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| 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.
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.
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