A Dictionary of Bible Plants

Book excerpt: This book describes and illustrates each plant mentioned in the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha. The book draws on Lytton John Musselman's extensive field investigations from Beirut to Borneo and from the Atlas to the Zagros mountains and includes his original images of each plant. Incorporating new research on their use, the text also reviews recent analytical studies of plants used in materials and technology as well as ancient grains, beer production, medicine, tensile materials, soap, and other articles. Based on these materials, Musselman provides several new plant identifications for controversial biblical passages. In addition, the book surveys the history of Bible plant literature from the time of the Greeks and Romans to the present and reviews and correlates it with Bible plant hermeneutics. To aid readers, extensive references for further study are provided, along with an index to all verses containing references to these plants, which enables the reader to quickly locate the plant of interest in its textual setting.