The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris.

  • Thaddeus Mason Harris
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    457/474 (page 417)
    iT APRENDIN ae 7444 _ agreed that our sugar isa term borrowed from the Arabic. ‘The Saracens or Arabians propagated the cane iu their conquests. 2, as a noun; is used nineteen times, and uniformly translated * strong drink. The etymology may make it not only the ** si- cera of the Greeks and Latius, but also the * saccharum. It is uniformly coupled with wine, and used without any separate verb, (See Levit. x. 9; Deut. xiv. 26; xxix. 6; Jud. xii. 4, 7, 14; 1 Sam.1.15.] It is mentioned Numb. vi. 3, both with and without wine; but the verse seems to imply, that the repetition of the fermentation is only to render the command more empha- tical, as it is in the same manner repeated with respect to the. wine. It is possible that they might have a kind of beer made by fermenting the sirup of the cane; but, perhaps more proba- ble that they used it to sweeten their wine, as we put honey into cider to encourage people to drink freely. ‘The texts quoted above will then be rendered * wine and sugar, or sweetened wine. In Solomon’s time, and afterwards, the wine and sweet cor- dials seem generally to have been used separately, as we may conclude from the phraseology; they having usually their sepa- rate verbs. [Compare Prov. xx. 1; xxxi. 4, 6; Isai. v. 11, 22; xxiv.9 ; xxviii. 7 ; xxix. 9; lvi. 12.]. The only place after Solomon, in which I find it used simply as joined with wine, is in Micah, i1. 11. | Strabo speaks of canes from which honey is made. I do not know that “saccharum” is used by any author prior to Pliny and Dioscorides. See Salmas, exercit. Plin. V. ii. TREES. The Gemara Babylonica, Onkelos in the Chaldee paraphrase, R. Salomon, R. Abahu, Eben Ezra, and several critics imagine that by 77n yy. ETZ HADAR, rendered ** goodly trees,” Levit. xxiii. 40, the citron tree is intended: nay yy ETz ABOTH, rendered “thick trees, in the same verse, and in Ne- hem. vii. 15; and Ezek. xx. 28; according to the Rabbins, the Chaldee paraphrase, the Syriac version, and Deodatus, is the myrtle. | The word bvwN EsHEL, or ASEL, translated “grove” in Gen. xxi. 33, has been variously translated. Parkhurst renders it an oak, and says, that “from this word may be derived the name of the famous asylum, opened by Romulus between two groves of oak at Rome. Dionyss. Hal. l. i. c. 16. On the other hand, Celsius, Hierobot. V. i. p. 535, Michaelis, Suppl. Les. Hebr. and Dr. Geddes render it the Tamarisk, which is a lofty and beautiful tree, which grows abundantly in Egypt and Ara- bia °8, The same word in 1 Sam. xxii. 6; and xxxi. 13, is rendered * a tree.” It must be noted too, that in the first of these places, 78 Tamaris. Myrica. Arabis Tharse; Athel, incolis. Rauwolf, Flora Orien- talis, N. 93, page 35. GG