiths respectively; a pretty little insight into ancient Jewish trade history.

In Ecclesiastes, x, 1, we come to the oft quoted parallel, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour,” this being likened to a little folly spoiling a reputation for wisdom. The revisers have substituted perfumer for apothecary in this text. They certainly ought to have changed ointment for pomade in the same text to explain their view of the meaning of the passage.

In the passage already quoted from the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii, 8, “Of such doth the apothecary make a confection,” and in xlix, 1, “The remembrance of Josias is like the composition of the perfume made by the art of the apothecary,” the revisers have not seen fit to alter the trade designation.

The words translated apothecary, compound, ointment, and confection in the passages cited, and in many others in the Hebrew scriptures, are all inflexions of the root verb, Rakach (in which the final ch is a strong aspirate or guttural). Gesenius says of this root, “The primary idea appears to be in making the spices small which are mixed with the oil.” The apothecary, therefore, may be regarded as a crusher, or pounder.

Pharmacy, Disgraceful.

The Greek word, pharmakeia, the original of our “pharmacy,” had a rather mixed history in its native language. It does not seem to have exactly deteriorated, as words in all languages have a habit of doing, for from the earliest times it was used concurrently to describe the preparation of medicines, and also through its association with drugs and poisons and the production of philtres, as equivalent to sorcery and witchcraft. It is in this latter sense that it is employed exclusively in the New Testament. St. Paul, for instance (in Galatians, v, 20), enumerating the works of the flesh names it after idolatry. The word appears as witchcraft in the Authorised, and as sorcery in the Revised Version. Pharmakeia or one of its derivatives also occurs several times in the Book of Revelations (ix, 21; xviii, 23; xxi, 8, and xxii, 15), and is uniformly rendered sorcery or sorcerers in both versions, and is associated with crime. Hippocrates uses the verb Pharmakeuein with the meaning of to purge, but he elsewhere employs the same word with the meaning of to drug a person, to give a stupefying draught. In Homer the word “Pharmaka” appears in the senses of both noxious and healing drugs, and also to represent enchanted potions or philtres. The word “pharmakoi” in later times came to be used for the criminals who were sacrificed for the benefit of the communities, and thus it acquired its lowest stage of signification. It is remarkable and unusual for a word which has once fallen as this one did to recover its respectable position again.

DRUGS NAMED IN THE BIBLE.

Balm of Gilead

is now usually identified with the exudation from the Balsamum Gileadense, known as Opobalsamum, a delicately odorous resinous substance of a dark red colour, turning yellow as it solidifies. It is not now used in modern pharmacy, except in the East. The London Pharmacopœia of 1746 authorised the substitution of expressed oil of nutmeg for it in the formula for Theriaca. Some Biblical commentators have preferred to regard mastic as the original Balm of Gilead, and others have thought that styrax has fulfilled the description. At this day the monks of Jericho sell to tourists an oily gum extracted from the Takkum, or Balanites Egyptiaca, as Balm of Gilead. It is put up in tin cases, and is said to be useful in the treatment of sores and wounds; but it cannot be the true Balm of the Bible.

The references to Balm of Gilead in the Old Testament show that it was exported from Arabia to Egypt from very early times. The Ishmaelites “from Gilead” who bought Joseph, were carrying it down to Egypt with other Eastern gums and spices (Genesis, xxxvii, 25). “A little balm” was among the gifts which Jacob told his sons to take to the lord of Egypt (Genesis, xliii, 11). This was the same substance: tsora in Hebrew. The translation “balm” in the Authorised Version is said in the Encyclopedia Biblica to be “an unfortunate inheritance from Coverdale’s Bible.” Why it is unfortunate is not clear, unless it is that the English word suggests the idea of a medicine. In the Genesis references to the substance there is no indication that the tsora was employed as a remedy, but in the Book of Jeremiah it is mentioned three times (viii, 22; xlvi, 11; li, 8), and in all these allusions its healing virtues are emphasised. Wyclif translates tsora in Genesis “sweete gum,” and, in Jeremiah, “resyn.” Coverdale adopts “triacle” in Jeremiah. The Septuagint rendered the Hebrew tsora into the Greek retiné, resin.

