Vine
VIEW:18 DATA:01-04-2020
Noah appears as its first cultivator (Gen_9:20-21); he probably preserved the knowledge of its cultivation from the antediluvian world. Pharaoh's dream (Gen_40:9-11, see Speaker's Commentary) implies its prevalence in Egypt; this is confirmed by the oldest Egyptian monuments. So also Psa_78:47. Osiris the Egyptian god is represented as first introducing the vine. Wine in Egypt was the beverage of the rich people; beer was the drink of the poor people. The very early monuments represent the process of fermenting wine. The spies bore a branch with one cluster of grapes between two on a staff from the brook Eshcol. Bunches are found in Palestine of ten pounds weight (Reland Palest., 351). Kitto (Phys. Hist. Palest., p. 330) says a bunch from a Syrian vine was sent as a present from the Duke of Portland to the Marquis of Rockingham, weighing 19 pounds, and was carried on a staff by four, two bearing it in rotation.
Sibmah, Heshbon, and Elealeh (Isa_16:8-10; Jer_48:31) and Engedi (Son_1:14) were famous for their vines. Judah with its hills and tablelands was especially suited for vine cultivation; "binding his foal unto the vine and his ass' colt unto the choice vine he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes, his eyes shall be red with wine" (Gen_49:11-12). Both Isaiah (Isaiah 5) and the Lord Jesus make a vineyard with fence and tower, the stones being gathered out, the image of Judah (Mat_21:33). Israel is the vine brought out of Egypt, and planted by Jehovah in the land of promise (Psa_80:8; compare Isa_27:2-3). The "gathering out of the stones" answers to God's dislodging the original inhabitants before Israel, and the "fencing" to God's protection of Israel from surrounding enemies.
"The choicest vine" (sowreq, still in Morocco called serki, the grapes have scarcely perceptible stones; Jdg_16:4 mentions a town called from this choice vine Sorek) is the line of holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, etc. The square "tower" was to watch against depredations, and for the owner's use; the "fence" to keep out wild boars, foxes, jackals, etc. (Psa_80:13; Son_2:15). The "fence" may represent the law, the "stones" gathered out Jerome thinks are the idols; the "tower" the temple "in the midst" of Judaea; the "winepress," generally hewn out of the rocky soil, the altar. The vine stem is sometimes more than a foot in diameter, and 30 ft. in height.
"To dwell under the vine and fig tree" symbolizes peace and prosperity (1Ki_4:25). When apostate, Israel was "an empty vine," "the degenerate plant of a strange vine," "bringing forth fruit unto himself" not unto God (Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1). In Eze_15:2-4 God asks "what is the vine wood more than any tree?" i.e., what is its preeminence? None. Nay the reverse. Other trees yield good timber; but vine wood is soft, brittle, crooked, and seldom large; "will men take a pin of it, to hang any vessel thereon?" not even a "pin" or wooden peg can be made of it. Its sole excellence above all trees is its fruit; when not fruit bearing it is inferior to other trees. So, if God's people lose their distinctive excellency by not bearing fruits of righteousness, they are more unprofitable than the worldly, for they are the vine, the sole end of their being is to bear fruit to His glory.
In all respects, except in bearing fruit unto God, Israel was inferior to other nations, as Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, in antiquity, extent, resources, military power, arts and sciences. Its only use when fruitless is to be "cast into the fire for fuel." Gephen is a general term for the vine, from whence the town Gophna, now Jifna, is named. Nazir is "the undressed vine," one every seventh and 50th year left unpruned. The vine is usually planted on the side of a terraced hill, the old branches trailing along the ground and the fruit bearing shoots being raised on forked sticks. Robinson saw the vine trained near Hebron in rows eight or ten feet apart; when the stock is six or eight feet high, it is fastened in a sloping direction to a stake, and the shoots extend front one plant to another, forming a line of festoons; sometimes two rows slant toward each other and form an arch.
Sometimes the vine is trained over a rough wall three feet high, sometimes over a wooden framework so that the foliage affords a pleasant shade (1Ki_4:25). The vintage is in September. The people leave the towns and live in lodges and tents among the vineyards (Jdg_9:27); sometimes even before the vintage (Son_7:11-12). The grape gatherers plied their work with shouts of joy (Jer_25:30). The finest grapes in Palestine are now dried as raisins, tsimuq. The juice of the rest, is boiled down to a syrup, called fibs, much used as an accompaniment of foods. The vine was Judaea's emblem on Maccabean coins, and in the golden cluster over the porch of the second temple. It is still to be seen on their oldest tombstones in Europe. The Lord Jesus is the antitypical vine (John 15).
Every branch in Jesus He "pruneth," with afflictions, that it may bring forth more fruit. So each believer becomes "pure" ("pruned," katharoi, answering to kathairei, "He purgeth" or pruneth). The printing is first in March, when the clusters begin to form. The twig formed subsequently has time to shoot by April, when, if giving no promise, it is again lopped off; so again in May, if fruitless; at last it is thrown into the fire. On the road from Akka to Jerusalem, Robinson saw an upper ledge of rock scooped into a shallow trough, in which the grapes were trodden, and by a hole in the bottom the juice passed into a lower vat three feet deep, four square (Bib. Res. 3:137). Other winepresses were of wood; thus the stone ones became permanent landmarks (Jdg_7:25). The vine is the emblem, as of Christ, so of the church and each believer.
Vine of Sodom. Deu_32:32; Isa_1:10; Jer_23:14. (See APPLES OF SODOM.) J.D. Hooper objects to the Calotropis or Asclepias procera, the osher of the Arabs, that the term "vine" would scarcely be given to any but a trailing or other plant of the habit of a vine, and that its beautiful silky cotton within would never suggest the idea of anything but what is exquisitely lovely. He therefore prefers the Cucumis colocynthis. Tacitus writes, "all herbs growing along the Dead Sea are blackened by its exhalations, and so blasted as to vanish into ashes" (Hist. 5:7).
Josephus (B. J. 4:8, section 4) says" the ashes of the five cities still grow in their fruits, which have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them they dissolve into smoke and ashes." The Asclepius gigantea or Calotropis has a trunk six or eight inches in diameter, and from ten to 15 ft. high, the bark cork-like and grey. The yellow apple-like fruit is yellow and soft and tempting to the eye, but when pressed explodes with a puff, leaving in the hand only shreds and fibres. The acrid juice suggests the gall in Deu_32:32, "their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Vine. The well-known valuable plant (Vitis vinifera) very frequently referred to in the Old and New Testaments, and cultivated from the earliest times. The first mention of this plant occurs in Gen_9:20-21. That it was abundantly cultivated in Egypt is evident from the frequent representations on the monuments, as well as from the scriptural allusions. Gen_40:9-11; Psa_78:47.
The vines of Palestine were celebrated both for luxuriant growth and for the immense clusters of grapes which they produced, which were sometimes carried on a staff between two men, as in the case of the spies, Num_13:23, and as has been done in some instances in modern times. Special mention is made in the Bible of the vines of Eshcol, Num_13:24; Num_32:9, of Sibmah, Heshbon and Elealeh, Isa_16:8-10; Jer_48:32, and of Engedi. Son_1:14.
From the abundance and excellence of the vines, it may readily be understood, how frequently this plant is the subject of metaphor in the Holy Scriptures. To dwell under the vine and tree is an emblem of domestic happiness and peace, 1Ki_4:25; Psa_128:3; Mic_4:4, the rebellious people of Israel are compared to "wild grapes," "an empty vine," "the degenerate plant of a strange vine," etc. Isa_6:2; Isa_6:4; Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1.
It is a vine which our Lord selects to show the spiritual union which subsists between himself and his members. Joh_15:1-6. The ancient Hebrews probably allowed the vine to go trailing on the ground or upon supports. This latter mode of cultivation appears to be alluded to by Ezekiel. Eze_19:11-12. The vintage, which formerly was a season of general festivity, began in September. The towns were deserted; the people lived among the vineyards in the lodges and tents. Compare Jdg_8:27; Isa_16:10; Jer_25:30.
The grapes were gathered with shouts of joy by the "grape gatherers," Jer_25:30 and put into baskets. See Jer_6:9. They were then carried on the head and shoulders, or slung upon a yoke, to the "wine-press." Those intended for eating were perhaps put into flat open baskets of wickerwork, as was the custom in Egypt.
In Palestine, at present, the finest grapes, says Dr. Robinson, are dried as raisins, and the juice of the remainder, after having been trodden and pressed, "is boiled down to a sirup, which, under the name of dibs, is much used by all classes, wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment with their food."
The vineyard, which was generally on a hill, Isa_5:1; Jer_31:5; Amo_9:13, was surrounded by a wall or hedge in order to keep out the wild boars, Psa_80:13, jackals and foxes. Num_22:24; Neh_4:3; Son_2:15; Eze_13:4-5; Mat_21:33. Within the vineyard was one or more towers of stone in which the vine-dressers lived. Isa_1:8; Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33. The vat, which was dug, Mat_21:33, or hewn out of the rocky soil, and the press, were part of the vineyard furniture. Isa_5:2.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
גפן , Gen_40:9; αμπελος, Mat_26:29; Mar_14:25; Luk_22:18; Joh_15:4-5; Jam_3:12; Rev_14:19; a noble plant of the creeping kind, famous for its fruit, or grapes, and the liquor they afford. The vine is a common name or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is mode, from the rest, calls it, the wine vine, Num_6:4. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality, as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2Ki_4:39; 2Ki_4:41. (See Grapes.) The expression of sitting every man under his own vine, probably alludes to the delightful eastern arbours, which were partly composed of vines. Capt. Norden, in like manner, speaks of vine arbours as common in the Egyptian gardens; and the Praenestine pavement in Dr. Shaw gives us the figure of an ancient one. Plantations of trees about houses are found very useful in hot countries, to give them an agreeable coolness. The ancient Israelites seem to have made use of the same means, and probably planted fruit trees, rather than other kinds, to produce that effect. It is their manner in many places, says Sir Thomas Rowe's chaplain, speaking of the country of the Great Mogul, to plant about and among their buildings, trees which grow high and broad, the shadow whereof keeps their houses by far more cool: this I observed in a special manner, when we were ready to enter Amadavar; for it appeared to us as if we had been entering a wood rather than a city. Immediately on entering, says Turner, I was ushered into the court yard of the aga, whom I found smoking under a vine, surrounded by horses, servants, and dogs, among which I distinguished an English pointer.
There were in Palestine many excellent vineyards. Scripture celebrates the vines of Sorek, of Sebamah, of Jazer, of Abel. Profane authors mention the excellent wines of Gaza, Sarepta, Libanus, Saron, Ascalon, and Tyre. Jacob, in the blessing which he gave Judah, Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes, Gen_49:11; he showed the abundance of vines that should fall to his lot. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches hang over the wall,
Gen_49:22. To the northward and westward, says Morier, are several villages, interspersed with extensive orchards and vineyards, the latter of which are generally enclosed by high walls. The Persian vine dressers do all in their power to make the vine run up the wall, and curl over on the other side, which they do by tying stones to the extremity of the tendril. The vine, particularly in Turkey and Greece, is frequently made to entwine on trellises around a well, where, in the heat of the day, whole families collect themselves, and sit under the shade.
