Color The Bible: Bible Botanical

Showing posts with label Bible Botanical. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Color the Balm of Gilead

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Balm is an odoriferous resin which was, and continues to be, highly esteemed in the East as possessing great healing virtues. It formed part of the merchandise which was brought from Gilead by the Ishmaelites when on their way to Egypt they bought Joseph from his brethren at Dothan (Gen. 37. 25). A "little balm" was sent as a present by Jacob when he reluctantly allowed Benjamin to go to Egypt with his brethren, that his sons might obtain favor in the eyes of the man in power there (Gen. 43. 11). It was also an article of commerce between the Jews and the Tyrians (Ezek. 27. 17). Its medicinal value is referred to by Jeremiah three times (8. 22; 46. 11; 51. 8). There is not much difference of opinion as to what the substance was. The revisers have suggested in the margin of Gen. 37. 25 that the balm was mastic, the resin of Pisfacia lentiscus; but this tree is a common plant on the hills and along the plains of Palestine, and its resin is not much valued, being chiefly used as a varnish. The balm was obtained from the stems of Balsamodendron Gileadense, a small tree belonging properly to the African flora, but found, like other African plants, in the Jordan valley, though it has long disappeared from Palestine, and is not now even cultivated there. It continues to be grown at Mecca, and is found wildin Somali-land.

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg. into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Color the Sycomore That Grows in The Bible Lands

Sycomore. With bunches of fruit.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: The Sycomore, a fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) with small fruit found in Israel in and near towns. Amos was a gatherer of sycomore fruit (Amos 7. 14). The fruit, though small and of poor quality, was much eaten by the poorer people, and its broad evergreen foliage afforded a welcome shade. The wood was soft and porous, but in Egypt it was extensively used for furniture, doors, boxes, and mummy cases. It should not be confounded with the sycamore, which is a maple, and is not mentioned in the Bible.

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Color the Storax Tree

Storax Tree. With a separate fruit.

Description of the Botanical Coloring Page: Stacte. The translation of nataph in Exodus 30. 34. the Hebrew word means a drop; in Job 36, 27 it is translated "a drop" [of water]: in Exodus it is "a drop" [of sweet spice}, and this is interpreted as stacte; the revisers suggest that this is opobalsamum, but it is generally held to be storax, a gum-resin obtained from the bark of the Storax officinale, the storax tree. This is a showy shrub when covered with a profusion of white flowers. It is commonly found in thickets and on moutains to a height of four thousand feet.

Color Spikenard

Spikenard. With separate flower, open corolla and fruit.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: A perfume made from the odoriferous roots of a plant growing high up on the Himalayas. It belongs to the same family as the valerian, the plant of which are usually strong-scented or aromatic herbs. The spikenard was belived to be true valerian growning in Crete, but it is now generally taken to be Nardostachys jatamansi, which has been from the earliest times exported from India. By the time it reached the Middle East from the heights of the Himalayas it have become very costly, and the alabaster cruse of ointment, consisting of genuine nard, was so precious that it might have been sold for three hundred Roman pence (Mark 14: 3-5). The revisers in the margin say, "Gr. pistic nard, pistic being perhaps a local name. Others take it to mean genuine; others liquid." There is no eveidence that such a local name was ever used, and there seems no reason for setting aside the root meaning of pistic.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Color Bunches of Dates

Dates, fruits and leaf.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Palm is a general name for a whole family of plants, but in Scripture referring to a single species, the tree that produces dates as its fruit. The date-palm still finds suitable conditions for its growth along the shores of the Mediterranean and in the Jordan valley, but in former times it was more widely spread over Israel. Phoenicia was named after this palm (Phoenix-dacty-lifera). Bethany means the house of dates, and other places had names connected with the palm. The date-palm has a long columnar stem, rough with the bases of the old leaves, and terminating in a crown of large pinnate leaves, popularly called branches. The dates are borne in great bunches, springing out from the bases of the leaves. At first the flowers are enclosed in a spathe, which opens to permit the escape of the flowers. The staminate flowers grow on different trees from those bearing the pistils, which become the fruit.

Learn about dates in Israel.

Color Saffron Crocus

Saffron Crocus. With the pistil and
its three-cleft style separate.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Saffron is mentioned only in the Song of Solomon 4:14 as one of the perfume plants of the garden. The saffron is a purple-flowered crocus which blossoms in the autumn, having produced its leaves in the spring. It is a common plant in Israel. The saffron of commerce consists of the yellow stamens and style of the flower, which possess a penetrating aromatic odor; it is used as a flavoring and coloring material in cooking, and is also eaten raw.