The text of the prophetic book leaves it open to doubt whether the balm was for internal or external administration. Probably it was made into an ointment.

Gilead was the country on the East of the Jordan, not very defined in extent, a geographical expression for the mountainous region which the Israelites took from the Amorites. But it is not necessary to suppose that the balsam was produced in that district. Josephus states that the Balsamum Gileadense, the Opobalsamum tree, was grown in the neighbourhood of Jericho; but he also reports the tradition that it was brought to Judea by the Queen of Sheba when she visited Solomon. This is not incompatible with the much earlier record of the Ishmaelites carrying it “from Gilead” to Egypt. For the Sabaeans who inhabited the southern part of Arabia were from very early times the great traders of the East, and they would have supplied the balm to these Ishmaelites in the regular course of commerce. The Sabaeans are believed to have colonised Abyssinia, and the Queen of Sheba may have come from that country. But whether the tree was originally grown in Africa or Arabia, there is no doubt about the esteem in which it was held by many nations. Strabo (B.C. 230) says: “In that most happy land of the Sabaeans grow frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon; and on the coast that is about Saba, the balsam also.” Many later writers allude to its costliness and to its medicinal virtues; Pliny tells us that it was preferred to all other odours. He also states that the tree was only grown in Judea, and there only in two gardens, both belonging to the King.

Incense.

The formula for the holy incense given in Exodus, xxx, 35, is sufficiently definite. Taking it as it is translated in the Revised Version, the prescription orders stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense, equal parts; seasoned with salt; powdered.

The word translated incense in that passage, and also in Deuteronomy, xxxiii, 10, and in Jeremiah, xliv, 21, is Ketorah, which originally meant a perfumed or savoury smoke. In the Septuagint the word used for Ketorah is Thymiana. In other passages (Isaiah, xliii, 33, lx, 6, lxvi, 3; Jeremiah, vi, 20; xvii, 26, and xli, 5), the word used in Hebrew was Lebonah. This in our Authorised Version appears each time as incense, but in the Revised Version the name frankincense is uniformly adopted. Lebonah meant whiteness, probably milkiness being understood in this connection, and travellers state that when the gum exudes from the tree it is milky-white. The Greek equivalent, libanos, occurs severed times in the New Testament (Matt., ii, 11; Revelations, xviii, 3). The Arabic term was luban, and apparently olibanum is a modification of this Arabic name with the article prefixed, Al-luban. The common trade term “thus” is the Greek word for incense, and is derived from the verb thuein, to sacrifice. Thurible was the Greek equivalent of the censer. The same word has been modified into fume in English. There is, besides, a common gum thus, obtained from the pines which yield American turpentine.

Olibanum, or frankincense, derived from various species of the Boswellia, was greatly prized among many of the ancient nations, especially by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Phœnicians. The finest qualities were grown in Somaliland, but the stocks of these were always bought up by the Arabs, who monopolised the commerce in olibanum. It was believed for centuries that the shrub from which it was obtained was a native of South Arabia, and an old Eastern legend alluded to in the Apocalypse of Moses declares that Adam was allowed to bring this tree with him when he was expelled from the Garden of Eden. Bruce, the African traveller, first ascertained its African origin. The historical notes on Olibanum in “Pharmacographia” are extremely interesting and complete.

Stacte, in Hebrew Nataph, is frequently identified with opobalsamum, and this interpretation is given in the margin of the Revised Version. But there are reasons for regarding it as a particularly fine kind of myrrh in drops or tears. Nataph meant something dropped or distilled.

Galbanum, it is not disputed, was the galbanum known to us by the same name. Its Hebrew name was Helbanah or Chelbanah. It has been an article of commerce from very early times, but the exact plant from which it is obtained is very uncertain. Hanbury states that the Irvingite chapels in London still use galbanum as an ingredient in their incense in imitation of the ancient Jewish custom.

