DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50017#0221
PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 137
nuts, and almonds.” 1 Now whether this, which Jacob
sent, were the proper balsam extolled by human writers,
you cannot but make some doubt, who find the Greek
translation to be p-qacvr], that is, retina, and so may
have some suspicion that it might be some pure
distillation from the turpentine tree; which grows
prosperously and plentifully in Judaea, and seems so
understood by the Arabic ; and was indeed esteemed
by Theophrastus and Dioscorides the chiefest of resinous
bodies, and the word retina emphatically used for it.
That the balsam plant hath grown and prospered in
Judaea we believe without dispute. For the same is
attested by Theophrastus, Pliny, Justinus, and many
more. From the commendation that Galen affordeth
of the balsam of Syria, and the story of Cleopatra,
that she obtained some plants of balsam from Herod
the Great to transplant into Egypt. But whether it
was so anciently in Judaea as the time of Jacob ; nay,
whether this plant was here before the time of Solomon,
that great collector of vegetable rarities, some doubt
may be made from the account of Josephus, that the
queen of Sheba, a part of Arabia, among presents unto
Solomon brought some plants of the balsam tree, as
one of the peculiar estimables of her country.
1 Psalm civ, 17.
nuts, and almonds.” 1 Now whether this, which Jacob
sent, were the proper balsam extolled by human writers,
you cannot but make some doubt, who find the Greek
translation to be p-qacvr], that is, retina, and so may
have some suspicion that it might be some pure
distillation from the turpentine tree; which grows
prosperously and plentifully in Judaea, and seems so
understood by the Arabic ; and was indeed esteemed
by Theophrastus and Dioscorides the chiefest of resinous
bodies, and the word retina emphatically used for it.
That the balsam plant hath grown and prospered in
Judaea we believe without dispute. For the same is
attested by Theophrastus, Pliny, Justinus, and many
more. From the commendation that Galen affordeth
of the balsam of Syria, and the story of Cleopatra,
that she obtained some plants of balsam from Herod
the Great to transplant into Egypt. But whether it
was so anciently in Judaea as the time of Jacob ; nay,
whether this plant was here before the time of Solomon,
that great collector of vegetable rarities, some doubt
may be made from the account of Josephus, that the
queen of Sheba, a part of Arabia, among presents unto
Solomon brought some plants of the balsam tree, as
one of the peculiar estimables of her country.
1 Psalm civ, 17.