Noah planted the vine after the deluge, and is supposed to have been the first who cultivated it, Gen_9:20. Many are of opinion that wine was not unknown before the deluge; and that this patriarch only continued to cultivate the vine after that event, as he had done before it: but the fathers think that he knew not the force of wine, having never used it before, nor having ever seen any one use it. He was the first that gathered the juice of the grape, and preserved it till by fermentation it became a potable liquor. Before him men only ate the grapes like other fruit. The law of Moses did not allow the planters of vineyards to eat the fruit before the fifth year, Lev_19:24-25. The Israelites were also required to indulge the poor, the orphan, and the stranger, with the use of the grapes on the seventh year. A traveller was allowed to gather and eat the grapes in a vineyard as he passed along, but he was not permitted to carry any away, Deu_23:24. The scarcity of fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the east, is so great, that they supply it with every thing capable of burning; cow dung dried, roots, parings of fruits, withered stalks of herbs and flowers, Mat_6:30. Vine twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food, by D'Arvieux, La Roque, and others: Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used figuratively for the people of God, Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel, Eze_15:3-4. If a man abide not in me, saith our Lord, he is cast forth as a branch of the vine, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned, Joh_15:6.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
vı̄n:
1. Hebrew Words:
(1) גּפן, gephen, usually the cultivated grape vine. In Num_6:4; Jdg_13:14 we have היּין גּפן, gephen ha-yayı̄n, literally, ?vine of wine,? translated ?grape vine? (Numbers) and ?vine,? margin ?grape vine? (Jgs); 2Ki_4:39, שׂדה גּפן, gephen sādheh English Versions of the Bible ?wild vine?; Deu_32:32, סדם גּפן, gephen ṣedhōm, ?vine of Sodom.?
(2) שרק, sōrēḳ, in Isa_5:2, ?choicest vine?; שׂורק, sōrēḳ, in Jer_2:21, ?noble vine?; שרקה, sōrēḳāh, in Gen_49:11, ?choice vine?; compare VALLEY OF SOREK (which see). The Hebrew is supposed to indicate dark grapes and, according to rabbinical tradition, they were unusually sweet and almost, if not quite, stoneless.
(3) נזיר, nāzı̄r, in Lev_25:5, Lev_25:11, ?undressed vine,? the King James Version ?vine undressed,? margin ?separation.? This may mean an unpruned vine and be a reference to the uncut locks of a Nazirite, but it is equally probable that נזיר, nāzı̄r should be בּציר, bācı̄r, ?vintage.?
For the blossom we have פּרח, peraḥ (Isa_18:5), ?blossom?; נצּה, niccāh, either the blossom or half-formed clusters of grapes (Gen_40:10; Isa_18:5); סמדר, ṣemādhar, ?sweet-scented blossom? (Son_2:13, Son_2:15; Son_7:12).
For grapes we have commonly: ענב, ‛ēnābh (a word common to all Semitic languages) (Gen_40:10; Deu_32:14; Isa_5:2, etc.); ענבים דּם, dam ‛ănābhı̄m, literally, ?blood of grapes,? i.e. wine (Gen_49:11); בּסר, bōṣer, ?the unripe grape? (Isa_18:5, ?ripening grape,? the King James Version ?sour grape?; Job_15:33, ?unripe grapes?; Jer_31:29 f; Eze_18:2, ?sour grapes?); בּאשׁים, be'ushı̄m ?wild grapes? (Isa_5:2, Isa_5:4; see GRAPES, WILD); אשׁכּל, 'eshkōl, a ?cluster? of ripe grapes (Gen_40:10; Son_7:8 f; Hab_3:17, etc.; compare ESHCOL (which see)); חרצנּים, ḥarcannı̄m, usually supposed to be the kernels of grapes (Num_6:4).
2. Greek and Latin:
In Greek we have ἄμπελος, ámpelos, ?vine? (Mat_26:29, etc.), σταφυλή, staphulḗ (Sirach 39:26, ?blood of grapes?; Mat_7:16, ?grapes,? etc.), and βότρυς, bótrus (Rev_14:18), ?cluster of the vine.? In the Latin of 2 Esdras vinea is ?vine? in 5:23 (?vineyard? in 16:30, 43); botrus (9:21) and racemus (16:30) are ?cluster?; acinium (9:21) and uva (16:26) are ?a grape.?
3. Antiquity and Importance:
Palestine appears to have been a vine-growing country from the earliest historic times. The countless wine presses found in and around centers of early civilization witness to this. It is probable that the grape was largely cultivated as a source of sugar: the juice expressed in the ?wine press? was reduced by boiling to a liquid of treacle-like consistency known as ?grape honey,? or in Hebrew debhash (Arabic, dibs). This is doubtless the ?honey? of many Old Testament references, and before the days of cane sugar was the chief source of sugar. The whole Old Testament witnesses to how greatly Palestine depended upon the vine and its products. Men rejoiced in wine also as one of God's best gifts (Jdg_9:13; Psa_104:15). But the Nazirite might eat nothing of the vine ?from the kernels even to the husk? (Num_6:4; Jdg_13:14).
The land promised to the children of Israel was one of ?vines and fig trees and pomegranates? (Deu_8:8); they inherited vineyards which they had not planted (Deu_6:11; Jos_24:13; Neh_9:25). Jacob's blessing on Judah had much reference to the suitability of his special part of the land to the vine (Gen_49:11). When the leading people were carried captive the poor were left as vine dressers (2Ki_25:12; Jer_52:16), lest the whole land should lapse into uncultivated wilderness. On the promised return this humble duty was, however, to fall to the ?sons of the alien? (Isa_61:5 the King James Version).
4. Its Cultivation:
The mountain regions of Judea and Samaria, often little suited to cereals, have always proved highly adapted to vine culture. The stones must first be gathered out and utilized for the construction of a protecting wall or of terraces or as the bases of towers (Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33). Every ancient vineyard had its wine press cut in a sheet of rock appearing at the surface. As a rule the vinestocks lie along the ground, many of the fruit-bearing branches falling over the terraces (compare Gen_49:22); in some districts the end of the vine-stock is raised by means of a cleft stick a foot or more above the surface; exceptionally the vine branches climb into trees, and before a dwelling-house they are sometimes supported upon poles to form a bower (compare 1Ki_4:25, etc.).
The cultivation of the vine requires constant care or the fruit will very soon degenerate. After the rains the loosely made walls require to have breaches repaired; the ground must be plowed or harrowed and cleared of weeds - contrast with this the vineyard of the sluggard (Pro_24:30-31); in the early spring the plants must be pruned by cutting off dead and fruitless branches (Lev_25:3, Lev_25:4; Isa_5:6) which are gathered and burned (Joh_15:6). As the grapes ripen they must be watched to keep off jackals and foxes (Son_2:15), and in some districts even wild boars (Psa_80:13). The watchman is stationed in one of the towers and overlooks a considerable area. When the grape season comes, the whole family of the owner frequently take their residence in a booth constructed upon one of the larger towers and remain there until the grapes are practically finished. It is a time of special happiness (compare Isa_16:10). The gleanings are left to the poor of the village or town (Lev_19:10; Deu_24:21; Jdg_8:2; Isa_17:6; Isa_24:13; Jer_49:9; Mic_7:1). In the late summer the vineyards are a beautiful mass of green, as contrasted with the dried-up parched land around, but in the autumn the leaves are sere and yellow (Isa_34:4), and the place desolate.
5. Vine of Sodom:
The expression ?vine of Sodom? (Deu_32:32) has been supposed, especially because of the description in Josephus (BJ, IV, viii, 4), to refer to the colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis), but it is far more probable that it means ?a vine whose juices and fruits were not fresh and healthy, but tainted by the corruption of which Sodom was the type? (Driver, Commentary on Deuteronomy). See SODOM, VINE OF.
Figurative: Every man ?under his vine and under his fig-tree? (1Ki_4:25; Mic_4:4; Zec_3:10) was a sign of national peace and prosperity. To plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof implied long and settled habitation (2Ki_19:29; Psa_107:37; Isa_37:30; Isa_65:21; Jer_31:5; Eze_28:26; Amo_9:14); to plant and not eat the fruit was a misfortune (Deu_20:6; compare 1Co_9:7) and might be a sign of God's displeasure (Deu_28:30; Zep_1:13; Amo_5:11). Not to plant vines might be a sign of deliberate avoidance of permanent habitation (Jer_35:7). A successful and prolonged vintage showed God's blessing (Lev_26:5), and a fruitful wife is compared to a vine (Psa_128:3); a failure of the vine was a sign of God's wrath (Psa_78:47; Jer_8:13; Joe_1:7); it might be a test of faith in Him (Hab_3:17). Joseph ?is a fruitful bough,... his branches run over the wall? (Gen_49:22). Israel is a vine (Isa_5:1-5) brought out of Egypt (Psa_80:8 f; Jer_2:21; Jer_12:10; compare Eze_15:2, Eze_15:6; Eze_17:6). At a later period vine leaves or grape clusters figure prominently on Jewish coins or in architecture.
Three of our Lord's parables are connected with vineyards (Mat_20:1 ff; Mat_21:28, Mat_21:33 ff), and He has made the vine ever sacred in Christian symbolism by His teaching regarding the true vine (Jn 15).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
This plant is used as a type of the nation of Israel, and of other nations. Sometimes it is spoken of as a good vine, and in other passages as a vine that was unprofitable and that brought forth evil fruit. GOD speaks of this vine as His own planting, when it refers to Israel. He expected it to bring forth good fruit that would be for His glory, and would bring joy to His heart. Instead of doing so, it brought forth evil fruit in most of the cases where it refers to Israel.
Gen_49:11 (b) This vine is Israel. Judah was tied to Israel by blood bonds, and his children also bore the same relationship.
Deu_32:32 (a) The vine in this case refers to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is in contrast with what they should be, the vine of Israel. GOD is telling us that Israel had become so corrupt that they were more like those two wicked cities than like His city, and their works were as evil as those of Sodom.
Jdg_9:12 (b) Jotham is telling the people of Israel that they have invited a weak, helpless person to be their king, because he considered that Abimelech was an incompetent man.
Psa_80:8 (a) The nation of Israel is compared to the vine. GOD brought them from Egypt and placed them in the land of Palestine. They replaced the heathen nations whom GOD enabled Joshua to conquer.
Psa_128:3 (a) In this case the wife is compared to a vine because she would be beautiful in her life, and fruitful in her conduct. Children would be born into the family, and they would be a blessing to the mother, to the father, and to the nation.
Jer_2:21 (a) Here we read the sad lament of the Lord because of the evil conduct of His people. The vine is Israel. They did not act like a good vine bearing grapes, but as an evil vine, bearing useless fruit, or poisonous fruit.
Eze_17:6 (b) This vine is probably the apostate Kingdom of Israel. The first great eagle, the King of Babylon, invaded Israel and took some of the people away as captives to his own land. The second eagle was the King of Egypt. Israel sent messengers to Egypt to obtain help, but Egypt failed and Israel was destroyed. It is a wonderful allegory which is described in verses Eze_17:12- 18. (See also Isa_5:2; Jer_2:21; Eze_15:2).