Onycha has been the subject of much discussion. The balance of learned opinion favours the view that it is the operculum of a species of sea-snail found on the shores of the Red Sea. It is known as Unguis odoratus, blatta Byzantina, and devil’s claw. Nubian women to this day use it with myrrh, cloves, frankincense, and cinnamon, to perfume themselves.

The incense made from the formula just quoted was reserved specially for the service of the tabernacle, and it was forbidden, under the penalty of being cut off from his people, for any private person to imitate it. It does not appear, however, that the Israelites continued to use the same formula for their Temple services. Josephus states that the incense of his day consisted of thirteen ingredients. These were, as we learn from Talmudic instructions, in addition to the four gums named in the Exodus formula, the salt with which it had to be seasoned, myrrh, cassia, spikenard, saffron, costus, mace, cinnamon, and a certain herb which had the property of making the smoke of the incense ascend straight, and in the form of a date palm. This herb was only known to the family of Abtinas, to whom was entrusted the sole right of preparing the incense for the Temple. Rooms were provided for them in the precincts, and they supplied 368 minas (about 368 lbs.) to the Temple for a year’s consumption; that was 1 lb. per day and an extra 3 lbs. for the Day of Atonement. In the first century (A.D.) this family were dismissed because they refused to divulge their secret. The Temple authorities sent to Alexandria for some apothecaries to succeed them, but these Egyptian experts could not make the smoke ascend properly, so the Abtinas had to be re-engaged at a considerably increased salary. They gave as a reason for their secrecy their fear that the Temple would soon be destroyed and their incense would be used for idolatrous sacrifices.

The incense now used in Catholic churches is not made according to the Biblical formula. The following is a typical recipe in actual use:—Olibanum, 450; benzoin, 250; storax, 120; sugar, 100; cascarilla, 60; nitre, 150.

Olive Oil.

Among all the ancient Eastern nations olive oil was one of the most precious of products. It was used lavishly by the Egyptians for the hair and the skin, as well as in all sorts of ceremonies. The Israelites held it in the highest esteem before they went to Egypt, the earliest allusion to it in the Scriptures being in Genesis, xxviii, 18, where we read that Jacob poured oil on the stone which he set up at Bethel, evidently with the idea of consecrating it. The Apocalypse of Moses has a legend of Adam’s experience of its medicinal virtues in the Garden of Eden. When he was in his 930th year he was seized with great pain in his stomach and sickness. Then he told Eve to take Seth and go as near as they could get to the Garden, and pray to God to permit an angel to bring them some oil from the tree of mercy so that he might anoint himself therewith and be free of his pain. Eve and Seth were, however, met by the Archangel Michael, who told them to return to Adam, for in three days the measure of his life would be fulfilled.

To the Israelites in the Desert the anticipation of the “corn and wine and oil” of Canaan was always present, and throughout their history there are abundant evidences of how they prized it.

The prescription for the “holy anointing oil” given in Exodus, xxx, 23, is very remarkable. It was to be compounded of the following ingredients:—

It is the Revised Version which gives “flowing myrrh,” apparently the gum which exudes spontaneously. The Authorised Version reads “pure myrrh.” The Revised Version also suggests costus in the margin as an alternative to cassia. This oil was to be kept very sacred. Any one who should compound any oil like it was to be cut off from his people.

A hin was a measure equivalent to about 5½ of our quarts. The shekel was nearly 15 lbs., and some of the Rabbis insist that the “shekel of the sanctuary” was twice the weight of the ordinary shekel. At the lowest reckoning, less than 6 quarts of oil were to take up the extract from nearly 90 lbs. of solid substance. It will be seen on reference that the shekel weights are not definitely stated, but the verses can hardly be otherwise read. Some critics have suggested that so many shekels’ worth is intended, but this reading under the circumstances is almost inadmissible. Maimonides, a great Jewish authority, says the method was to boil the spices and gum in water until their odours were extracted as fully as possible, and then to boil the water and the oil together until the former was entirely evaporated. Doubtless the expression “after the art of the apothecary” (or “perfumer,” R.V.) was a sufficient explanation to those Israelites who had practised that art in Egypt. The consistence of the oil could not have been thick, for when used it trickled down on Aaron’s beard.

