Chapter 18

Herbs of the Bible

Coriander

Apiaceae Family

Coriandrum sativum L.

Grows in Europe, Asia, US, N. Africa.

Coriander is also called Chinese parsley and cilantro. Cilantro is the Spanish word for coriander. In

Hebrew is gad (OT) and Greek korian (NT). The fragrant seeds are used in breads and cakes. All parts of

the plant are edible and it is used throughout the world in cuisines. It was brought to America in 1670 to

the British colonies and was one of the 1st spices grown by the settlers. The leaves have a different

flavor from the seeds. The fruits produced from the plant are the dried seeds. The leaves are high in

many vitamins, especially A, C and K. They also contain fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium and

manganese. Coriander is an annual native herb that grows in Palestine. Coriander enhances the growth

of anise when planted together in the garden. Medicinally it helps with digestion.

Exodus 16:31 and Numbers 11:7 “….. manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it

was like wafers made with honey.

Cumin

Apiaceae Family

Cuminum cyminum L.

Grows in India, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Mexico.

Cumin is an annual herb that grows from about 12-20” and it is the dried seed of the plant. The seeds

are harvested by hand. The fruit of the plant contains one seed, when dried it can be used whole or

ground into a powder. The seeds are oblong in shape with ridges that are longitudinally and yellow-

brown color. It is a drought tolerate herb and can be tropical also. It is grown from seeds but be careful

as frost can damage it, especially when it is flowering or in seed stage. If you soak the seeds for about 8

hours before planting it will help with germination. Cumin is used for culinary purposes as well as

medicinally. It was and is mixed with bread and added to stews and meats. Chili powder, curry powder

and garam masala these are spices with contain cumin. Medicinally it helps with digestion (like other

herbs in this family, parsley, anise, fennel, caraway). It is high in vitamins A, B3, B6, folate, choline, C, E

and K and also minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. Also it

is used in perfume oils and is mentioned with dill.

Isa. 28:25-27 “When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cumin and scatter the cumin,

plant the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? For He instructs

him in right judgment, His God teaches him. For the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cumin; but the black cumin is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin

with a rod.”

Tithe of cumin: Deut. 14:22-23, Matt23:23, Luke 11:42.

Garlic

Amaryllidaceae Family

Allium sativum L.

Grows in the Mediterranean areas and China, wild in North America and Europe.

Garlic is in the onion genus it is a bulb and grows to about 4’. The leaves and flowers can also be eaten.

It is used as a food and medicinally. If you put a clove in oil it will flavor it. When mixed with egg yolks

and olive oil you get aioli. It can also be dried and powdered the taste is different from fresh garlic.

Medicinally it helps with the cardiovascular system, cancer and colds. It is high in vitamins and minerals.

To help with garlic breath which is because of the sulfur in it, eat some parsley. It has been used as

protection against evil. So in medieval times they would wear garlic around the neck, and also put in

windows and keyhole and rubbed on chimneys. In California every year in the city of Gilroy they hold

the Garlic Festival the last weekend of July. This year the dates are July 28-30. In Hebrew the word is

shum. It is found only one time in the bible.

Numbers 11:5 “…….the cucumber, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.”

Hyssop

Lamiaceae Family

Hyssopus officinalis L.

Grows in Europe and Asia and in gardens in North America.

Hyssop is an herb that grows about 1 ½’ tall with opposite leaves on the stalks and flowers are purple or

white. The name is from the Greek azob meaning holy herb. In biblical times the herb hyssop has been

thought to be a variety of marjoram. It likes full sun and heat, so it is drought resistant. The flowers are

harvested 2 times a year, in spring and fall when flowering the flower tips are cut. Beekeepers like this

herb as it attracts the bees, and it is used in cooking. Hyssop has a minty aroma and is warm and

pungent. The essential oil is used to help alertness, is uplifting and good for nervous exhaustion from

stress or overwork. Warning: it can cause seizures in high doses and even in low doses convulsions in

children, so avoid use with them. Just use recommended dosage. It is soothing expectorant and cough

suppressant.

Used in Passover: Exodus 12:22 “And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the

basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.”

For uses in ritual cleansing: Lev. 14:4, 6, 9, 52, Numbers 19:6, 18 and Hebrews 9:19. I Kings 4:33

At crucifixion: Reed (hyssop) Matt. 27:48, Mark 15:36 and John 19:28-30.

Mandrake

Solanaceae Family

Mandragora officinarum L.

Grows in Southern Europe, Israel, and Palestine and Mediterranean areas.

Mandrake means love plant and the Arabs call it “Satan’s Apple”. It get about 2-6” in height, but grows

out on the ground. It has bell shaped flowers and orange or yellow berries. The leaves are in a basal

rosette and elliptical or obovate. The roots are thick grow and about 4’ in the ground. They resemble a

carrot or parsnip and sometimes they look like a person. Being from the nightshade family the plant is

toxic. Because of the alkaloids in it the roots and leaves are poisonous. It was used in ancient times as

an anesthetic for surgery as it produced unconsciousness.

Gen. 30:14-16, Song of Solomon 7:13. In ancient times was thought to help with fertility.

Mint/Horsemint

Lamiaceae Family

Genus: Mentha

Species: M. piperita (peppermint), M. spicata (spearmint), M. arvensis (field mint), M. longifolia

(horsemint) and M. sativa (garden mint).

Grows in Palestine and Syria, Europe and North America.

