Biblical References to Pomegranate
- Is This the Tree of Life?
Some scholars believe that the apple
was used by early artists to depict the scene of Adam and Eve in the Garden
of Eden because it was easy to draw, but some feel that the pomegranate
is the true fruit of the tree of life. Consider these Biblical quotations:
Haggai 2:19 Is the seed still in
the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and
the olive tree, it has not borne {fruit.} Yet from this day on I will
bless {you.}
Song of Solomon 4 :13 Your shoots
are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, henna with nard plants.
. .
Song of Solomon 8 :2 I would lead
you {and} bring you Into the house of my mother, who used to instruct
me; I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranates.
Deuteronomy 8:8 A land of wheat
and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive
oil and honey; . . .
Numbers 20:5 Why have you made us
come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not
a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water
to drink.
1 Samuel 14:2 Saul was staying in
the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron.
And the people who {were} with him {were} about six hundred men.
Exodus 39:24 They made pomegranates
of blue and purple and scarlet {material and} twisted {linen} on the
hem of the robe. They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells
between the pomegranates all around on the hem of the robe, alternating
a bell and a pomegranate all around on the hem of the robe for the service,
just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Numbers 13 :23 Then they came to
the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single
cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two {men,}
with some of the pomegranates and the figs.
The Legend of Persephone
"Go now, Persephone, to your
dark-robed mother, go, and feel kindly in your heart towards me: be
not so exceedingly cast down; for I shall be no unfitting husband for
you among the deathless gods, that am own brother to father Zeus. And
while you are here, you shall rule all that lives and moves and shall
have the greatest rights among the deathless gods: those who defraud
you and do not appease your power with offerings, reverently performing
rites and paying fit gifts, shall be punished for evermore."
When he said this, wise Persephone was filled with joy and hastily sprang
up for gladness. But he on his part secretly gave her sweet pomegranate
seed to eat, taking care for himself that she might not remain continually
with grave, dark-robed Demeter . . .
And when Demeter saw them, . . . she asked of (her daughter) at once:
"My child, tell me, surely you have not tasted any food while you
were below? Speak out and hide nothing . . . if you have tasted food,
you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there
to dwell a third part of the seasons every year: yet for the two parts
you shall be with me and the other deathless gods. But when the earth
shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then
from the realm of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to
be a wonder for gods and mortal men. And now tell me how he rapt you
away to the realm of darkness and gloom, and by what trick did the strong
Host of Many beguile you?"
Then beautiful Persephone answered her . . . he secretly put in my mouth
sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.
Also I will tell how he rapt me away by the deep plan of my father the
Son of Cronos and carried me off beneath the depths of the earth . .
. We were playing and gathering sweet flowers in our hands, soft crocuses
mingled with irises and hyacinths, and rose-blooms and lilies, marvelous
to see, and the narcissus which the wide earth caused to grow yellow
as a crocus. That I plucked in my joy; but the earth parted beneath,
and there the strong lord, the Host of Many, sprang forth and in his
golden chariot he bore me away, all unwilling, beneath the earth: then
I cried with a shrill cry. All this is true, sore though it grieves
me to tell the tale."
Pliny's preservation of
pomegranates
Pliny's means of preservation: "Pomegranates
should be hardened by hot sea-water, then dried in the sun for three
days and hung up in such a way as to be protected from the dew at night.
When wanted for use they should be thoroughly washed in fresh water.
Marcus Varro recommend keeping pomegranates in large jars of sand, and
also, while they are unripe, covering them with earth in pots with the
bottom broken out, but with all air excluded, and with their stalks
smeared with pitch, since, kept in this way, they grow to an even larger
size than they do on the tree."
Homer's Garden of Alcinous
"...he saw an orchard
closed by a pale-four spacious acres planted
with trees in bloom or weighted down for picking:
pear trees,pomegranates, brilliant apples..."
An Anonymous Andalusian
Cookbook of the 13th Century
Translated by Charles
Perry
Khabîsa with Pomegranate [p. 27 verso]
Take half a ratl of sugar and put it in a metal or earthenware pot and
pour in three ratls of juice of sweet table pomegranates [rummân
sufri; probably tart pomegranates were more common in cooking] and half
an û qiya of rosewater, with a penetrating smell. Boil it gently
and after two boilings, add half a mudd of semolina and boil it until
the semolina is cooked. Throw in the weight of a quarter dirham of ground
and sifted saffron, and three û qiyas of almonds. Put it in a
dish and sprinkle over it the like of pounded sugar, and make balls
[literally, hazelnuts] of this.
Recipe courtesy of David Friedman:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com
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