Rabbinical legends say that the quantity of the holy oil prepared at the time when it was first prescribed was such as would miraculously suffice to anoint the Jewish priests and kings all through their history. In the reign of Josiah the vessel containing the holy oil was mysteriously hidden away with the ark, and will not be discovered until the Messiah comes. Messiah, it need hardly be said, means simply anointed; and Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word.

Manna.

The manna of the wilderness provided for the children of Israel on their journey towards Canaan has no claim to be regarded as a drug, except that a drug has in modern times usurped its name. When the Israelites first saw the small round particles “like hoar frost on the ground” (Exodus, xvi, 14) they said, according to the Authorised Version, “It is manna; for they wist not what it was.” The Revised Version makes the sentence read more intelligibly by translating the Hebrew word Man-hu interrogatively thus:—“What is it? For they wist not what it was.” This Hebrew interrogation has been widely adopted as the origin of the name, but it is more probable that the Hebrew word man, a gift, is the true derivation. Ebers suggested the Egyptian word “manhu,” food, as a probable explanation. The Arabic word for the manna of Sinai is still “man.” This is the substance which scientific investigators have agreed is the manna described in Exodus. It is an exudation from the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub which grows in the valleys of the Sinai peninsula, the manna being yielded from the young branches after the punctures of certain insects. Another Eastern manna, a Persian product from a leguminous plant, Alhagi Maurorum, and a manna yielded by an evergreen oak in Kurdistan, are still sold and used in some Eastern countries for food and medicine. But in Europe, and to some extent in the East also, Sicilian manna, the product of an ash tree, Fraxinus ornus, has displaced the old sorts since the fifteenth century. The commerce in this article and its history were investigated by Mr. Daniel Hanbury and described by him in Science Papers and in Pharmacographia.

The rabbinical legends concerning the manna of the wilderness are many and strange. One is to the effect that when it lay on the ground all the kings of the East and of the West could see it from their palace windows. According to Zabdi ben Levi it was provided in such abundance that it covered every morning an area of 2,000 cubits square and was 60 cubits in depth. Each day’s fall was sufficient to nourish the camp for 2,000 years. The Book of Wisdom (xvi, 20, 21) tells us that the manna so accommodated itself to every taste that it proved palatable and pleasing to all. “Able to content every man’s delight, and agreeing to every taste.” The rabbinical legends enlarge this statement and assure us that to those Israelites who did not murmur the manna became fish, flesh, fowl at will. This is in a degree based on the words in Ps. lxxviii, 24, 25, in which it is described as “corn of heaven, bread of the mighty, and meat to the full.” But the traditions say it could not acquire the flavours of cucumbers, melons, garlic, or onions, all of which were Egyptian relishes which were keenly regretted by the tribes. It is also on record among the legends that the manna was pure nourishment. All of it was assimilated; so that the grossest office of the body was not exercised. It was provided expressly for the children of Israel. If any stranger tried to collect any it slipped from his grasp.

Bdellium.

Bdellium (Heb. Bedoloch) is mentioned in Genesis, ii, 12, as being found along with gold and onyx in the land of Havilah, near the Garden of Eden. The association with gold and onyx suggests that bdellium was a precious stone. The Septuagint translates the word in Genesis, anthrax, carbuncle; but renders the same Hebrew word in Numbers, xi, 7, where the manna is likened to bdellium, by Krystallos, crystals. The Greek bdellion described by Dioscorides and Pliny was the fragrant gum from a species of Balsamodendron, and this word was almost certainly derived from an Eastern source, and might easily have been originally a generic term for pearls. Pearls would better than anything else fit the reference in Numbers (“like coriander seed, and the appearance thereof as the appearance of bdellium”), and this is the meaning attached to the word in the rabbinical traditions. Some authorities have conjectured that the “ד” (d) of bedolach may have been substituted for “ר” (r) berolach, so that the beryl stone may have been intended.

Aloes Wood.