Hos_10:1 (a) GOD expected fruit from His people Israel. He received none. Israel turned to idolatry and to wicked practices learned from the people of the land. They served themselves, and satisfied their own lusts, while GOD's Word was neglected, and His service ignored.
Joh_15:1 (a) In this case the Lord JESUS Himself is the vine. Those who are saved by His grace are the branches. GOD sees the believer as a very part of CHRIST JESUS Himself. The branch bears the likeness of the vine, and has the same living sap flowing through it constantly. It bears the kind of fruit that characterizes the vine. All the fruit on the vine is found on the branches. Let us be bearing fruit for Him.
Rev_14:18 (a) This vine refers to the people of the earth of every kindred and nation who are enemies of GOD, enemies of Israel, and reject the authority of JESUS CHRIST.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
This well-known and valuable plant is the subject of frequent. Biblical notice and a conspicuous element of Oriental agriculture.
I. The following Hebrew words denote the vine:
1. Géphen (גֶּפֶן), or, more definitely, géphen hay-yáyin (גֶּפֶן חִיִּיַן), of frequent occurrence in the Bible, and used in a general sense. Indeed, géphen sometimes is applied to a plant that resembles a vine in some particulars, as גֶּפֶן שָׂדֶה(géphen sadeh), 2Ki_4:39, i.e. probably the colocynth plant, SEE GOURD, or גֶּפֶן סַדֹם(géphen sedom), the vine of Sodom, certainly not a vine. SEE VINE OF SODOM.
2. Sorêk (שׂרֵק), or sorêkah (שׂרֵקָה), is a term expressive of some choice kind of vine (Jer_2:21; Isa_5:2; Gen_49:11), supposed to be identical with that now called in Morocco serki and in Persia kishmish, with small round dark berries and soft stones (see Niebuhr, Descript. de Arabie, p. 147; and Oedmann, Sammlung, 2, 97). From the passage in Jeremiah, it is clear that the sorêk denotes not another species of vine, but the common vine, which by some process of cultivation attained a high state of excellence.
3. Nazir (נָזַיר), originally applied to a Nazarite who did not shave his hair, expresses an undressed vine (A.V.), i.e. one which every seventh and every fiftieth year was not pruned (see Gesenius, Thesaur. s.v.).
The regular Greek word for vine is ἄμπελος, of generic signification. Grapes are designated by various names:
(1.) Eshkol (אֶשְׁכֹּל) is either a cluster, ripe or unripe, like racemus, or a single grape (as in Isa_65:8; Mic_7:1).
(2.) Encab (עֵנָב); Arab. eynob, a cluster.
(3.) Bôser (בֹּסֶר), sour, i.e. unripe grapes (Isa_18:5).
(4.) Zemorah (זְמוֹרָה), a grape cut off. The blossom of the vine. is called semadár (סְמָדִר), Son_2:13; Son_2:15. Grape- stones are probably meant by chartsanim (חִרַצִנַּים); A. V. kernel, Num_6:4. The cuticle of the grape is denominated zâg (זָג), ibid. loc. cit.; the tendrils by sarigim (שָׂרַיגַים), Joe_1:7. SEE GRAPE.
II. The grape-vine (Vitis vinifera) is supposed to be native on the shores of the Caspian. Its culture extends from about the twenty-first to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, and reaches from Portugal on the west to the confines of India on the east. It is, however, only along the center of this zone that the finest wines are made, those on the north being harsh and austere; and the grapes grown at the south are better adapted for making raisins, unless when they are grown in elevated positions or on the slopes of mountains. Liebig states that the wines of warm countries possess no odor; wines grown in France have it in a marked degree; but in the wines from the Rhine the perfume is most intense (Hogg, Vet. Kingdom, p. 181). It may be added that not only is it largely and successfully cultivated in the new world of America, but that, carried across the equator, it thrives in Southern Africa and in the Australian colonies, and may be regarded as the companion of the human family in. nearly all the mild and genial regions, of its sojourn. In the districts of the Caucasus, as well as in the elevated valley of Cashmere, the vine climbs to the tops of the loftiest trees, and the grapes are of fine quality and large size in many places of the intermediate country.
Every part of the vine was, and still continues to be, highly valued. The sap was at one time used in medicine. Verjuice expressed from wild grapes is well known for its acidity. The late Sir A. Burnes mentions that in Cabul they use grape powder, obtained by drying and powdering the unripe fruit, as a pleasant acid. When ripe, the fruit is everywhere highly esteemed, both fresh and in its dried state as raisins. The juice of the ripe fruit, called must, is valued as a pleasant beverage. By fermentation, wine, alcohol, and vinegar are obtained; the lees yield tartar; an oil is, sometimes expressed from the seeds; and the ashes of the twigs were formerly valued in consequence of yielding a salt which we now know to be carbonate of potash.
The first mention of the vine in Scripture occurs in, Gen_9:20 : And Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard. Many are of opinion that wine was not unknown before the Deluge, and that the patriarch only continued to cultivate the ville after that event as he had done before it; but the fathers think that he knew not the force of wine, having never used it before, nor having seen any one use it. The grapevine is found wild at this day in the neighborhood of Noah's first vineyard, at the foot of Mount Ararat. Humboldt found it on the shores of the Caspian, in, Caramania, and in Armenia. It is also a native of Georgia and of the northern parts of Persia, but does not extend to India, though several plants of the same family are common among the mountains of the northern parts of that rich country.
Egypt is nowadays by no means eminent for its grapes; but the first time after the planting of Noah's vineyard that we find the vine mentioned in Scripture, it is the vine of Egypt (Gen_40:9-11; comp. Num_20:5; Psa_78:47). Even although we had not the references in Herodotus, and the tradition ascribing to, Osiris the invention of wine, the frequency with which the plant or its fruit is figured on Egyptian monuments shows how important it must once have been. SEE VINEYARD. The vine, however, was not a native of Egypt, nor does the climate favor it. In ancient times, as we learn from the monuments, great care was taken in its culture, but with comparatively little success; and hence the surprise of the spies when sent to survey the promised land at the immense clusters of grapes they found. Fearing that their account of their great size would not be credited by persons accustomed to the less productive vines of Egypt, they brought back a cluster of the grapes to convince them, as we learn in Num_13:23-24 : And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two, upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. The place was called Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. Some wine, indeed, has been made in Lower Egypt in different ages, but it was never celebrated either for quality or quantity. From the fortieth chapter of Genesis, where the dream of Pharaoh's chief butler is related, it would appear that the juice of the grape fresh-pressed was drunk by the king, and possibly the Egyptian grape-juice at that time was used in the state of must. But though the Pharaohs drank of the blood of the grape in this imperfect state, the Ptolemies reveled in the maturer wines of Palestine, Cyprus, and Greece; and one of them, as, Josephus; tells us, among some magnificent gifts sent to the Temple of Jerusalem renewed the Golden Vine, the symbol of the Jewish nation, of which the treasury has been robbed. Rosenmüller tells us that the Temple, above and around a gate seventy cubits high, which led from the porch to the holy place, a richly carved vine was extended as a border and decoration. The branches tendrils and leaves were of the finest gold, he stalks of the bunches were of the length of the human form, and the bunches hanging upon them were of costly jewels. Herod first placed it there; rich and patriotic Jews from time to time added to its embellishment, one contributing anew grape, another a leaf, and a third even a bunch of the same precious materials. SEE TEMPLE.
Even before Israel took possession, the land of promise was a land of vineyards (Deu_6:11; Deu_28:29; Num_13:23); and it is interesting to observe with what minuteness the divine legislator enacted rules and regulations for the culture of their vineyards, while the prospective owners still wandered in a burning desert (Exo_22:5; Exo_23:11; Lev_25:5; Lev_25:11; Num_6:3; Deu_22:9; Deu_23:24; Deu_24:21). For this culture the portion of Judah was especially adapted, and in obtaining for his inheritance the hilly slopes of the south, the prophecy of his ancestor was fulfilled-he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes (Gen_49:11).
Here, more than elsewhere, are to be seen on the sides of the hills the vineyards, marked by their watch-towers and walls, seated on their ancient terraces the earliest and latest symbol of Judah. The elevation of the hills and table- lands of Judah is the true climate of the vine, and at Hebron, according to the Jewish tradition, was its primeval seat. It was from the Judean valley of Eshcol the torrent of the cluster that the spies cut down the gigantic cluster of grapes. A vineyard on a hill of olives (a horn the son of oil, Isa_5:1), with the fence, and the stones gathered out, and the tower in the midst thereof, is the natural figure which, both in the prophetical and evangelical records, represents the kingdom of Judah.
The vine was the emblem on the coins of the Maccabees, and in the colossal cluster of golden grapes which overhung the porch of the second Temple; and the grapes of Judah still mark the tombstones of the Hebrew race in the oldest of their European cemeteries, at Prague (Stanley, Sin. and Palest. p. 162). Although from many of its most famous haunts the vine has disappeared for example, from Engediboth in Southern Palestine and on the slopes of Lebanon there are specimens sufficient to vindicate the old renown of this land of vineyards. The grapes of Hebron are still considered the finest in the Holy Land. Bunches weighing from six to seven pounds are said to be by no means uncommon, and Sir Moses Montefiore said he saw one bunch at Hebron a yard long (Gadby, Wanderings, p. 458). Schulz (Leüngen des Hosten, 5, 285, quoted by Rosenmüller, Bibl. Bof. p. 223) speaks of supping at Beitshin, a village near Ptolemais, under a vine whose stem was about a foot and a half in diameter, and whose height was about thirty feet, which by its branches formed a hut upwards of thirty feet broad and long. The clusters of these extraordinary vines, he adds, are so large that they weigh ten or twelve pounds, and the berries may be compared with our small plums. See also Belon, Observat. 2, 340: Les seps des vignes sont fort gros et les rameaux fort spacieux.
Les habitants entendent bien comme il la faut gouverner. Car ils la plantent si loing l'une de l'autre qu'on pourroit mener une charrette entre deux. Ce n'est pas grande merveille si les raisins sont si beaux et le vin si puissant. Strabo states that it is recorded that there are vines in Margiana whose stems are such as would require two men to span round, and whose clusters are two cubits long (Geograph. [ed. Kramer], 1, 112). Now Margiana is the modern district of Ghilan, in Persia, south-west of the Caspian Sea, and the very country on whose hills the vine is believed to be indigenous. Nothing would be easier than to multiply testimonies relative to the large size of the grapes of Palestine, from the published accounts of travelers such as Elliot, Laborde, Mariti, Dandini (who expresses his surprise at the extraordinary size of the grapes of Lebanon), Russell, etc. We must be content with quoting the following extract from Kitto's Physical Hist. of Palest. p. 330, which is strikingly illustrative of the spies mode of carrying the grapes from Eshcol: Even in our own country a bunch of grapes was produced at Welbeck, and sent as a present from the duke of Rutland to the marquis of Rockingham, which weighed nineteen pounds. It was conveyed to its destination more than twenty miles distant on a staff by four laborers, two of whom bore it in rotation. The greatest diameter of this cluster was nineteen inches and a half, its circumference four feet and a half, and its length nearly twenty-three inches. Beth- haccerem, the house of the vine (Jer_6:1; Neh_3:14), and Abel-ceramem, the plain of the vineyards, took their respective names from their vicinity to vineyards. Gophna (now Jifna), a few miles north of Jerusalem, is stated by Eusebius (Onomast. Φάραγξ βότρυος) to have derived its name from its vines. But SEE OPHNI.
