Gourds Vegetables
Many botanists and Bible scholars suggested that the wild vine and gourds were Citrullus colocynthis, a cucumber-like plant with purgative or cleansing qualities. Citrullus colocynthis is called the bitter wild gourd and not considered to be edible. It grows in sandy soil and gravel in Israel. The Colocynth grows abundantly on the barren sands near Gilgal, and all round the Dead Sea on the low flats. It covers a large amount of ground and bears a large quantity of fruit. (Hastings. 1914. P. 434).
Elisha came to Gilgal between Jericho and the Dead Sea, and instructed his servants to set on the great pot for the sons of the prophets. One of the servants went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage. They prepared a stew of wild vegetables, to which they mistakenly added poisonous wild gourds. Elisha somehow remedied the situation by adding meal to the pot. (2 Kings 4:38-41).
The gourd is portrayed as being expendable and unnecessary. It was used to drive home a point for Jonah.
Jonah was angry at the LORD God because he had given the message to Nineveh that they had to repent and change or be destroyed. And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But the LORD God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. Jonah was prepared to be angry over the gourd even unto death. The LORD God reminded Jonah that he had pity on the gourd, a gourd that did not labor neither made itself grow which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should He not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (Jonah 4: 1-11).
The wild gourd are possessed of certain medicinal properties, the fruit of it is used medicinally as an active purgative or laxative. (Pliny the Elder. 1855,p. 4161).
References:
Hastings, James ed. (1914). The Greater Men and Women of the Bible: Ruth-Naaman, Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Pliny the Elder, (1855). The Natural History, ed. John Bostock (Medford, MA: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.
Cite Article Source
MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “Gourds Vegetables:.” Becker Bible Studies Library Feb 2015.< https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2336,>.
APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015, February) “Gourds Vegetables:.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2336,.
Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015) “Gourds Vegetables:.” Becker Bible Studies Library (February), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2336, (accessed).