References to aloes are frequent in the Scriptures. The first allusion is found in Numbers, xxiv, 6, when in his poetic prophecy Balaam describes Israel flourishing “as lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted.” The other allusions occur in Psalm xlv, 8, Proverbs, vii, 17, Canticles, iv, 14, and John, xix, 39. In the four last-named passages aloes is associated with myrrh as a perfume. Of course it is understood that the lign or lignum aloes, the perfumed wood of the aquilaria agallocha, the eagle wood of India, is meant, but as that tree is believed not to have been known except in the Malayan peninsula in the days of Balaam, critics have remarked on the extraordinary circumstance that it should be used as a simile by an orator in Palestine who would naturally select objects for comparison familiar to his hearers. It has been suggested, and with much force, that the original word in Balaam’s prophecy may have been the Hebrew word for the palm or date tree. The Septuagint translates the word “tents.”

Myrrh.

It has been stated that the stacte ordered in the formula for incense was probably a very fine kind of liquid myrrh (the flowing myrrh of the holy oil formula). But myrrh (Heb. mur) is several times directly mentioned. Esther purified herself for six months with oil of myrrh (ii, 12); myrrh, aloes, and cassia are grouped as sweet odours in Ps. xlv, 8; with cinnamon in the place of cassia in Prov., vii, 17, and in numerous verses of the Song of Songs. In the New Testament it is named among the gifts which the wise men brought to the Saviour. Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes to embalm the body of Jesus. On the cross St. Matthew (xxvii, 34) names vinegar mixed with gall as a drink given to Christ by the soldiers; in an apparently parallel passage in St. Mark’s Gospel (xv, 23) wine with myrrh is the mixture described. It is possible that Matthew writing in Syriac may have used the word mur (myrrh) and that his translator into Greek read from his manuscript Mar (gall). In Genesis, xxxvii, 25, and xliii, 11, the word translated myrrh is Loth (not mur) in the Hebrew. The best opinion is that this meant ladanum, the gum from the cistus labdaniferus which Dioscorides states was scraped from the beards of goats which had fed on the leaves of this shrub and had taken up some of the exuding gum.

Wormwood.

The Israelites had great objection to bitter flavours, and the coupling of “gall and wormwood” expresses something extremely unpleasant. The Hebrew word is La’anah, and the Septuagint twice renders this hemlock (Hos., x, 4 and Amos, vi, 12) but in other places wormwood. The star which fell from heaven and made the rivers bitter (Rev., viii, 11) was called by the Greek name for wormwood, Apsinthos.

Hyssop.

Hyssop is a word which has occasioned much difference of opinion among interpreters. The Hebrew word hezob was translated in the Septuagint by hyssopos, and this word is used twice in the New Testament. From references used in the Pentateuch it is clear that “a bunch of hyssop” was employed in the Israelitish ritual for sprinkling purposes (Exodus, xii, 22; Leviticus, xiv, 4 and 6; Numbers, xix, 6 and 18). From 1 Kings, iv, 33, it appears that it was a shrub that grew in crevices of walls; from Psalm li, 7, “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean,” it has been assumed to have possessed purgative properties, though it is more likely that the allusion was to the ceremonial purification of the law; according to St. John its stem was used to hand up the sponge of vinegar to the Saviour on the cross, but St. Matthew and St. Mark use the term calamus, or a reed. It may have been that a bunch of hyssop was fixed to the reed and the sponge of vinegar placed on the hyssop. Some learned commentators have conjectured that the word hyssopos in St. John’s account was originally hysso, a well-known Greek word for the Roman pilum or javelin. The other allusion in the New Testament occurs in Hebrews, ix, 19, and is merely a quotation from the Pentateuch.

It has been found impossible to apply the descriptions quoted to any one plant. That which we now call hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) does not grow in Palestine. It is generally agreed that it was not that shrub. The caper has been suggested and strongly supported, but the best modern opinion is that the word was applied generically to several kinds of origanum which were common in Syria.

Juniper.