In Italy vines are trained round the trunk of the elm and other trees; in France and Germany for a lowlier growth stakes or wooden props are provided. In Palestine, however, the vine is usually planted on the side of a terraced hill, and the aged branches are allowed to trail along the ground, the fruit-bearing shoots being raised on forked sticks. This latter mode of cultivation appears to be alluded to by Ezekiel (Eze_19:11-12): her strong rods were broken and withered. Dr. Robinson, who has given us much information on the vines of Palestine, thus speaks of the manner in which he saw them trained near Hebron: They are planted singly in rows, eight or ten feet apart in each direction.
The stock is suffered to grow up large to the height of six or eight feet, and is then fastened in a sloping position to a strong stake, and the shoots suffered to grow and extend from one plant to another, forming a line of festoons. Sometimes two rows are made to slant towards each other, and thus form by their shoots a sort of arch. These shoots are pruned away in autumn (Bibl. Res. 2, 80,81). Sometimes the large stones are built into a rough wall, about three feet high, and the vines are trained over it, thus exposing a large surface to the sun, and ripening magnificent clusters (Tristram, Travels, p. 606). In the courts of many houses vines are trained over a trellis, or framework of wood, and in the hot weather the ample foliage affords a delightful shadow (see 1Ki_4:25; Mic_4:4).
Besides planting the vine and protecting it from aggressors, such as jackals or little foxes (Son_2:15), and that wholesale destroyer the boar out of the wood (Psa_80:13), to say nothing of unscrupulous passengers or mischievous marauders (Psa_80:12; Gen_49:22-23), the careful husbandman prunes and purges his vine, that it may bring forth more and better fruit (Joh_15:2). The pruning, or lopping of the fruitless shoots, takes place first in March, when the clusters begin to form. The twig that is lopped off in March has time to shoot by April, when, if it give no promise, it is again lopped off, and thus again, if still fruitless, in May; after which it does not shoot forth, and the process of pruning ceases. Such is the different treatment of the fruitful and the fruitless branch. From the former a twig or shoot is taken away; the latter is taken away itself, and, its wood being unfit for any other use, it is cast into the fire and burned (Eze_15:2; Eze_15:5). The purging of the vine is effected by making incisions in it with a knife, which requires to be done with great skill and delicacy. In this way the infected sap is drawn off, and the diseased vine, which would otherwise die, is preserved. This is what is called the bleeding of the vine, and is often alluded to by religious writers as an emblem of sanctified affliction (Anderson, Bible Light from Bible Lands, p. 290). Besides wild-boars, jackals, and foxes, other enemies, such as birds, locusts, and caterpillars, occasionally damaged the vines.
The vine in the Mosaic ritual was subject to the usual restrictions of the seventh year (Exo_23:11) and the jubilee of the fiftieth year (Lev_25:11). The gleanings, oleloth (עֹלֵלוֹת), were to be left for the poor and stranger (Jer_49:9; Deu_24:21). The vineyard was not to be sown with divers seeds (22:9), but fig-trees were sometimes planted in vineyards (Luk_13:6; comp. 1Ki_4:25 : Every man under his vine and under his fig-tree). Persons passing through the vineyard were allowed to eat the grapes therein, but not to carry any away (Deu_23:24).
The vintage, batsir (בָּצַיר), which formerly was a season of general festivity, as is the case more or less in all vine-growing countries, commences in September. The towns are deserted, and the people live among the vineyards (כֶּרֶם) in the lodges and tents (Robinson, ut sup.; comp. Jdg_9:27; Jer_25:30; Isa_16:10). The grapes were gathered with shouts of joy by the grape-gatherers (בָּצִר) (Jer_25:30), and put into baskets (see Jer_6:9). They were then carried on the head and shoulders, or slung upon a yoke, to the winepress (גִּת). Those intended for eating were perhaps put into flat open baskets of wickerwork, as was the custom in Egypt (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 43). In Palestine at present the finest grapes, says Robinson, are dried as raisins, tsimmuik (צַמּוּק), and the juice of the remainder, after having been trodden and pressed, is boiled down to a syrup which, under the name of dibs (דְּבִשׁ), is much used by all classes, wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment with their food. For further remarks on the modes of making fermented drinks, etc., of the juice of the grape, see WINE. The vineyard (כֶּרֶם), which was generally on a hill (Isa_5:1; Jer_31:5; Amo_9:13), was surrounded by a wall or hedge in order to keep out the wild boars (Psa_80:13), jackals, and foxes (Num_22:24; Son_2:15; Neh_4:3; Eze_13:4-5; Mat_21:33), which commit sad havoc among the vines, both by treading them down and by eating the grapes. Within the vineyard was one or more towers of stone in which the vine-dressers, koremim (כֹּרְמַים), lived (Isa_1:8; Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33; see also Robinson, Bibl. Rest 1, 213; 2, 81).
The press, gath (גִּת), and vat, yeket (יֶקֶב), which was dug (Mat_21:33) or hewn out of the rocky soil, were part of the vineyard furniture (Isa_5:2). One of these ancient wine-presses, scooped out in the living rock, has been described by Robinson. He found it on the road from Akka to Jerusalem. Advantage had been taken of a ledge of rock; on the upper side, towards the south, a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and fifteen inches deep, its bottom declining slightly towards the north. The thickness of rock left on the north side was one foot; and two feet lower down on that side another smaller vat was excavated, four feet square by three feet deep. The grapes were trodden in the shallow upper vat, and the juice drawn off by a hole at the bottom, still remaining, into the lower vat. This ancient press would seem to prove that in other days these hills were covered with vineyards; and such is its state of preservation that, were there still grapes in the vicinity, it might at once be brought into use without repair (Bibl. Res. 3, 137). This may be taken as a type of the Hebrew wine-press. Like the Egyptians, the Jews may have also employed presses made of wood; but those hewn out of the living rock would be landmarks as permanent as threshing-floors similarly constructed (comp. Jdg_7:25; Zec_14:10, with Gen_1:10; 2Sa_24:18). It was a simple but sufficient arrangement, and modern ingenuity has not much improved on it. Nor has any effectual substitute been found for the human foot as an apparatus for expressing the juice of the grape without crushing the seeds or stones. SEE WINE-FAT.
Approaching Hebron, Dr. Bonar describes the square towers in gardens, corresponding to those mentioned in Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33, and adds, These towers seem of considerable size, as if meant for something more than watching; and we are told that in summer the inhabitants of the city take up their residence in their gardens, and make use of these towers for shelter by night, as they do of their olives and vines for shade by day (Land of Promise, p. 61). Even in spring, and long before a single berry was ripe, with their fresh and delicate fragrance, and with their promise of things not seen as yet, there was a great attraction in the vineyards; and though it were only to see if the vines flourished and the tender grape appeared, it was worth while to arise early and go forth to the field and lodge in the villages (Son_2:11-13; Son_7:11-12). Nor must we forget the feathered minstrels which at that season made the vineyards vocal.
They are the hiding-place of the bulbul, the nightingale of Palestine; and in vineyards under Hermon, Tristram, in the course of two days, discovered a finch and two warblers, all of them perfectly new to ornithology, and all of them songsters of no ordinary power and compass (Travels, p. 606). Even the leaves and the stocks of the vine are useful. The cuttings of the vine and the leaves are much used for manure to the vineyards. The leaves are also-used as a vegetable, chopped meat and rice being rolled up together in single leaves, and boiled for the table; it makes a very agreeable dish. The leaves are also used for fodder. The scarcity of fuel, particularly wood, in most parts of the East is so great that they supply it with everything capable of burning-cow-dung, dried roots, parings of fruits, withered stalks of herbs, and flowers. Vine-twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food by D'Arvieux, La Roque, and others. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine used figuratively for the people of God, Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or shall men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel (Joh_15:3-4). If a man abide not in me, saith our Lord, he is cast forth as a branch (of the vine), and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (Joh_15:6). SEE FUEL.
III. Everywhere present, so beautiful, so valuable, we cannot wonder that the vine reappears on almost every page of poetic Scripture; and, almost as if created on purpose, it has become the symbol of the believer and of the Church. My beloved hath a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. Thus Israel is a vine brought from Egypt, and planted by the Lord's hand in the land of promise; room had been prepared for it (comp. with this the passage from Belon quoted above); and where it took root it filled the land, it covered the hills with its shadow, its boughs were like the goodly cedar-trees (Psa_80:8-10). Comp. Gmelin (Travels through Russia and North. Persia, 3, 431), who thus speaks of the vines of Ghilan: It is fond of forests, and is frequently found about promontories; and their lower part is almost entirely covered with it. There, higher than the eye can reach, it winds itself about the loftiest trees; and its tendrils, which here have an arm's thickness, so spread and mutually entangle themselves far and wide that in places where it grows in the most luxuriant wildness it is very difficult to find a passage. To dwell under the vine and fig-tree is an emblem of domestic happiness and peace (1Ki_4:25; Psa_128:3; Mic_4:4); the rebellious people of Israel are compared to wild grapes, an empty vine, the degenerate plant of a strange vine (Isa_5:2; Isa_5:4, but SEE COCKLE; Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1), etc.
It is a vine which our Lord selects to show the spiritual union which subsists between himself and his members (Joh_15:1-6). With a stock or stem and its but going branches, a wonderful hydraulic apparatus, made for the rapid transmission and rich elaboration of the liquid treasures hidden in the oil; with feeble and flexible twigs which, in order to grow upward, must clasp the elm or cling to the wall; with its avidity for the sunshine and the shower; with its large soft leaves, and the tender scent of its meek inconspicuous blossom; above all, with its amethystine ripeness empurpling autumn's diadem and inviting the world to gladness, it is an admirable emblem of the Christian and the Church of the believing soul and the believing society. My soul cleaveth to the dust, and it is only by clasping and climbing that the fallen nature rises; and, like the vine with its curling tendrils, so with the feeble fingers of his faith the Christian takes hold and mounts upward. Of the Rock of Ages, of the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, of the Tree of Life, he takes-hold; and from the dust, and from amid the creeping things, is drawn up into the pure air and the sunshine. And just as he reposes on a sure support Savior as faithful as he is mighty; so he has a strong affinity for those truths and that communion which keep up the spirit's life. The vine subsists by drinking. It is because he is himself such a thirsty plant what his clusters are so refreshing. Through every eager channel absorbing the fullness of the neighboring well, he hangs aloft his flasks of nectar his pensile fountain filled with the essence Of all the summer, yet cooled again by the broad leaves amid which it nestles. So the believer has not only an aspiring tendency, but a thirsty temperament. Longing for that which is the very life and renovation of his reawakened immortality, his soul thirsteth for God, the living God; and with great joy it is that he draws water from the wells of salvation. If true to his privileges, if planted by the river and constantly resorting to God and the word of his grace, the inner life will be vigorous and abundant. Still fat and full of sap, and ever flourishing, through the much fruit which he bears, the world shall be the better, the Father shall be glorified. SEE GARDEN.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Sibmah, Heshbon, and Elealeh (Isa_16:8-10; Jer_48:31) and Engedi (Son_1:14) were famous for their vines. Judah with its hills and tablelands was especially suited for vine cultivation; "binding his foal unto the vine and his ass' colt unto the choice vine he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes, his eyes shall be red with wine" (Gen_49:11-12). Both Isaiah (Isaiah 5) and the Lord Jesus make a vineyard with fence and tower, the stones being gathered out, the image of Judah (Mat_21:33). Israel is the vine brought out of Egypt, and planted by Jehovah in the land of promise (Psa_80:8; compare Isa_27:2-3). The "gathering out of the stones" answers to God's dislodging the original inhabitants before Israel, and the "fencing" to God's protection of Israel from surrounding enemies.
