Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

thing strongly indicative of health and vigour in the fresh look of a flourishing olive tree, but especially when a grove of them is seen together, and the sun is shining on their glossy leaves. The foliage is of a dark and peculiar green, and under a passing breeze the uppermost leaves turn round, and show a fine silvery hue." When the Psalmist says, "I shall be anointed with green (Eng. tr. fresh) oil" (Ps. xcii. 10), we cannot suppose that he means oil of a green colour. The word rather means precious, fragrant oil, such as that used by princes in times of prosperity; fragrant as a field which the Lord has blessed; a flowery field, in all its verdure, to the smell of which Isaac compared the smell of the perfumed clothes Jacob had on when his father blessed him. (Gen. xxvii. 27).

The olive tree, from the effect of its oil, in supplying, relaxing, and preventing or mitigating pain, seems to have been adopted, from the earliest period, as an emblem of the benignity of the Divine Nature; and particularly after the fall, to have represented the goodness and placability of God through Christ, and of the blessed influences of the Holy Spirit, in mollifying and healing our disordered nature, and in destroying or expelling from it the poison of the old (spiritual) serpent, even as olive oil does that of the natural serpent or viper. Hence we see a peculiar propriety in the olive-leaf or branch being chosen by Divine Providence as a sign to Noah of the abatement of the deluge (Gen. viii. 11); and may also account for olive branches being ordered as one of the materials of the booths at the Feast of Tabernacles

(Neh. viii. 15), whence they became the emblems of peace to various and distant nations. Captain Cook found that green branches carried in the hand, or stuck in the ground, were thus universally understood by all the islanders, even in the South Seas. In the sacred writings, olives are sometimes represented as beaten off the trees (Deut. xxiv. 20), and at other times as shaken off (Isa. xvii. 6; ch. xxiv. 13). This, however, does not indicate an improvement made in after times on the original mode of gathering them, nor different methods of procedure by different people; it rather expresses the difference between the gathering the main crops by the owners, and the way in which the poor collected the few that were left, and which, by the law, they were permitted to take.

The usual method of extracting the oil from olives, appears to have been by treading them with the feet (Deut. xxxiii. 24, comp. with Mic. vi. 15.)

By what an apt and awful similitude does Paul represent God's rejection of the Jews, and His admission of the heathen, by the boughs of an olive being lopped off, and the scion of a young olive ingrafted into the old tree (Rom. xi. 17, &c.)

THE POMEGRANATE. The pomegranate, or malum punicum of the Romans, ripens in Barbary in the month of August. It was formerly one of the most delicate fruits of the East (Numb. xiii. 23; ch. xx. 5; Deut. viii. 8; Cant. iv. 13); and the high estimation in which it was held by the people of Israel may be inferred from its being one of the three kinds of fruit brought by the spies from Eshcol to Moses and the congregation in the wilderness (Numb. xxiii. 22, chap. xx. 5), and from its being

specified by that rebellious people as one of the greatest luxuries which they enjoyed in Egypt, and the want of which they felt so severely in the sandy desert.

In Cant. viii. 2, the bride proposes to make for her beloved a beverage of wine mixed with the juice of pomegranates, and Russell observes that at Aleppo the inhabitants give a grateful acidity to their sauces, by pomegranate or lemon-juice.

The pomegranate, classed by Moses with wheat and barley, wines and figs, olive oil and honey, was, in his account, one principal recommendation of the promised land (Deut. viii. 8).

The Hebrew and Greek names of this tree being expressive of the strong projection or reflection of light, either from the fruit, or from the star-light flower at its extremity, Parkhurst conceives that those brazen pomegranates which Solomon placed in the net-work over the crowns on the top of the two brazen pillars (1 Kings vii. 18, 20, 42; 2 Chron. iv. 13; Jer. lii. 22, 23), were intended to represent the stars, strongly reflecting light on the earth and planets. So the artificial pomegranates ordered to be fixed on the skirts of Aaron's robe (Exod. xxviii. 33, 34) were, he thinks, to represent those spiritual stars, even the children of God, who, by a light derived from their great High Priest, shine as lights or luminaries in the world (Phil. ii. 15, comp. Matt. v. 14-16; Eph. v. 8; 1 Thess. v. 5; Rev. i. 16 -20), and who, like the bells which accompanied the pomegranates, are continually to proclaim the perfections of Him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Pet. ii. 2).

THE VINE. This grew plentifully in Palestine,

and was particularly fine in some of the districts. The Scriptures celebrate the vines of Sorek, Sibmah, Jazer, and Abel; and profane authors mention the excellent wines of Gaza, Sarepta, Libanus, Sharon, Ascalon, and Tyre. The grapes of Egypt being particularly small, we may easily conceive of the surprise which was occasioned to the Israelites by witnessing the bunch of grapes brought by the spies to the camp, from the valley of Eshcol (Numb. xiii. 24). Doubdan assures us, that in the valley of Eshcol were bunches of grapes of ten and twelve pounds, and Forster says, that he was informed by a Religieuse who had lived many years in Palestine, that there were bunches of grapes in the valley of Hebron so large that two men could scarcely carry one (Comp. Numb. xiii. 24). Rosenmuller says, "Though the Mahomedan religion does not favour the cultivation of the vine, there is no want of vineyards in Palestine. Besides the large quantities of grapes and raisins which are daily sent to the markets of Jerusalem and other neighbouring places, Hebron alone, in the first half of the eighteenth century, annually sent three hundred camel loads, that is, nearly three hundred thousand pounds weight of grape-juice, or honey of raisins, to Egypt.*

To show the abundance of vines which should fall to the lot of Judah, in the partition of the promised land, Jacob says of his tribe, that he shall be found

Binding his colt to the vine,

And to the choice vine, the foal of his ass.
Washing his garments in wine,

His clothes in the blood of the grape.

(Gen. xlix. 11.)

*Burder's "Oriental Literature."

The law enjoined that he who planted a vine should not eat of the produce of it before the fifth year (Lev. xix. 24, 25.) Nor did they gather their grapes on the seventh year: the fruit was then left for the poor, the orphan, and the stranger. A traveller was permitted to gather and eat grapes in a vineyard, as he passed along, but was not permitted to carry any away (Deut. xxiii. 24.)

In John xv. our Lord declares himself to be the 66 true vine." Doddridge, after Wetstein, has supposed that the idea might be suggested by the sight of a vine, either from a window, or in some court by the side of the house, but Dr. Russell states that it is very common to cover the stairs leading to the upper apartments of the harem with vines. This fully explains the beautiful metaphor in Psalm cxxviii., Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house."

66

The Jews accounted the vine the most noble of plants, and a type of all that was excellent, powerful, fruitful, and fortunate. The prophets, therefore, compared the Jewish nation and the Jewish church to a great vine adorned with beautiful fruit, planted, tended, and guarded by God (Jer. ii. 21; Ezek. xix. 10 seq. Psal. lxxx. 9, 15 seq.) God was the DRESSER OF THE VINEYARD, Israel was the VINEYARD and VINE (Isa. v. 1, seq.; xxvii. 2 seq.; Hos. x. 1)-every true Israelite, especially, the heads and chiefs of the people, were the branches (Isa. xvi. 8; Jer. v. 10)—the might and power of the nation-the full swelling bunches. The basis of the metaphor was ever the idea, that "Israel is the first, the most holy nation on the earth, that God himself is the founder and protector of it."

« AnteriorContinuar »