In the Beginning!

            The phone rang and a stranger working for a book publisher was on the line. He was offering to pay me $90 to give him a report on the likely success of a new dictionary of Bible plants, to be written by Lytton Musselman. I was so excited that I could have danced to hear that Lytton was ready to publish the accounts of his many years of traveling around the world to investigate biblical plants in their present natural settings! I told him so. Of course, if I had wanted the $90 I should have kept quiet! He thanked me and I never heard from him again.
            Two years later, THE book has now been released! Honestly it took me a little while to reach down into my pocket for the $100 that I needed to pay to the Amazon seller who offered a new copy at somewhat less than the $139 Amazon was asking. In spite of my initial enthusiasm... I have spent $100 for a book only one other time in my sixty-two years of life! ...I took the leap.
            Then it arrived! I pried apart the USPS box, hermetically sealed with contact cement, cut through the bubble wrap, and held IT in my excited hands! The cover was beautiful! The cover photo almost took my breath away. Then restraint gave way to excitement and I flung open the covers and started looking around. First glances left me initially hesitant. Photos were EVERYWHERE, but printed in black and white. I'd stop from time to time, enjoying Lytton's writing about so many plants from the Bible. I'll tell you more about this in a minute. But similar the gal on the old Wendy's advertisement, I wondered, where's the color? Until... I arrived at page fifty-three! And there lay page after page of Lytton's own photographs in color taken right where these plants live all around the world! Whee! They are presented in approximate alphabetical order by name, with the setting and month of the year during which they were photographed, providing a rich context in life for each plant! Yes!
            Well, I had to eat lunch and finish plans for the coming worship service, so I had to close my precious book for a while. But the next day I started at the FRONT. Gratitude is such a rich gift in life, and Lytton's acknowledgements beam with that quality, naming people who have shared their knowledge and their lives with Lytton is creating this delightful work. I know, it's ONLY the acknowledgements. But with some imagination you can picture Lytton in these distant, commonly called "god-forsaken" but truly God-enfolded places... more to come!

the first American book on Bible plants, by Thaddeus Harris.

First Treasure

            Now you may not have spent the last 30 years reading about Bible plants, but let me tell you, a lot of very thoughtful people have written about plants in the Bible. Alan Swenson has written numerous books about Bible plants and promoted the growth of Bible gardens on radio and TV, on ocean cruises, and everywhere he can. Another botanist like Lytton, Professor Michael Zohary from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote in 1982 what to me has been the ultimate authority for Biblical plant selection. But honestly, I had no idea of the long, diverse, and scientifically astute history of writings about the plants in the Bible that stretch back to three hundred years before Jesus! What a delight to read Lytton's carefully researched Review of Bible Plant Literature in the present volume!
           Reading this section reminded me of going with my Dad on Saturday mornings to the coffee shop to hear the other men tell their hunting and fishing stories. Lytton tells the story of each search for the true plants of the Bible like a great hunting adventure. Read it!           

Faidherbia alba or Acacia from the Dictionary

Here's the Meat!

           Finally, I had arrived at the plant by plant dictionary, starting with A, for Acacia. For each plant that Lytton feels confident to identify from the text of the Bible, we explore why he has concluded that this is an actual plant from the Bible. Lytton offers the scientific name of the plant or plants he presents. Then, to help us do our own research if we want, he lists the translitterated Hebrew and Greek words from the Bible text that name what he will contends to be the Biblical plant. Next, Lytton lists every reference in the Bible that refers to this particular plant. This gets to be very tricky, but Lytton tells his hunting story well, and the meticulous care he has exercised to reach his conclusions disappears behind a story well told, yet carefully referenced.
           On we go with carefully researched knowledge about the plant from the Bible! How does one identify this plant? Where does it grow in this time in history? Where was it growing in Biblical times? Who says so? Wisely and smoothly Lytton opens a panorama of science, history, and Bible before us, all rooted in his many years of study, exploration, and immersion in nearly every place in the world where Bible plants grow. The more you read, and attend to the sources of Lytton's discoveries, and the locations of photos, and the regional traditions for growing, preparing, cooking, utilizing Biblical plants in today's diverse world, the more you discover what a global hunting expedition we are enjoying!

Lytton in Iraqi Kurdistan where he was accompanied by an armed guard on each trip. The flowers he is holding and those in the soldiers lapel are Narcissus tazetta.

           Every step of the way we see Lytton's wise mind at work creating this ground-breaking milestone in the definition and exploration of plants of the Bible. Professor Zohary's Plants of the Bible has always been my ultimate authority as I have sought to identify Bible plants. I found his studies of plant names in the range of Middle Eastern languages, and his personal experience as a life-long botanist in the Middle East, convincing resources in my search to identfy the REAL Bible plant. Lyttton draws on that wisom, and then leaps outside the box to live with the people and plants of Bible lands today.
           Lytton's careful thought is undergirded by a solid faith and a warm affection for the people he has encountered every step of the way. I'd love to see him write a travelogue of his adventures and his affectionate observations of the people who have opened the doors of their lives to show him sacred plants, or local traditions of growing, harvesting or preparing these plants for their roles of nourishing life. In the Dictionary we get a little taste for these many experiences and generous people who have helped bring the story of Bible plants more and more to life.
            Once you have read the Dictionary you will also want to read Lytton's earlier book, Figs, Dates, Laurels and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and Qu'ran. While there is common material, in Figs... you will find more color photos that Lytton has shot around the world, a few different plants, and more information about the plants that you will not find anywhere else. The two books complement one another. The Dictionary..., however, connects you with a vast array of other serious studies of plants that are in the Bible through Lytton's footnotes and references in the back. If you want to learn more about a particular plant, you will find lots of books and articles to help, and almost none of these repeat the excellent references in his earlier book!

Last Words

           I just completed my adventure reading The Dictionary... It will be my regular companion as I continue to try to sort out, "What plants belong in OUR Biblical Garden?" "What stories will I tell our visitors, our children, our adults about the figs and flax, the leeks and lentils, that will once again bring the ancient story of the Bible to life in this present moment and place?" The Bible is so much more that a tale! It is a living story, alive in the natural world around us, and beating in the hearts of the people we meet every day, including ourselves! Like the best Bible commentary helps us to leap into the Bible, Lytton's Dictionary invites us through the superficial impressions of Bible plants drawn from a quick reading of an English translation of the Bible, into an encounter with the real McCoy, the unique, rich life of one of God's astounding creations in the diverse universe of God's natural world. I hope that Lytton's book will assist you on that journey! It will be my new bible on Bible plants for years to come!