"The choicest vine" (sowreq, still in Morocco called serki, the grapes have scarcely perceptible stones; Jdg_16:4 mentions a town called from this choice vine Sorek) is the line of holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, etc. The square "tower" was to watch against depredations, and for the owner's use; the "fence" to keep out wild boars, foxes, jackals, etc. (Psa_80:13; Son_2:15). The "fence" may represent the law, the "stones" gathered out Jerome thinks are the idols; the "tower" the temple "in the midst" of Judaea; the "winepress," generally hewn out of the rocky soil, the altar. The vine stem is sometimes more than a foot in diameter, and 30 ft. in height.
"To dwell under the vine and fig tree" symbolizes peace and prosperity (1Ki_4:25). When apostate, Israel was "an empty vine," "the degenerate plant of a strange vine," "bringing forth fruit unto himself" not unto God (Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1). In Eze_15:2-4 God asks "what is the vine wood more than any tree?" i.e., what is its preeminence? None. Nay the reverse. Other trees yield good timber; but vine wood is soft, brittle, crooked, and seldom large; "will men take a pin of it, to hang any vessel thereon?" not even a "pin" or wooden peg can be made of it. Its sole excellence above all trees is its fruit; when not fruit bearing it is inferior to other trees. So, if God's people lose their distinctive excellency by not bearing fruits of righteousness, they are more unprofitable than the worldly, for they are the vine, the sole end of their being is to bear fruit to His glory.
In all respects, except in bearing fruit unto God, Israel was inferior to other nations, as Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, in antiquity, extent, resources, military power, arts and sciences. Its only use when fruitless is to be "cast into the fire for fuel." Gephen is a general term for the vine, from whence the town Gophna, now Jifna, is named. Nazir is "the undressed vine," one every seventh and 50th year left unpruned. The vine is usually planted on the side of a terraced hill, the old branches trailing along the ground and the fruit bearing shoots being raised on forked sticks. Robinson saw the vine trained near Hebron in rows eight or ten feet apart; when the stock is six or eight feet high, it is fastened in a sloping direction to a stake, and the shoots extend front one plant to another, forming a line of festoons; sometimes two rows slant toward each other and form an arch.
Sometimes the vine is trained over a rough wall three feet high, sometimes over a wooden framework so that the foliage affords a pleasant shade (1Ki_4:25). The vintage is in September. The people leave the towns and live in lodges and tents among the vineyards (Jdg_9:27); sometimes even before the vintage (Son_7:11-12). The grape gatherers plied their work with shouts of joy (Jer_25:30). The finest grapes in Palestine are now dried as raisins, tsimuq. The juice of the rest, is boiled down to a syrup, called fibs, much used as an accompaniment of foods. The vine was Judaea's emblem on Maccabean coins, and in the golden cluster over the porch of the second temple. It is still to be seen on their oldest tombstones in Europe. The Lord Jesus is the antitypical vine (John 15).
Every branch in Jesus He "pruneth," with afflictions, that it may bring forth more fruit. So each believer becomes "pure" ("pruned," katharoi, answering to kathairei, "He purgeth" or pruneth). The printing is first in March, when the clusters begin to form. The twig formed subsequently has time to shoot by April, when, if giving no promise, it is again lopped off; so again in May, if fruitless; at last it is thrown into the fire. On the road from Akka to Jerusalem, Robinson saw an upper ledge of rock scooped into a shallow trough, in which the grapes were trodden, and by a hole in the bottom the juice passed into a lower vat three feet deep, four square (Bib. Res. 3:137). Other winepresses were of wood; thus the stone ones became permanent landmarks (Jdg_7:25). The vine is the emblem, as of Christ, so of the church and each believer.
Vine of Sodom. Deu_32:32; Isa_1:10; Jer_23:14. (See APPLES OF SODOM.) J.D. Hooper objects to the Calotropis or Asclepias procera, the osher of the Arabs, that the term "vine" would scarcely be given to any but a trailing or other plant of the habit of a vine, and that its beautiful silky cotton within would never suggest the idea of anything but what is exquisitely lovely. He therefore prefers the Cucumis colocynthis. Tacitus writes, "all herbs growing along the Dead Sea are blackened by its exhalations, and so blasted as to vanish into ashes" (Hist. 5:7).
Josephus (B. J. 4:8, section 4) says" the ashes of the five cities still grow in their fruits, which have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them they dissolve into smoke and ashes." The Asclepius gigantea or Calotropis has a trunk six or eight inches in diameter, and from ten to 15 ft. high, the bark cork-like and grey. The yellow apple-like fruit is yellow and soft and tempting to the eye, but when pressed explodes with a puff, leaving in the hand only shreds and fibres. The acrid juice suggests the gall in Deu_32:32, "their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Vine. The well-known valuable plant (Vitis vinifera) very frequently referred to in the Old and New Testaments, and cultivated from the earliest times. The first mention of this plant occurs in Gen_9:20-21. That it was abundantly cultivated in Egypt is evident from the frequent representations on the monuments, as well as from the scriptural allusions. Gen_40:9-11; Psa_78:47.
The vines of Palestine were celebrated both for luxuriant growth and for the immense clusters of grapes which they produced, which were sometimes carried on a staff between two men, as in the case of the spies, Num_13:23, and as has been done in some instances in modern times. Special mention is made in the Bible of the vines of Eshcol, Num_13:24; Num_32:9, of Sibmah, Heshbon and Elealeh, Isa_16:8-10; Jer_48:32, and of Engedi. Son_1:14.
From the abundance and excellence of the vines, it may readily be understood, how frequently this plant is the subject of metaphor in the Holy Scriptures. To dwell under the vine and tree is an emblem of domestic happiness and peace, 1Ki_4:25; Psa_128:3; Mic_4:4, the rebellious people of Israel are compared to "wild grapes," "an empty vine," "the degenerate plant of a strange vine," etc. Isa_6:2; Isa_6:4; Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1.
It is a vine which our Lord selects to show the spiritual union which subsists between himself and his members. Joh_15:1-6. The ancient Hebrews probably allowed the vine to go trailing on the ground or upon supports. This latter mode of cultivation appears to be alluded to by Ezekiel. Eze_19:11-12. The vintage, which formerly was a season of general festivity, began in September. The towns were deserted; the people lived among the vineyards in the lodges and tents. Compare Jdg_8:27; Isa_16:10; Jer_25:30.
The grapes were gathered with shouts of joy by the "grape gatherers," Jer_25:30 and put into baskets. See Jer_6:9. They were then carried on the head and shoulders, or slung upon a yoke, to the "wine-press." Those intended for eating were perhaps put into flat open baskets of wickerwork, as was the custom in Egypt.
In Palestine, at present, the finest grapes, says Dr. Robinson, are dried as raisins, and the juice of the remainder, after having been trodden and pressed, "is boiled down to a sirup, which, under the name of dibs, is much used by all classes, wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment with their food."
The vineyard, which was generally on a hill, Isa_5:1; Jer_31:5; Amo_9:13, was surrounded by a wall or hedge in order to keep out the wild boars, Psa_80:13, jackals and foxes. Num_22:24; Neh_4:3; Son_2:15; Eze_13:4-5; Mat_21:33. Within the vineyard was one or more towers of stone in which the vine-dressers lived. Isa_1:8; Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33. The vat, which was dug, Mat_21:33, or hewn out of the rocky soil, and the press, were part of the vineyard furniture. Isa_5:2.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
גפן , Gen_40:9; αμπελος, Mat_26:29; Mar_14:25; Luk_22:18; Joh_15:4-5; Jam_3:12; Rev_14:19; a noble plant of the creeping kind, famous for its fruit, or grapes, and the liquor they afford. The vine is a common name or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is mode, from the rest, calls it, the wine vine, Num_6:4. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality, as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2Ki_4:39; 2Ki_4:41. (See Grapes.) The expression of sitting every man under his own vine, probably alludes to the delightful eastern arbours, which were partly composed of vines. Capt. Norden, in like manner, speaks of vine arbours as common in the Egyptian gardens; and the Praenestine pavement in Dr. Shaw gives us the figure of an ancient one. Plantations of trees about houses are found very useful in hot countries, to give them an agreeable coolness. The ancient Israelites seem to have made use of the same means, and probably planted fruit trees, rather than other kinds, to produce that effect. It is their manner in many places, says Sir Thomas Rowe's chaplain, speaking of the country of the Great Mogul, to plant about and among their buildings, trees which grow high and broad, the shadow whereof keeps their houses by far more cool: this I observed in a special manner, when we were ready to enter Amadavar; for it appeared to us as if we had been entering a wood rather than a city. Immediately on entering, says Turner, I was ushered into the court yard of the aga, whom I found smoking under a vine, surrounded by horses, servants, and dogs, among which I distinguished an English pointer.
There were in Palestine many excellent vineyards. Scripture celebrates the vines of Sorek, of Sebamah, of Jazer, of Abel. Profane authors mention the excellent wines of Gaza, Sarepta, Libanus, Saron, Ascalon, and Tyre. Jacob, in the blessing which he gave Judah, Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes, Gen_49:11; he showed the abundance of vines that should fall to his lot. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches hang over the wall,
Gen_49:22. To the northward and westward, says Morier, are several villages, interspersed with extensive orchards and vineyards, the latter of which are generally enclosed by high walls. The Persian vine dressers do all in their power to make the vine run up the wall, and curl over on the other side, which they do by tying stones to the extremity of the tendril. The vine, particularly in Turkey and Greece, is frequently made to entwine on trellises around a well, where, in the heat of the day, whole families collect themselves, and sit under the shade.