The Hebrew word rothem, translated juniper in our Authorised Version, has given much trouble to translators. The Septuagint merely converted the Hebrew word into a Greek one, and the Vulgate followed the Septuagint. The allusions to the tree are in 1 Kings, xix, 4 and 5, where Elijah slept under a juniper tree; Job, xxx, 4, speaks of certain men so poor that they cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat; and Psalm cxx, 4, “Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper.” The tree alluded to was almost certainly the Broom, and it is so rendered in the Revised Version either in the text or in the margin in all the instances. The Arabic name for the broom is ratam, evidently a descendant of rothem. The Genista roetam is said to be the largest and most conspicuous shrub in the deserts of Palestine, and would be readily chosen for its shade by a weary traveller. The mallows in the Book of Job are translated salt wort in the Revised Version. Renan gives “They gather their salads from the bushes.” Salads were regarded as indispensable by the poorest Jews. The coals of juniper (or broom) are supposed to have reference to the lasting fire which this wood furnishes, but other translations suggest as the proper reading of the verse “The arrows of a warrior are the tongues of the people of the tents of Misram.”

Jonah’s Gourd.

The Gourd, of which we read in Jonah, iv, 6–10, is Kikaion in Hebrew, and there has been some doubt what the plant could have been which grew so rapidly and was so quickly destroyed. It is stated that the Lord made this grow over the booth which the prophet had erected in a single night, and provide a shade of which Jonah was “exceedingly glad.” The next morning, however, a worm attacked it, and it withered.

The author of “Harris’s Natural History of the Bible,” Dr. Thaddeus M. Harris, of Dorchester, Massachusetts (1824), quotes from an earlier work, “Scripture Illustrated,” a curious account of a violent dispute between St. Jerome and St. Augustine in reference to the identification of this plant. According to this author “those pious fathers ... not only differed in words, but from words they proceeded to blows; and Jerome was accused of heresy at Rome by Augustine. Jerome thought the plant was an ivy, and pleaded the authority of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and others; Augustine thought it was a gourd, and he was supported by the Seventy, the Syriac, the Arabic, &c. Had either of them ever seen the plant? Neither. Let the errors of these pious men teach us to think more mildly, if not more meekly, respecting our own opinions; and not to exclaim Heresy, or to enforce the exclamation, when the subject is of so little importance as—gourd versus ivy.”

While endorsing the practical lesson which the author just cited extracts from his rather unpleasant story, I think I ought to append to this narrative another which is given in Gerard’s Herbal (1597) which seems to be incompatible with the previously quoted account of the quarrel. This is what Gerard writes:—

“Ricinus, whereof mention is made in the fourth chapter and sixt verse of the prophecie of Jonas, was called of the Talmudists kik, for in the Talmud we reade Velo beschemen kik, that is in English, And not with the oile of kik; which oile is called in the Arabian toong Alkerua, as Rabbi Samuel the sonne of Hofni testifieth. Moreover a certain Rabbine mooveth a question saying What is kik? Hereunto Resch Lachisch maketh answer in Ghemara, saying Kik is nothing else but Jonas his kikaijon. And that this is true it appeareth by that name kiki which the ancient Greeke phisicions and the Aegyptians used, which Greeke word cometh of the Hebrew kik. Hereby it appeereth that the olde writers long ago, though unwittingly, called this plant by his true name. But the olde Latine writers knew it by the name Cucurbita which evidently is manifested by an Historie which St. Augustine recordeth in his Epistle to St. Jerome where in effect he writeth thus:—That name kikaijon is of small moment yet so small a matter caused a great tumult in Africa. For on a time a certaine Bishop having occasion to intreat of this which is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Jonas his prophecie (in a collation or sermon which he made in his cathedral church or place of assemblie), said that this plant was called Cucurbita, a Gourde, because it increased to so great a quantitie in so short a space, or else (saith he) it is called Hedera. Upon the novelty and untruth of this doctrine the people were greatly offended, and there arose a tumult and hurly burly, so that the bishop was inforced to go to the Jews to aske their judgement as touching the name of this plant. And when he had received of them the true name which was kikaijon, he made his open recantation and confessed his error, and was justly accused of being a falsifier of Holy Scripture.”