Color Rue

Rue. With separate flower and fruit.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: The Lord rebukes the Pharisees for tithing trifling objects like rue, while neglecting the weighty matters of the law in Luke 11:42. There is a wild rue found in Israel, and the officinal rue was cultivated because of its supposed medicinal properties. The powerful, fetid odor is due to a volatile oil in the leaves. Rue is somewhat shrubby plant, two or three feet high, with much divided leaves and small yellowish flowers.

Color the Branches of The Shittah Tree

Shittah Tree. With a single flower and pod.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: The shittah tree or shittim wood is only mentioned in the prophecy of Isaiah 41:19 in reference to the prosperity of Israel when the desert will be covered with vegetation. The wood was used in the construction and fittings of the Tabernacle. The tree is a species of acacia (A. seyal), growing to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, with angular-twisted branches, elegant feathery leaves, and clusters of small flowers, followed by many curved and tapering pods. The wood is very hard, close-grained, and orange-red in color. It grows in the valleys about the Dead Sea and in the desert southwards. In the R.V. shittah and shittim are rendered acacia.

Friday, February 11, 2022

Color Wild Gourd

The wild gourd with a whole fruit, and one in section.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: The gourd is a poisonous fruit which grew on a"wild vine" at Gilgal (2 Kings 4: 38-41). Elisha who traveled much over Palestine, had with him a company of the ''sons of the prophets,'' who, at his command, filled a pot with vegetables to prepare for themselves a pottage. One found a wild vine in a field, and collected the gourds growning on it. Not knowing what they were, and supposing that they were fit for the pot, he shred them in. When the pottage was served it was found to be poisonous, and on appeal to Elisha, he miraculously made the pottage harmless. The plant that best fits this narrative is the colocynth, which has a stem creeping along the ground, with triangular leaves, and long straggling tendrils like the vine. The fruit is round, of a tempting appearance, mottled with green on a yellow ground, but it's pulpy interior has a nauseous taste, bitter as gall. It is found in sandy places near the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. To a student from Shunem or Bethel it would be an unknown but attractive fruit.
       It seems very probable that this is the plant called in Deut. 32:32 " the vine of Sodom," which bore "grapes of gall," and that the rosh frequently referred to in Scripture under the name of "gall" was also the colocynth. The rosh was a poisonous plant (Deut. 29:18), from which was obtained "water of gall." The medical qualities of the colocynth pill are derived from a watery extract of the bitter pulp of this gourd.
       The gourd that protected Jonah was some climbing plant of the same order as the wild gourd, which grew rapidly, and perished as quickly (Jonah 4:6-10). It could not be the palm-crist or castor-oil plant, as that is not an arbor tree, and would not accord with the narrative.
       The knops (knobs) carved in cedar wood which ornamented Solomon's Temple were probably cut in the shape of the gourd, as suggested by the revisers in the marginal note to 1 Kings 6:18.

Color the Carob Tree Plant

The Carob tree branch with separate flower, pod and two seeds.

Description of Botanical Coloring Pages: The revisers have inserted in the margin of Luke 15: 16, "the pods of the carob tree" for "husks" in the text. The husks were the pods of Ceratonia siliqua, small tree which grows in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. The pods are from six to twelve inches long, about an inch broad, and of a shining purplish-brown color, containing several seeds, separated from each other by a fleshy pulp. From the large quantity of sweet mucilage they contain, they form a good and agreeable food for animals, and are largely exported as a feeding stuff for stock. The pods are sometimes called locust beans and St. John's bread, from the notion that they were used as food by John the Baptist; but this is an error.

Color the Caper Plant

Caper plant in bloom.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: (R. V. Eccl. 12:5) In the remarkable description of old age (Eccl. 12:5) the revisers have put into the text "the caper-berry shall fail." and placed "desire" in the margin. The flower-bud, preserved in vinegar, is largely used as a stimulating condiment in food. The caper is an abundant shrub in parts of the Middle East, found on walls and rocks. It has ovate, smooth leaves, with two little spines at their base, showy flowers, and oval fruit.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Color Camphire or Henna

Camphire or Henna.
Separate flower, fruit, and seeds.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Camphire, the Hebrew copher, is mentioned in the Song of Solomon (1: 14), "My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi; " also in 4:13. Camphire is an old form of the word camphor. The revisers have substituted "henna" in those texts. Henna (Lawso- nia alba) is a shrub found in Northern Africa, and in Asia from Syria to India. It bears numerous small, white, sweet-smelling flowers in large clusters. But the plant has been from remote antiquity famous as a cosmetic, being used to give a reddish-orange stain to the nails, tips of the fingers, palms of the hand, and soles of the feet. The young stems and leaves are reduced to a powder, and when used, are made into a paste with hot water, and applied for a night to the parts to be stained. The stain of the henna has been detected on Egyptian mummies.