Noah planted the vine after the deluge, and is supposed to have been the first who cultivated it, Gen_9:20. Many are of opinion that wine was not unknown before the deluge; and that this patriarch only continued to cultivate the vine after that event, as he had done before it: but the fathers think that he knew not the force of wine, having never used it before, nor having ever seen any one use it. He was the first that gathered the juice of the grape, and preserved it till by fermentation it became a potable liquor. Before him men only ate the grapes like other fruit. The law of Moses did not allow the planters of vineyards to eat the fruit before the fifth year, Lev_19:24-25. The Israelites were also required to indulge the poor, the orphan, and the stranger, with the use of the grapes on the seventh year. A traveller was allowed to gather and eat the grapes in a vineyard as he passed along, but he was not permitted to carry any away, Deu_23:24. The scarcity of fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the east, is so great, that they supply it with every thing capable of burning; cow dung dried, roots, parings of fruits, withered stalks of herbs and flowers, Mat_6:30. Vine twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food, by D'Arvieux, La Roque, and others: Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used figuratively for the people of God, Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel, Eze_15:3-4. If a man abide not in me, saith our Lord, he is cast forth as a branch of the vine, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned, Joh_15:6.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
vı̄n:
1. Hebrew Words:
(1) גּפן, gephen, usually the cultivated grape vine. In Num_6:4; Jdg_13:14 we have היּין גּפן, gephen ha-yayı̄n, literally, ?vine of wine,? translated ?grape vine? (Numbers) and ?vine,? margin ?grape vine? (Jgs); 2Ki_4:39, שׂדה גּפן, gephen sādheh English Versions of the Bible ?wild vine?; Deu_32:32, סדם גּפן, gephen ṣedhōm, ?vine of Sodom.?
(2) שרק, sōrēḳ, in Isa_5:2, ?choicest vine?; שׂורק, sōrēḳ, in Jer_2:21, ?noble vine?; שרקה, sōrēḳāh, in Gen_49:11, ?choice vine?; compare VALLEY OF SOREK (which see). The Hebrew is supposed to indicate dark grapes and, according to rabbinical tradition, they were unusually sweet and almost, if not quite, stoneless.
(3) נזיר, nāzı̄r, in Lev_25:5, Lev_25:11, ?undressed vine,? the King James Version ?vine undressed,? margin ?separation.? This may mean an unpruned vine and be a reference to the uncut locks of a Nazirite, but it is equally probable that נזיר, nāzı̄r should be בּציר, bācı̄r, ?vintage.?
For the blossom we have פּרח, peraḥ (Isa_18:5), ?blossom?; נצּה, niccāh, either the blossom or half-formed clusters of grapes (Gen_40:10; Isa_18:5); סמדר, ṣemādhar, ?sweet-scented blossom? (Son_2:13, Son_2:15; Son_7:12).
For grapes we have commonly: ענב, ‛ēnābh (a word common to all Semitic languages) (Gen_40:10; Deu_32:14; Isa_5:2, etc.); ענבים דּם, dam ‛ănābhı̄m, literally, ?blood of grapes,? i.e. wine (Gen_49:11); בּסר, bōṣer, ?the unripe grape? (Isa_18:5, ?ripening grape,? the King James Version ?sour grape?; Job_15:33, ?unripe grapes?; Jer_31:29 f; Eze_18:2, ?sour grapes?); בּאשׁים, be'ushı̄m ?wild grapes? (Isa_5:2, Isa_5:4; see GRAPES, WILD); אשׁכּל, 'eshkōl, a ?cluster? of ripe grapes (Gen_40:10; Son_7:8 f; Hab_3:17, etc.; compare ESHCOL (which see)); חרצנּים, ḥarcannı̄m, usually supposed to be the kernels of grapes (Num_6:4).
2. Greek and Latin:
In Greek we have ἄμπελος, ámpelos, ?vine? (Mat_26:29, etc.), σταφυλή, staphulḗ (Sirach 39:26, ?blood of grapes?; Mat_7:16, ?grapes,? etc.), and βότρυς, bótrus (Rev_14:18), ?cluster of the vine.? In the Latin of 2 Esdras vinea is ?vine? in 5:23 (?vineyard? in 16:30, 43); botrus (9:21) and racemus (16:30) are ?cluster?; acinium (9:21) and uva (16:26) are ?a grape.?
3. Antiquity and Importance:
Palestine appears to have been a vine-growing country from the earliest historic times. The countless wine presses found in and around centers of early civilization witness to this. It is probable that the grape was largely cultivated as a source of sugar: the juice expressed in the ?wine press? was reduced by boiling to a liquid of treacle-like consistency known as ?grape honey,? or in Hebrew debhash (Arabic, dibs). This is doubtless the ?honey? of many Old Testament references, and before the days of cane sugar was the chief source of sugar. The whole Old Testament witnesses to how greatly Palestine depended upon the vine and its products. Men rejoiced in wine also as one of God's best gifts (Jdg_9:13; Psa_104:15). But the Nazirite might eat nothing of the vine ?from the kernels even to the husk? (Num_6:4; Jdg_13:14).
The land promised to the children of Israel was one of ?vines and fig trees and pomegranates? (Deu_8:8); they inherited vineyards which they had not planted (Deu_6:11; Jos_24:13; Neh_9:25). Jacob's blessing on Judah had much reference to the suitability of his special part of the land to the vine (Gen_49:11). When the leading people were carried captive the poor were left as vine dressers (2Ki_25:12; Jer_52:16), lest the whole land should lapse into uncultivated wilderness. On the promised return this humble duty was, however, to fall to the ?sons of the alien? (Isa_61:5 the King James Version).
4. Its Cultivation:
The mountain regions of Judea and Samaria, often little suited to cereals, have always proved highly adapted to vine culture. The stones must first be gathered out and utilized for the construction of a protecting wall or of terraces or as the bases of towers (Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33). Every ancient vineyard had its wine press cut in a sheet of rock appearing at the surface. As a rule the vinestocks lie along the ground, many of the fruit-bearing branches falling over the terraces (compare Gen_49:22); in some districts the end of the vine-stock is raised by means of a cleft stick a foot or more above the surface; exceptionally the vine branches climb into trees, and before a dwelling-house they are sometimes supported upon poles to form a bower (compare 1Ki_4:25, etc.).
The cultivation of the vine requires constant care or the fruit will very soon degenerate. After the rains the loosely made walls require to have breaches repaired; the ground must be plowed or harrowed and cleared of weeds - contrast with this the vineyard of the sluggard (Pro_24:30-31); in the early spring the plants must be pruned by cutting off dead and fruitless branches (Lev_25:3, Lev_25:4; Isa_5:6) which are gathered and burned (Joh_15:6). As the grapes ripen they must be watched to keep off jackals and foxes (Son_2:15), and in some districts even wild boars (Psa_80:13). The watchman is stationed in one of the towers and overlooks a considerable area. When the grape season comes, the whole family of the owner frequently take their residence in a booth constructed upon one of the larger towers and remain there until the grapes are practically finished. It is a time of special happiness (compare Isa_16:10). The gleanings are left to the poor of the village or town (Lev_19:10; Deu_24:21; Jdg_8:2; Isa_17:6; Isa_24:13; Jer_49:9; Mic_7:1). In the late summer the vineyards are a beautiful mass of green, as contrasted with the dried-up parched land around, but in the autumn the leaves are sere and yellow (Isa_34:4), and the place desolate.
5. Vine of Sodom:
The expression ?vine of Sodom? (Deu_32:32) has been supposed, especially because of the description in Josephus (BJ, IV, viii, 4), to refer to the colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis), but it is far more probable that it means ?a vine whose juices and fruits were not fresh and healthy, but tainted by the corruption of which Sodom was the type? (Driver, Commentary on Deuteronomy). See SODOM, VINE OF.
Figurative: Every man ?under his vine and under his fig-tree? (1Ki_4:25; Mic_4:4; Zec_3:10) was a sign of national peace and prosperity. To plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof implied long and settled habitation (2Ki_19:29; Psa_107:37; Isa_37:30; Isa_65:21; Jer_31:5; Eze_28:26; Amo_9:14); to plant and not eat the fruit was a misfortune (Deu_20:6; compare 1Co_9:7) and might be a sign of God's displeasure (Deu_28:30; Zep_1:13; Amo_5:11). Not to plant vines might be a sign of deliberate avoidance of permanent habitation (Jer_35:7). A successful and prolonged vintage showed God's blessing (Lev_26:5), and a fruitful wife is compared to a vine (Psa_128:3); a failure of the vine was a sign of God's wrath (Psa_78:47; Jer_8:13; Joe_1:7); it might be a test of faith in Him (Hab_3:17). Joseph ?is a fruitful bough,... his branches run over the wall? (Gen_49:22). Israel is a vine (Isa_5:1-5) brought out of Egypt (Psa_80:8 f; Jer_2:21; Jer_12:10; compare Eze_15:2, Eze_15:6; Eze_17:6). At a later period vine leaves or grape clusters figure prominently on Jewish coins or in architecture.
Three of our Lord's parables are connected with vineyards (Mat_20:1 ff; Mat_21:28, Mat_21:33 ff), and He has made the vine ever sacred in Christian symbolism by His teaching regarding the true vine (Jn 15).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
This plant is used as a type of the nation of Israel, and of other nations. Sometimes it is spoken of as a good vine, and in other passages as a vine that was unprofitable and that brought forth evil fruit. GOD speaks of this vine as His own planting, when it refers to Israel. He expected it to bring forth good fruit that would be for His glory, and would bring joy to His heart. Instead of doing so, it brought forth evil fruit in most of the cases where it refers to Israel.
Gen_49:11 (b) This vine is Israel. Judah was tied to Israel by blood bonds, and his children also bore the same relationship.
Deu_32:32 (a) The vine in this case refers to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is in contrast with what they should be, the vine of Israel. GOD is telling us that Israel had become so corrupt that they were more like those two wicked cities than like His city, and their works were as evil as those of Sodom.
Jdg_9:12 (b) Jotham is telling the people of Israel that they have invited a weak, helpless person to be their king, because he considered that Abimelech was an incompetent man.
Psa_80:8 (a) The nation of Israel is compared to the vine. GOD brought them from Egypt and placed them in the land of Palestine. They replaced the heathen nations whom GOD enabled Joshua to conquer.
Psa_128:3 (a) In this case the wife is compared to a vine because she would be beautiful in her life, and fruitful in her conduct. Children would be born into the family, and they would be a blessing to the mother, to the father, and to the nation.
Jer_2:21 (a) Here we read the sad lament of the Lord because of the evil conduct of His people. The vine is Israel. They did not act like a good vine bearing grapes, but as an evil vine, bearing useless fruit, or poisonous fruit.
Eze_17:6 (b) This vine is probably the apostate Kingdom of Israel. The first great eagle, the King of Babylon, invaded Israel and took some of the people away as captives to his own land. The second eagle was the King of Egypt. Israel sent messengers to Egypt to obtain help, but Egypt failed and Israel was destroyed. It is a wonderful allegory which is described in verses Eze_17:12- 18. (See also Isa_5:2; Jer_2:21; Eze_15:2).
Hos_10:1 (a) GOD expected fruit from His people Israel. He received none. Israel turned to idolatry and to wicked practices learned from the people of the land. They served themselves, and satisfied their own lusts, while GOD's Word was neglected, and His service ignored.