I quote the letter as Gerard gives it without quite understanding it, and I have not been able to trace its origin. But it is clear that if St. Augustine thought it was such a small matter he would hardly have quarrelled so violently with St. Jerome about it. Probably, however, the story of the quarrel is founded on this letter. Moreover the conclusion seems to be that the gourd was not a cucurbita but the Palma Christi.

The importance of Jerome’s translation of the word representing the plant to be Ivy (Hedera) is that he incorporated it into his Latin version of the Bible known as the Vulgate. The much older Septuagint (Greek) translation gives “kolokyntha,” the bottle gourd, as the rendering of the Hebrew kikaion. The Swedish botanist and theologian Celsius strongly supported the view that Jonah’s gourd was the Palma Christi in his “Hierobotanicon; sive de Plantis Sacrae Scripturae,” 1746. But though this tree is of very rapid growth, and is planted before houses in the East for its shade, and though philological arguments are in its favour, Dr. Hastings (“Encyclopædia Biblica”) rejects the suggestion and prefers the Septuagint version because he thinks the passage clearly indicates that a vine is intended. He considers there is no support, either botanical or etymological, for the selection of ivy to represent the gourd.

The Wild Gourds

mentioned in 2 Kings, iv, 39, are generally supposed to have been colocynth fruit, though the squirting cucumber (Ecbalium purgans) has also been suggested. The plant on which this grows, however, would hardly be called a wild vine, for it has no tendrils. The Jews were in the habit of shredding various kinds of gourds in their pottage, and as narrated, someone had brought a lapful of these gourds, the fruit of a wild vine, and shredded them into the pottage which was being prepared for the sons of the prophets. The mistake could hardly have been made with the squirting cucumber, which is very common throughout Palestine, but the colocynth only grew on barren sands like those near Gilgal, and might easily be mistaken for the globe cucumber. The mistake was discovered as soon as the pottage was tasted, and the alarm of “death in the pot” was raised. Elisha, however, casting some meal in the pot destroyed the bitter taste, and apparently rendered the pottage quite harmless.

The Horse Leech

mentioned in Proverbs, xxx, 15, “The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying Give, Give,” is a translation of Hebrew Aluka, the meaning of which is not without doubt. The Hebrew word is interpreted by corresponding terms in Arabic, but of these there are two, one meaning the leech, and the other fate or destiny. The latter word is supposed to have been derived from the former from the idea that every person’s fate clings to him. Another similar Arabic word is Aluk, a female ghul or vampire, who, it was believed, sucked the blood of those whom she attacked.

Nitre

is mentioned twice in the Old Testament, first in Proverbs, xxv, 20, “As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.” In the Revised Version soda is given instead of nitre in the margin. The other reference is in Jeremiah, ii, 22, “Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope.” In this passage the Revised Version changes nitre to lye. The Hebrew word is Nether, the natrum of the East, an impure carbonate of sodium which was condensed from certain salt lakes, or obtained from marine plants. Vinegar would cause effervescence with this substance, but not with nitrate of potash. The soap in the same passage in Jeremiah, in Hebrew Borith, was either the soap wort or a salt obtained from the ashes of herbs by lixiviation.

Mustard Seeds

are mentioned twice by the Saviour as illustrations of something very small: first as the small seed which grows into a tree, and second as the measure of even a minute degree of faith. The weed did in fact grow in Palestine to some ten or twelve feet in height.

Vinegar.

Homez in Hebrew, Oxus in Greek, is mentioned five times in the Old Testament, and five times in the New Testament. It was used as a relish by the Jews, the food being dipped into it before eating. The passages where vinegar is mentioned in the accounts of the Crucifixion in the several Gospels are not fully explained by Biblical scholars. The first administration of vinegar to the Saviour was, according to St. Matthew, vinegar mixed with gall; according to St. Mark, vinegar mixed with myrrh. There are linguistic reasons for assuming that the additional ingredient may have been opium, given with a merciful intention. But both evangelists state that Jesus refused it. The second time vinegar was given to him on a sponge, and St. Luke seems to suggest that this was given in mockery. It is supposed that the vinegar was the posca, a sour wine which was largely drunk by the Roman soldiers.

