the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Rose
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Song of Solomon 2:1; Isaiah 35:1; the autumn crocus, the meadow saffron of a white and violet color, Colchicum autumnale (Gesenius). The Hebrew chabatseleth implies a bulbous plant (betsel , a "bulb"). The narcissus is very fragrant, and therefore more likely than the crocus; the lily is associated with it in the Song of Solomon. They blossom about the same time; another reason for the narcissus rather than the crocus, which blossoms not until autumn. The narcissus grows in the plain of Sharon (Chateaubriand, Itineraire, ii. 130). The rose is not mentioned in the Bible, but in the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus (Sirach 24:14), "I (wisdom) was as a rose plant in Jericho." "The rose of Jericho" is not a rose, but the Αnastatica Ηierochuntina . However, roses now grow in Palestine, both cultivated and wild. The Hebrew implying a bulbous plant may refer to the bulb-like flower of the rose with its petals folded over each other (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, April 1878, p. 51).
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Rose'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/r/rose.html. 1949.