Joh_15:1 (a) In this case the Lord JESUS Himself is the vine. Those who are saved by His grace are the branches. GOD sees the believer as a very part of CHRIST JESUS Himself. The branch bears the likeness of the vine, and has the same living sap flowing through it constantly. It bears the kind of fruit that characterizes the vine. All the fruit on the vine is found on the branches. Let us be bearing fruit for Him.
Rev_14:18 (a) This vine refers to the people of the earth of every kindred and nation who are enemies of GOD, enemies of Israel, and reject the authority of JESUS CHRIST.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
This well-known and valuable plant is the subject of frequent. Biblical notice and a conspicuous element of Oriental agriculture.
I. The following Hebrew words denote the vine:
1. Géphen (גֶּפֶן), or, more definitely, géphen hay-yáyin (גֶּפֶן חִיִּיַן), of frequent occurrence in the Bible, and used in a general sense. Indeed, géphen sometimes is applied to a plant that resembles a vine in some particulars, as גֶּפֶן שָׂדֶה(géphen sadeh), 2Ki_4:39, i.e. probably the colocynth plant, SEE GOURD, or גֶּפֶן סַדֹם(géphen sedom), the vine of Sodom, certainly not a vine. SEE VINE OF SODOM.
2. Sorêk (שׂרֵק), or sorêkah (שׂרֵקָה), is a term expressive of some choice kind of vine (Jer_2:21; Isa_5:2; Gen_49:11), supposed to be identical with that now called in Morocco serki and in Persia kishmish, with small round dark berries and soft stones (see Niebuhr, Descript. de Arabie, p. 147; and Oedmann, Sammlung, 2, 97). From the passage in Jeremiah, it is clear that the sorêk denotes not another species of vine, but the common vine, which by some process of cultivation attained a high state of excellence.
3. Nazir (נָזַיר), originally applied to a Nazarite who did not shave his hair, expresses an undressed vine (A.V.), i.e. one which every seventh and every fiftieth year was not pruned (see Gesenius, Thesaur. s.v.).
The regular Greek word for vine is ἄμπελος, of generic signification. Grapes are designated by various names:
(1.) Eshkol (אֶשְׁכֹּל) is either a cluster, ripe or unripe, like racemus, or a single grape (as in Isa_65:8; Mic_7:1).
(2.) Encab (עֵנָב); Arab. eynob, a cluster.
(3.) Bôser (בֹּסֶר), sour, i.e. unripe grapes (Isa_18:5).
(4.) Zemorah (זְמוֹרָה), a grape cut off. The blossom of the vine. is called semadár (סְמָדִר), Son_2:13; Son_2:15. Grape- stones are probably meant by chartsanim (חִרַצִנַּים); A. V. kernel, Num_6:4. The cuticle of the grape is denominated zâg (זָג), ibid. loc. cit.; the tendrils by sarigim (שָׂרַיגַים), Joe_1:7. SEE GRAPE.
II. The grape-vine (Vitis vinifera) is supposed to be native on the shores of the Caspian. Its culture extends from about the twenty-first to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, and reaches from Portugal on the west to the confines of India on the east. It is, however, only along the center of this zone that the finest wines are made, those on the north being harsh and austere; and the grapes grown at the south are better adapted for making raisins, unless when they are grown in elevated positions or on the slopes of mountains. Liebig states that the wines of warm countries possess no odor; wines grown in France have it in a marked degree; but in the wines from the Rhine the perfume is most intense (Hogg, Vet. Kingdom, p. 181). It may be added that not only is it largely and successfully cultivated in the new world of America, but that, carried across the equator, it thrives in Southern Africa and in the Australian colonies, and may be regarded as the companion of the human family in. nearly all the mild and genial regions, of its sojourn. In the districts of the Caucasus, as well as in the elevated valley of Cashmere, the vine climbs to the tops of the loftiest trees, and the grapes are of fine quality and large size in many places of the intermediate country.
Every part of the vine was, and still continues to be, highly valued. The sap was at one time used in medicine. Verjuice expressed from wild grapes is well known for its acidity. The late Sir A. Burnes mentions that in Cabul they use grape powder, obtained by drying and powdering the unripe fruit, as a pleasant acid. When ripe, the fruit is everywhere highly esteemed, both fresh and in its dried state as raisins. The juice of the ripe fruit, called must, is valued as a pleasant beverage. By fermentation, wine, alcohol, and vinegar are obtained; the lees yield tartar; an oil is, sometimes expressed from the seeds; and the ashes of the twigs were formerly valued in consequence of yielding a salt which we now know to be carbonate of potash.
The first mention of the vine in Scripture occurs in, Gen_9:20 : And Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard. Many are of opinion that wine was not unknown before the Deluge, and that the patriarch only continued to cultivate the ville after that event as he had done before it; but the fathers think that he knew not the force of wine, having never used it before, nor having seen any one use it. The grapevine is found wild at this day in the neighborhood of Noah's first vineyard, at the foot of Mount Ararat. Humboldt found it on the shores of the Caspian, in, Caramania, and in Armenia. It is also a native of Georgia and of the northern parts of Persia, but does not extend to India, though several plants of the same family are common among the mountains of the northern parts of that rich country.
Egypt is nowadays by no means eminent for its grapes; but the first time after the planting of Noah's vineyard that we find the vine mentioned in Scripture, it is the vine of Egypt (Gen_40:9-11; comp. Num_20:5; Psa_78:47). Even although we had not the references in Herodotus, and the tradition ascribing to, Osiris the invention of wine, the frequency with which the plant or its fruit is figured on Egyptian monuments shows how important it must once have been. SEE VINEYARD. The vine, however, was not a native of Egypt, nor does the climate favor it. In ancient times, as we learn from the monuments, great care was taken in its culture, but with comparatively little success; and hence the surprise of the spies when sent to survey the promised land at the immense clusters of grapes they found. Fearing that their account of their great size would not be credited by persons accustomed to the less productive vines of Egypt, they brought back a cluster of the grapes to convince them, as we learn in Num_13:23-24 : And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two, upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. The place was called Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. Some wine, indeed, has been made in Lower Egypt in different ages, but it was never celebrated either for quality or quantity. From the fortieth chapter of Genesis, where the dream of Pharaoh's chief butler is related, it would appear that the juice of the grape fresh-pressed was drunk by the king, and possibly the Egyptian grape-juice at that time was used in the state of must. But though the Pharaohs drank of the blood of the grape in this imperfect state, the Ptolemies reveled in the maturer wines of Palestine, Cyprus, and Greece; and one of them, as, Josephus; tells us, among some magnificent gifts sent to the Temple of Jerusalem renewed the Golden Vine, the symbol of the Jewish nation, of which the treasury has been robbed. Rosenmüller tells us that the Temple, above and around a gate seventy cubits high, which led from the porch to the holy place, a richly carved vine was extended as a border and decoration. The branches tendrils and leaves were of the finest gold, he stalks of the bunches were of the length of the human form, and the bunches hanging upon them were of costly jewels. Herod first placed it there; rich and patriotic Jews from time to time added to its embellishment, one contributing anew grape, another a leaf, and a third even a bunch of the same precious materials. SEE TEMPLE.
Even before Israel took possession, the land of promise was a land of vineyards (Deu_6:11; Deu_28:29; Num_13:23); and it is interesting to observe with what minuteness the divine legislator enacted rules and regulations for the culture of their vineyards, while the prospective owners still wandered in a burning desert (Exo_22:5; Exo_23:11; Lev_25:5; Lev_25:11; Num_6:3; Deu_22:9; Deu_23:24; Deu_24:21). For this culture the portion of Judah was especially adapted, and in obtaining for his inheritance the hilly slopes of the south, the prophecy of his ancestor was fulfilled-he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes (Gen_49:11).
Here, more than elsewhere, are to be seen on the sides of the hills the vineyards, marked by their watch-towers and walls, seated on their ancient terraces the earliest and latest symbol of Judah. The elevation of the hills and table- lands of Judah is the true climate of the vine, and at Hebron, according to the Jewish tradition, was its primeval seat. It was from the Judean valley of Eshcol the torrent of the cluster that the spies cut down the gigantic cluster of grapes. A vineyard on a hill of olives (a horn the son of oil, Isa_5:1), with the fence, and the stones gathered out, and the tower in the midst thereof, is the natural figure which, both in the prophetical and evangelical records, represents the kingdom of Judah.
The vine was the emblem on the coins of the Maccabees, and in the colossal cluster of golden grapes which overhung the porch of the second Temple; and the grapes of Judah still mark the tombstones of the Hebrew race in the oldest of their European cemeteries, at Prague (Stanley, Sin. and Palest. p. 162). Although from many of its most famous haunts the vine has disappeared for example, from Engediboth in Southern Palestine and on the slopes of Lebanon there are specimens sufficient to vindicate the old renown of this land of vineyards. The grapes of Hebron are still considered the finest in the Holy Land. Bunches weighing from six to seven pounds are said to be by no means uncommon, and Sir Moses Montefiore said he saw one bunch at Hebron a yard long (Gadby, Wanderings, p. 458). Schulz (Leüngen des Hosten, 5, 285, quoted by Rosenmüller, Bibl. Bof. p. 223) speaks of supping at Beitshin, a village near Ptolemais, under a vine whose stem was about a foot and a half in diameter, and whose height was about thirty feet, which by its branches formed a hut upwards of thirty feet broad and long. The clusters of these extraordinary vines, he adds, are so large that they weigh ten or twelve pounds, and the berries may be compared with our small plums. See also Belon, Observat. 2, 340: Les seps des vignes sont fort gros et les rameaux fort spacieux.
Les habitants entendent bien comme il la faut gouverner. Car ils la plantent si loing l'une de l'autre qu'on pourroit mener une charrette entre deux. Ce n'est pas grande merveille si les raisins sont si beaux et le vin si puissant. Strabo states that it is recorded that there are vines in Margiana whose stems are such as would require two men to span round, and whose clusters are two cubits long (Geograph. [ed. Kramer], 1, 112). Now Margiana is the modern district of Ghilan, in Persia, south-west of the Caspian Sea, and the very country on whose hills the vine is believed to be indigenous. Nothing would be easier than to multiply testimonies relative to the large size of the grapes of Palestine, from the published accounts of travelers such as Elliot, Laborde, Mariti, Dandini (who expresses his surprise at the extraordinary size of the grapes of Lebanon), Russell, etc. We must be content with quoting the following extract from Kitto's Physical Hist. of Palest. p. 330, which is strikingly illustrative of the spies mode of carrying the grapes from Eshcol: Even in our own country a bunch of grapes was produced at Welbeck, and sent as a present from the duke of Rutland to the marquis of Rockingham, which weighed nineteen pounds. It was conveyed to its destination more than twenty miles distant on a staff by four laborers, two of whom bore it in rotation. The greatest diameter of this cluster was nineteen inches and a half, its circumference four feet and a half, and its length nearly twenty-three inches. Beth- haccerem, the house of the vine (Jer_6:1; Neh_3:14), and Abel-ceramem, the plain of the vineyards, took their respective names from their vicinity to vineyards. Gophna (now Jifna), a few miles north of Jerusalem, is stated by Eusebius (Onomast. Φάραγξ βότρυος) to have derived its name from its vines. But SEE OPHNI.
In Italy vines are trained round the trunk of the elm and other trees; in France and Germany for a lowlier growth stakes or wooden props are provided. In Palestine, however, the vine is usually planted on the side of a terraced hill, and the aged branches are allowed to trail along the ground, the fruit-bearing shoots being raised on forked sticks. This latter mode of cultivation appears to be alluded to by Ezekiel (Eze_19:11-12): her strong rods were broken and withered. Dr. Robinson, who has given us much information on the vines of Palestine, thus speaks of the manner in which he saw them trained near Hebron: They are planted singly in rows, eight or ten feet apart in each direction.
The stock is suffered to grow up large to the height of six or eight feet, and is then fastened in a sloping position to a strong stake, and the shoots suffered to grow and extend from one plant to another, forming a line of festoons. Sometimes two rows are made to slant towards each other, and thus form by their shoots a sort of arch. These shoots are pruned away in autumn (Bibl. Res. 2, 80,81). Sometimes the large stones are built into a rough wall, about three feet high, and the vines are trained over it, thus exposing a large surface to the sun, and ripening magnificent clusters (Tristram, Travels, p. 606). In the courts of many houses vines are trained over a trellis, or framework of wood, and in the hot weather the ample foliage affords a delightful shadow (see 1Ki_4:25; Mic_4:4).
Besides planting the vine and protecting it from aggressors, such as jackals or little foxes (Son_2:15), and that wholesale destroyer the boar out of the wood (Psa_80:13), to say nothing of unscrupulous passengers or mischievous marauders (Psa_80:12; Gen_49:22-23), the careful husbandman prunes and purges his vine, that it may bring forth more and better fruit (Joh_15:2). The pruning, or lopping of the fruitless shoots, takes place first in March, when the clusters begin to form. The twig that is lopped off in March has time to shoot by April, when, if it give no promise, it is again lopped off, and thus again, if still fruitless, in May; after which it does not shoot forth, and the process of pruning ceases. Such is the different treatment of the fruitful and the fruitless branch. From the former a twig or shoot is taken away; the latter is taken away itself, and, its wood being unfit for any other use, it is cast into the fire and burned (Eze_15:2; Eze_15:5). The purging of the vine is effected by making incisions in it with a knife, which requires to be done with great skill and delicacy. In this way the infected sap is drawn off, and the diseased vine, which would otherwise die, is preserved. This is what is called the bleeding of the vine, and is often alluded to by religious writers as an emblem of sanctified affliction (Anderson, Bible Light from Bible Lands, p. 290). Besides wild-boars, jackals, and foxes, other enemies, such as birds, locusts, and caterpillars, occasionally damaged the vines.
The vine in the Mosaic ritual was subject to the usual restrictions of the seventh year (Exo_23:11) and the jubilee of the fiftieth year (Lev_25:11). The gleanings, oleloth (עֹלֵלוֹת), were to be left for the poor and stranger (Jer_49:9; Deu_24:21). The vineyard was not to be sown with divers seeds (22:9), but fig-trees were sometimes planted in vineyards (Luk_13:6; comp. 1Ki_4:25 : Every man under his vine and under his fig-tree). Persons passing through the vineyard were allowed to eat the grapes therein, but not to carry any away (Deu_23:24).
The vintage, batsir (בָּצַיר), which formerly was a season of general festivity, as is the case more or less in all vine-growing countries, commences in September. The towns are deserted, and the people live among the vineyards (כֶּרֶם) in the lodges and tents (Robinson, ut sup.; comp. Jdg_9:27; Jer_25:30; Isa_16:10). The grapes were gathered with shouts of joy by the grape-gatherers (בָּצִר) (Jer_25:30), and put into baskets (see Jer_6:9). They were then carried on the head and shoulders, or slung upon a yoke, to the winepress (גִּת). Those intended for eating were perhaps put into flat open baskets of wickerwork, as was the custom in Egypt (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 43). In Palestine at present the finest grapes, says Robinson, are dried as raisins, tsimmuik (צַמּוּק), and the juice of the remainder, after having been trodden and pressed, is boiled down to a syrup which, under the name of dibs (דְּבִשׁ), is much used by all classes, wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment with their food. For further remarks on the modes of making fermented drinks, etc., of the juice of the grape, see WINE. The vineyard (כֶּרֶם), which was generally on a hill (Isa_5:1; Jer_31:5; Amo_9:13), was surrounded by a wall or hedge in order to keep out the wild boars (Psa_80:13), jackals, and foxes (Num_22:24; Son_2:15; Neh_4:3; Eze_13:4-5; Mat_21:33), which commit sad havoc among the vines, both by treading them down and by eating the grapes. Within the vineyard was one or more towers of stone in which the vine-dressers, koremim (כֹּרְמַים), lived (Isa_1:8; Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33; see also Robinson, Bibl. Rest 1, 213; 2, 81).
The press, gath (גִּת), and vat, yeket (יֶקֶב), which was dug (Mat_21:33) or hewn out of the rocky soil, were part of the vineyard furniture (Isa_5:2). One of these ancient wine-presses, scooped out in the living rock, has been described by Robinson. He found it on the road from Akka to Jerusalem. Advantage had been taken of a ledge of rock; on the upper side, towards the south, a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and fifteen inches deep, its bottom declining slightly towards the north. The thickness of rock left on the north side was one foot; and two feet lower down on that side another smaller vat was excavated, four feet square by three feet deep. The grapes were trodden in the shallow upper vat, and the juice drawn off by a hole at the bottom, still remaining, into the lower vat. This ancient press would seem to prove that in other days these hills were covered with vineyards; and such is its state of preservation that, were there still grapes in the vicinity, it might at once be brought into use without repair (Bibl. Res. 3, 137). This may be taken as a type of the Hebrew wine-press. Like the Egyptians, the Jews may have also employed presses made of wood; but those hewn out of the living rock would be landmarks as permanent as threshing-floors similarly constructed (comp. Jdg_7:25; Zec_14:10, with Gen_1:10; 2Sa_24:18). It was a simple but sufficient arrangement, and modern ingenuity has not much improved on it. Nor has any effectual substitute been found for the human foot as an apparatus for expressing the juice of the grape without crushing the seeds or stones. SEE WINE-FAT.
Approaching Hebron, Dr. Bonar describes the square towers in gardens, corresponding to those mentioned in Isa_5:2; Mat_21:33, and adds, These towers seem of considerable size, as if meant for something more than watching; and we are told that in summer the inhabitants of the city take up their residence in their gardens, and make use of these towers for shelter by night, as they do of their olives and vines for shade by day (Land of Promise, p. 61). Even in spring, and long before a single berry was ripe, with their fresh and delicate fragrance, and with their promise of things not seen as yet, there was a great attraction in the vineyards; and though it were only to see if the vines flourished and the tender grape appeared, it was worth while to arise early and go forth to the field and lodge in the villages (Son_2:11-13; Son_7:11-12). Nor must we forget the feathered minstrels which at that season made the vineyards vocal.
They are the hiding-place of the bulbul, the nightingale of Palestine; and in vineyards under Hermon, Tristram, in the course of two days, discovered a finch and two warblers, all of them perfectly new to ornithology, and all of them songsters of no ordinary power and compass (Travels, p. 606). Even the leaves and the stocks of the vine are useful. The cuttings of the vine and the leaves are much used for manure to the vineyards. The leaves are also-used as a vegetable, chopped meat and rice being rolled up together in single leaves, and boiled for the table; it makes a very agreeable dish. The leaves are also used for fodder. The scarcity of fuel, particularly wood, in most parts of the East is so great that they supply it with everything capable of burning-cow-dung, dried roots, parings of fruits, withered stalks of herbs, and flowers. Vine-twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food by D'Arvieux, La Roque, and others. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine used figuratively for the people of God, Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or shall men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel (Joh_15:3-4). If a man abide not in me, saith our Lord, he is cast forth as a branch (of the vine), and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (Joh_15:6). SEE FUEL.
III. Everywhere present, so beautiful, so valuable, we cannot wonder that the vine reappears on almost every page of poetic Scripture; and, almost as if created on purpose, it has become the symbol of the believer and of the Church. My beloved hath a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. Thus Israel is a vine brought from Egypt, and planted by the Lord's hand in the land of promise; room had been prepared for it (comp. with this the passage from Belon quoted above); and where it took root it filled the land, it covered the hills with its shadow, its boughs were like the goodly cedar-trees (Psa_80:8-10). Comp. Gmelin (Travels through Russia and North. Persia, 3, 431), who thus speaks of the vines of Ghilan: It is fond of forests, and is frequently found about promontories; and their lower part is almost entirely covered with it. There, higher than the eye can reach, it winds itself about the loftiest trees; and its tendrils, which here have an arm's thickness, so spread and mutually entangle themselves far and wide that in places where it grows in the most luxuriant wildness it is very difficult to find a passage. To dwell under the vine and fig-tree is an emblem of domestic happiness and peace (1Ki_4:25; Psa_128:3; Mic_4:4); the rebellious people of Israel are compared to wild grapes, an empty vine, the degenerate plant of a strange vine (Isa_5:2; Isa_5:4, but SEE COCKLE; Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1), etc.
It is a vine which our Lord selects to show the spiritual union which subsists between himself and his members (Joh_15:1-6). With a stock or stem and its but going branches, a wonderful hydraulic apparatus, made for the rapid transmission and rich elaboration of the liquid treasures hidden in the oil; with feeble and flexible twigs which, in order to grow upward, must clasp the elm or cling to the wall; with its avidity for the sunshine and the shower; with its large soft leaves, and the tender scent of its meek inconspicuous blossom; above all, with its amethystine ripeness empurpling autumn's diadem and inviting the world to gladness, it is an admirable emblem of the Christian and the Church of the believing soul and the believing society. My soul cleaveth to the dust, and it is only by clasping and climbing that the fallen nature rises; and, like the vine with its curling tendrils, so with the feeble fingers of his faith the Christian takes hold and mounts upward. Of the Rock of Ages, of the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, of the Tree of Life, he takes-hold; and from the dust, and from amid the creeping things, is drawn up into the pure air and the sunshine. And just as he reposes on a sure support Savior as faithful as he is mighty; so he has a strong affinity for those truths and that communion which keep up the spirit's life. The vine subsists by drinking. It is because he is himself such a thirsty plant what his clusters are so refreshing. Through every eager channel absorbing the fullness of the neighboring well, he hangs aloft his flasks of nectar his pensile fountain filled with the essence Of all the summer, yet cooled again by the broad leaves amid which it nestles. So the believer has not only an aspiring tendency, but a thirsty temperament. Longing for that which is the very life and renovation of his reawakened immortality, his soul thirsteth for God, the living God; and with great joy it is that he draws water from the wells of salvation. If true to his privileges, if planted by the river and constantly resorting to God and the word of his grace, the inner life will be vigorous and abundant. Still fat and full of sap, and ever flourishing, through the much fruit which he bears, the world shall be the better, the Father shall be glorified. SEE GARDEN.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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