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The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon. Psalm 92. v. 12. No, this is not going to be a sermon. That is just one of the many references to plants to be found in the Bible. There are a lot of different plants mentioned in the Bible. Usually, the biblical texts only refer to plants by their common names, and this can be very confusing. Some of the plants we easily recognize; plants like oleander, olive, myrtle, laurel, pomegranate and cypress, to name but a few. And life would be relatively tasteless without some of the crops which are mentioned, plants like onions, leeks, oats, barley, lentils, chicory and endive. But others, like 'tares' and 'grass' are not so easy to pin down. To speak of 'lilies of the field' is like talking about 'daisies' in an English garden. What is actually meant - the daisies we see in the lawn, or Shasta daisies which are a form of chrysanthemum, or Michaelmas daisies which are part of the aster family. Or maybe the African daisy (dimorphotheca), or the Livingstone daisy (mesembryanthemum), or - I could go on, but I won't. One plant that is mentioned several times and the identity of which is not in doubt is one that, once seen, is never forgotten - the cedar of Lebanon. Cedrus libani. This must have been the tallest and most massive tree known to the Israelites at that time. The name Cedrus possibly comes from the Turkish kedron, meaning 'power', which makes it an apt name for this, one of the most majestic of conifers. The trees can grow to a height of more than 120 feet, and their trunks can reach a diameter of about 10 feet. Such trees are an awe-inspiring sight. When young, the trees grow more or less in the shape of a pyramid, but as they get older the branches grow more horizontally, and the tree adopts the flat-topped shape with massive spreading limbs which gives it its special, remarkable and majestic shape. In the time of Solomon the mountainous areas of the Lebanon were covered in cedars. But the wood of the cedar of Lebanon was not only valued for its excellent quality, but also as a symbol of status, power and dignity, which became its downfall. Solomon's temple, built in about 950 BC, was largely covered with the wonderfully fragrant cedarwood. It took seven years to build the tremendous temple, which had already been started under King David. The construction of Solomon's private dwellings and other buildings, including the house of his wife, took another thirteen years. In order to do all this, Solomon first sent 30,000 Israelites serving in the army to the Lebanon to cut down the giant trees and bring them down to the coast. There, the trunks were tied together as rafts and floated down the coast to somewhere in the region of the present day city of Tel Aviv. Once there they were transported overland to Jerusalem. Later on, as the demand for cedarwood increased, Solomon used an entire army, consisting of 3,300 officers and 150,000 workmen. From that time up to the present many people intent on making a profit have continued the desecration of the slopes of Lebanon. For a period of almost 3,000 years the cedars of Lebanon have been cut down without a thought for the consequences. And once the trees were gone, the once richly wooded slopes soon fell prey to erosion and have now assumed the appearance of a lunar landscape. Cedars of Lebanon are now extremely rare in the area from which they got their name. But now, cedars are being planted again in various places in this part of the world in an attempt to recreate the forests that were there in biblical times. But this is not going to be an easy task. A cedar of Lebanon takes about ten years to reach a height of six feet in a site which has good soil and adequate rainfall. How long it will take one to reach a height of over 120 feet in an area which has suffered erosion of the top soil for hundreds of years, and where rainfall is not all that it could be, I have no idea. One thing is sure, it will be a long time before this attempt to recreate those ancient woods shows appreciable results. Bill Hutchings Editor: Planting of the Millennium Yew Trees on Sunday May 7th, after the Festival Eucharist, 10.am. |
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page last updated 5 MAY 2000 |