The Greek word is heduosmon meaning sweet smelling. The aerial parts of the plant are used and also

essential oil is distilled from it. The aerial parts are used for tea, culinary uses, tincture, in baths, and

medicinally. Horsemint is larger than garden mint and grows in Palestine and Syria. Used as a tithe in

bible times and eaten with meat, also was used as a strewing herb on the floors in homes.

Deut. 14:22- Paying tithe of mint in Mosaic Law “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that

the field produces year by year.”

Tithe- Matt.23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise

and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith…..”

Tithe- Luke 11:42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and

pass by justice and the love of God………”

Horsemint

Balm

Balsamodendron opobalsamum

Used to grow in Jericho and Palestine.

Balm or what was called “balm of Gilead” does not exist today. It was mentioned as growing in Jericho,

but does not exist there anymore. It was an aromatic plant with healing qualities. The gum/resin was

bleed from a small bush-tree (12-15’) with yellowish bark and a ragged appearance. The resin had a

yellow color, very fragrant resinous and balsamic. Balsam in Hebrew is tzori meaning to leak.

Genesis 37:25 “……..coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way

to carry them down to Egypt.”

Gen. 43:11 “……… --a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.”

Jer. 8:22 “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?........”

Jer. 46:11 “Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; In vain you will use many

medicines; You shall not be cured.”

Jer. 51:8 “…………Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.”

Rue

Rutaceae Family

Ruta graveolens L.

Grows in Southern Europe and in Palestine.

Rue is one of the oldest plants that grow in gardens. The plant is about 2-3’ in height with alternate

bluish leaves and greenish-yellow flowers. It is a perennial. It is said it grows best near a fig tree. Called

common rue or herb-of-grace, it means strong smelling. Rue is bitter and very toxic. The essential oil is

extremely toxic and can cause death. It is used in perfumes and foods. It is eaten in salads and is

reputed to be helpful to eye sight. It is used as insect repellant and to repel evil. Moms would put this

on the caps of infants and small children to keep evil away from them. Women would eat the leaves

which have abortifacient properties. It is mentioned only once in the bible.

Luke 11:42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, …..”

Saffron

Iridaceae Family

Crocus sativus L.

Grows in Greece and in Palestine.

Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. The threads are dried styles and stigmas of the plant.

It is a perennial that flowers in the autumn. It takes about 4,300 flowers to make 1 oz. of saffron. It has

a bitter, hay-like taste and yellow color. It has been used as a dye and a medicine. In Hebrew it means

yellow (karkom). In the east saffron cakes are made and it is a coloring in curry.

Song of Solomon 4:14 “Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the tree of frankincense,

myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices---“

Wormwood

Asteraceae Family

Artemisia absinthium L.

Grows in temperate areas of the world.

Wormwood in Hebrew is La’anah or rosh which means cursed. The Latin word absinthium means

undrinkable. It is also translated in different passages meaning extreme bitterness, remorse, affliction

and the words hemlock and poppy are also used with these meanings and to mean poison or gall too.

Deut. 29:18 “…….., and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood.”

Prov. 5:4 “But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”

Jer. 8:14 “………..and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.”

Jer. 9:15 “therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel “Behold, I will feed them, this people

with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”

Jer. 23:15 “……….Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for

from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has gone out into all the land.”

Rev. 8:11 “The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many

men died from the water, because it was bitter.”

Amos 5:7 “You who turn justice into wormwood, and lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”

Amos 6:12 “………….Yet you have turn justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.”

Lam. 3:19 “Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.

Hemlock (rosh)-

Hosea 10:4 “They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springs up

like hemlock in the furrows of the field.” and hemlock means poison in this verse.

Bitter and gall-

Deut. 32:32 “……………their clusters are bitter.”

Ps. 69:21 “They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

Matt. 27:33-34 “…………..they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would

not drink it.”

wormwood

Hemlock

Bitter Herbs (wild lettuces or prickly lettuce, endive, parsley, chicory, bitter cresses, hawkweeds and

sow-thistle)

The Israelites were commanded to eat bitter herbs (salad) so they would remember their embittered

lives in Egypt. In Hebrew herbs is hurbs or urbs (merorim) or marror or Chazeret which is eating bitter

herbs at the Passover Seder.

Exodus 12:8 “Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with

bitter herbs they shall eat it.”

Num. 9:11 “On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”

Prickly wild lettuce

Chicory

Wild water cresses

Sow-thistle

Aloe

Asphodelaceae Family

Lign-aloe (tree)

The aloe mentioned in the bible is different from what we think of today. It was a tree that grew in

tropical areas, Jordan, the Arabian peninsula and in India. It grew to a height of 120’ and 12’ in width.

The bark of the tree was sweetly perfumed and costly. Very different from the flowering succulent aloe

vera “true aloe” that we have today not medicinal but resin from a tree. There is a variety where the

leaves have a milky juice that hardens into a resin. Lign-aloe means “wood of aloe”. Bitter aloes is

reference to the dried juice of leaves from A. vulgaris.

Num. 24:6 “Like valleys that stretch out, like gardens by the riverside, like aloes planted by the Lord, like

cedars beside the waters.”

Ps. 45:8 “All your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Out of the ivory palaces, by

which they have made You glad.”

Prov. 7:17 “I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.”

Song of Sol. 4:14 “Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh

and aloes,”

John 19:39 “And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh

and aloes, about a hundred pounds.” Jesus burial (used for embalming purposes).