Anethon.

All translators agree that dill and not anise was the “anethon” named with mint and cummin in the passage, Matthew, xxiii, 23. Anise was never grown in Palestine. The other herbs were common in gardens, and the allusion to paying tithe on them, and to rue in a similar connection in Luke, xi, 42, appears to refer to the scrupulous observance of the letter of the law by the Pharisees, even down to such an insignificant matter as the tithe on these almost valueless herbs. The law did not, in fact, require tithe to be paid except on productions which yielded income. It was therefore rather to satisfy their own self-righteousness that the Pharisees insisted on paying the contribution on mint and anise and cummin.

Saffron

is only mentioned in the Song of Solomon, iv, 14, as one of the many valuable products of an Eastern garden. There is not much doubt that this was the crocus sativa known to medicine from the earliest times. The Hebrew word, karkum, was kurkum in ancient Arabic, and this is given in Arab dictionaries as equivalent to the more modern za-faran from which our word is derived.

Pomegranates

are always referred to in the Scriptures as luxuries. The spies sent by Moses to see the land of Canaan brought back pomegranates with figs and grapes (Numbers, xiii, 23); the same fruits are promised in Deut. (viii, 8); the withering of the pomegranate tree is, with that of the vine and fig tree, noted by the prophet Joel (i, 12) as a sign of desolation. It is still highly prized as a fruit in the East.

The Poultice of Figs

applied to Hezekiah’s boil (2 Kings, xx, 7) is an interesting reminiscence of Israelitish home medicine. The fig tree often appears in the Bible. Some very learned Biblical commentators (Celsius, Gesenius, Knobel, among them) have believed that the fig leaves with which Adam and Eve made aprons were in fact the very long leaves of the banana tree. This, however, is scarcely possible, as the banana is a native of the Malay Archipelago, and there is no evidence that it was known to the Jews at the time when the Pentateuch was written.

Spikenard

is mentioned three times in the Song of Songs (i, 12, iv, 13, iv, 14), and in the New Testament on two occasions (Mark xiv, 3, and John xii, 3), a box of spikenard ointment, “very costly” and “very precious” is, in the instance recorded by St. Mark, poured on the Saviour’s head, and in the narrative of St. John, is used to anoint His feet. On both occasions we are told that the value of this box or vase was three hundred pence. It is explained in the Revised Version that the coin named was equivalent to about 8½d. The price of the ointment used was therefore over ten pounds.

In the Greek text the word used is nardos pitike. It has been variously conjectured that the adjective may have meant liquid, genuine or powdered; the word lends itself to either of those meanings. Or it may have been a local term, or possibly it may have been altered from a word which would have meant what we understand by “spike” in botany. The most likely meaning is “genuine,” for we know that this product was at that period a perfume in high esteem, and that there were several qualities, the best, and by far the costliest, being brought from India. The ointment employed was really an otto, and it was imported into Rome and other cities of the Empire in alabaster vessels. Dioscorides and Galen refer to it as nardostachys. The Arab name for it was Sumbul Hindi, but this must not be confounded with the sumbul which we know. The word sumbul simply means spike. The botanical origin of the Scripture spikenard, the nardostachys of Dioscorides, was cleared up, it is generally agreed, by Sir William Jones in 1790. He traced it to a Himalayan plant of the valerian order which was afterwards exactly identified by Royle. A Brahman gave some of the fibrous roots to Sir William Jones, and told him it was employed in their religious sacrifices.

Pliny mentions an ointment of spikenard composed of the Indian nard, with myrrh, balm, custos, amomum, and other ingredients, but the “genuine” nard alluded to in the Gospels was probably the simple otto. Pliny also states that the Indian nard was worth, in his time, in Rome, one hundred denarii per pound.

Horace mentions an onyx box of nard which was considered of equal value with a large vessel of wine: