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Palm (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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(φοίνιξ)

The only passages in the NT containing references to the palm are John 12:13 and Revelation 7:9. It flourishes in hot dry climates and is known to have been cultivated in Egypt and Babylonia at an early date. In the deserts of Arabia it is essential to existence, hence the Arabic saying that the palm has as many uses as there are days in a year. The palm referred to in the OT and NT is the PhCEnix dactylifera, L.; in Palestine it still flourishes in the maritime plain but seldom ripens in the hill-country. Its cultivation in Palestine has been neglected for a long time past, and there can be little doubt that in ancient times it was much more common than it is to-day.

The trunk of the palm does not increase in thickness from year to year like other trees but only rises higher, putting forth new leaves each year. The lower circle of leaves, sometimes as much as seven years old, gradually withers away, and as the stumps of the old leaves wear off the trunk becomes more slender as it increases in height. The leaves, which are pinnate and are often 12 ft. long, form a kind of dome at the summit of the tall bare stem. The male and female blossoms are on different trees, and it is consequently necessary to impregnate the female blossoms if the seed is not to be barren. This is effected either by tying a bunch of male blossom on to the female trees or else by shaking out the pollen over the female flowers. The flowers grow on a single or branched tuft, covered by a spathe or sheath, some of which contain many thousands of flowers. The core of the trunk is soft and pithy, and palm wood is therefore of little use as timber, though it is of value for rafters and gate-posts.

The fruit is a staple article of food among the modern Bedouins. It is gathered by a man who climbs the trunk, severs the clusters of dates, places them in a basket, and lowers them to the ground. The date is utilized in many ways. A kind of brandy is made from its juice, and also dibs, a syrup resembling honey, which forms a useful substitute for sugar. Baskets, mats, and all sorts of utensils are manufactured from its leaves; the crown of barren trees is boiled as a vegetable; camels are fed on the pounded stones, horses on the fruit-stalks; and the fibres of the leaf-stalk and fruit-stalk are used for ropes.

Branches of palms were regarded as appropriate emblems of triumph and jubilation, and they were carried at the Feast of Tabernacles, while they were also used in constructing the booths on the house-tops on the occasion of this festival (Leviticus 23:42). In Revelation 7:9 the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:13) may be in view.

Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible10, 1911, p. 378 f.; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, ed. 1887, i. 207 f., ed. 1903, p. 76; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 3 vols., ed. 1881-1886, passim, ed. 1910, p. 30; H. B. Swete, Apocalypse of St. John2, 1907, p. 100; P. S. P. Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology, 1912, p. 12 f.; HDB_ iii. 656 f.; SDB_, p. 675; EBi_ iii. 3551 f.

P. S. P. Handcock.