1Lectures 10 and 11Lectures 10 and 11Source: Moldenke, H.N. and A.C. Moldenke. 1952. Plants of the Bible. Chronica Botanica Co., Waltham, MA.Biblical and Koranic References to Agricultural TechnologyThe collection of sacred writings known as the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Koran are the basis of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the religions of over half of the world’s population. They are basically variations of a single monotheistic religion developed by Semitic people known as Hebrews about 3500 years ago that worshipped a single god called Yaweh (Jehovah), and, remarkably, still exist as a distinct people. (Monothesism as a concept can also be found in ancient Egypt where the pharaoh Ikhnaton (d. 1371 BCE, over 200 years before Moses) developed a similar concept based on the sun god. The sacred writings of these three religions have been compiled into the Hebrew Bible (referred to by Christians as the Old Testament), Christian Bible (New Testament), and the Koran.The Old Testament has been described as the literary expression of the religious life of ancient Israel. More than a thousand years separate the earliest and latest books. Written down from an oral tradition by scribes, it is a broad picture of a people who lived in the Mid-East and describes their interaction with the sweep of events of that era. The canvas stretches from the Nile to the Tigris Euphrates and the action covers about 2000 years. The writings include both the sacred and profane, prose and poetry, history and myth, legend and fable, love song and proverbs, parables and revelations. In only one book, written about 180 BCE, Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirah, is the author (Joshua ben Sira) known.The Christian Bible is a series or writings and letters from a break-away sect of Judaism (all the partici-pants were Jews), written in the fi rst century by distinct personalities. It is based on the premise that Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God, was born of a virgin, and came to fulfi ll the prophesies of the Hebrew Bible, was crucifi ed, and was resurrected from the dead. The Koran is a work of Mohammed (?570–632) and accepts the writings of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.The basic agricultural roots of these “desert” people are well represented. Plants, plant products, and agricultural technology are referred to in hundreds of verses. The problem of the analysis of this informa-tion is covered in the introduction to the great work of the Moldenkes’ (husband and wife) in the 1952 book Plants of the Bible. (Refer Reading 10-1 which serves as an introduction to this work.)In this lecture we will explore references to horticulture by reading some passages in reverse: i.e. not to necessarily receive the sacred meanings, but rather to understand their agricultural underpinnings.Selections from the Bible that Refer to Crops and Agricultural TechnologyCultureISAIAH 5:1–7 & 10. Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now... judge... betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done it.Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns... For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel... Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath...2 Lectures 10 and 11Fruitfulness and ProductivityPSALMS 128:3. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round about thy table.EZEKIAL 19: 10–11. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. And she had strong rods... and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.EZEKIAL 17:5–10. He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful fi eld; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. Say thou, Thus saith the Lord God; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? It shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.Genetics–Breeding–RootstocksJEREMIAH 2:21. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?HarvestingEXODUS 22:5. If a man shall cause a fi eld or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s fi eld; of the best of his own fi eld, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.PestsSONG 2:13 & 15. The fi g tree putteth forth her green fi gs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell... Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.PruningJOHN 15:1–6. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit... As the branch cannot bear fruit in
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