Color Lemon Grass

Lemon grass with separate spikelet.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Calamus was a chief spice used as an ingredient in the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:25). It was imported into the Holy Land, and sold in the markets of Tyre (Ezekiel 27:19). If Vedan and Javan, from which it seems to have been brought, were, as is usually supposed, islands of the Mediterranean, it may have been the sweet sedge (Acorus calamus), which was probably introduced very early into Europe from India. Its underground stem is fragrant, and enters into many compounds of the perfumer. The calamus may, however, have been one of the sweet-scented lemon-grasses of India. These grasses have a strong aromatic odor. The base of the stem and roots are at the present day made into fans, or woven into screens or mats, and mush used in India and elsewhere, because they give off for a long time the fragrance of the plant.

Color Cassia Cinnamon

Cassia Cinnamon.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Cassia is one of the ingredients of the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30: 24), and not the same as cinnamon, which was another ingredient. Some, however, hold that cassia was obtained from another species of cinnamon, and that the barks of both Cinnamomum zeylanicum and C. cassia were used in making the holy oil. It is more probable that the revisers are right when they suggest in the margin that the plant is costus. This is obtained from an Indian composite plant called Aplotaxis lappa, which grows on the mountains of the Cashmere Valley, where the aromatic root is largely dug up in the autumn, and is exported to China to be used as an ingredient in the incense in the temples. It is specified as one of the articles of Syrian commerce (Ezekiel 27:19). The cassia of Psalms 45: 8 is the translation of another Hebrew word, but most probably it refers to the same plant.

Color Branches from The Chestnut Tree

Separate staminal flower with one petal, and below separate pistil with one petal.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: The chestnut tree in the R. V. this is translated plane-tree, and there is little doubt that the Oriental plane is the tree meant. It is tall and majestic tree, growing near water in Palestine. From the globular form of the flowers and fruits it is often called button-tree.

Color Coriander

Coriander with flower and fruit variations.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Coriander is only referred to in the description of the manna (Exodus. 10: 31, and Numbers 11: 7), as a familiar object which the manna resembled. The coriander is very common in grain fields in the Middle East. It was cultivated in Egypt to give a flavor to bread, and was probably used for this purpose also by the Jews. The plant is cultivated for its aromatic seeds (or rather fruits), which are used for flavoring curries, etc.

Color Cummin

Cummin with separate flower, fruit and section.

Description of the Botanical Coloring Page: Cumin is the aromatic fruit of an umbelliferous plant, used as a condiment. The leaves are somewhat like fennel, and the fruits have several ridges covered with prickly hairs. The volatile oil is contained in six channels. The fruits (popularly seeds) were separated from the plant by being "beaten with a rod" (Isaiah 28: 25, 27). The Savior charged the scribes and Pharisees with punctiliously tithing the cummin (Matthew 23: 23), which was only inferentialy included in the Levitical law, while they omitted the weightier matters of the law.

Color Cinnamon

Cinnamon with separate fruit.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: Cinnamon is a very aromatic bark obtained from a tree which is native of Ceylon India, and Malaya. It was one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30: 23), and was used to perfume beds (Proverbs 7: 17). The tree grows to a height of thirty feet, and has oval leaves and numerous small flowers. An essential oil is obtained from the leaves and bark by distillation. The trees are pollarded so as to produce numerous erect shoots, from which the bark is peeled.

Color Citron

Citron with separate fruit

Description of the Botanical Coloring Page: Citron is generally said to be the tree referred to in Leviticus 23:40, when the Jews were ordered to take with them the boughs, or rather fruit, of goodly trees at the Feast of Tabernacles. The citron is native of India, and is the most common of the orange tribe in Palestine. Nothing is known as to when it was introduced into Palestine, and it is doubtful whether it was cultivated there at the time the Jews settled in the Holy Land. It is used by the Rabbis in celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles.

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Color Cucumber

Cucumber. In flower and with separate fruit.
Click on image for largest file size.

Description of Botanical Coloring Page: This fruit and the melon have been long cultivated in Syria and Egypt. The Israelites in the wilderness mourned for these fruits, where they would have been specially grateful (Numbers 11: 5). In Isaiah. 1: 8 the desolation of Israel is compared to a lodge (the outlook raised on four poles) in a garden of cucumbers, a familiar sight in Palestine.