History of Horticulture: Lecture 101Lectures 10Lectures 10––11 11 Biblical and Koranic Referencesto Agricultural TechnologySacred LiteratureHebrew Bible 10–1stcentury BCEChristian Bible 1stcentury CEKoran 6thcentury CE1. Works of Mideastern peoples.2. Climates vary from Mediterranean to Desert.3. Works survive from multiple translation:Bibles from Hebrew and Aramaic to Greek to EnglishKoran from Arabic to English.4. Books have sacred meaning; are not agricultural manuals.Basic ConceptsAmos 7:14 I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.The English phrase “gatherer of sycamore fruits” is an “odd” translation of the Hebrew Boless shikmimShikmim = sycamores = wild figsBoless = obscure, mentioned only once in the BibleThe ProblemThe Hebrew word for gathereris OssefThe Hebrew word for gashis bolessThus, boless probably means gash,pierce, or woundArtificial Ripening and The Riddle of Amos’ OccupationHistory of Horticulture: Lecture 102Knives used for gashing of sycomore figs in EgyptBas-relief showing a sycomore tree with gashed fruit. Found at Thebes, Egypt.Gashed Sycomore Fruit from EgyptHistory of Horticulture: Lecture 103ISAIAH 5:1–7, 10 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved 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.Selections from the Bible that Refer to Cropsand Agricultural TechnologyCultureWherefore, 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... PSALMS 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.Fruitfulness and ProductivityHistory of Horticulture: Lecture 104EZEKIAL 17:5–10 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; 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. 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.JEREMIAH 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 field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.Genetics–Breeding–RootstocksHistory of Horticulture: Lecture 105SONG OF SOLOMON 2:13, 15 The fig tree puttethforth her green figs, 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.RaisinsI SAMUEL 25:18 The Abigail made haste, and took... two bottles of wine... an hundred clusters of raisins...VinegarRUTH 2:14 At meal time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar...PestsJOHN 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 bearethfruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit... As the branch cannot bear fruit in itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.PruningGENESIS 9:20–21, 24 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken... And Noah awoke from his wine…JUDGES 9:12–13, 27 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheerethGod and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?... And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry...WineHistory of Horticulture: Lecture 106ROMANS 11:17 & 24 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were graffed in among them, and, with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree... For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?GraftingDEUTERONOMY 25:16 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for
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