What kind of fruit led to Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden? Why, the apple, of course. But now, a growing number of botanists believe that the offending fruit may have been an apricot. Recent botanical detective work has uncovered the true identity of many biblical plants, prompting a growing number of churches to cultivate "biblical gardens". The First Congregational Church in Fair Haven, Vermont has several gardens filled with over 100 plants that play a role in the teachings of the Bible. Some are well known, such as the mustard seed, which symbolizes how faith can grow to be enormous from a tiny seed, or the "lilies of the field" and the fig leaf.

Since a journey to the Holy Land almost 20 years ago, Reverend Marsh Hudson-Knapp has kept several biblical gardens flourishing at his church. He has also published a Web site and several booklets, so others can their own plant biblical garden. Hudson-Knapp says that biblical plants provide strong spiritual lessons, because Jesus used these everyday living things from nature to convey his teachings. The plants are useful spiritual teaching tools that make the stories of the Bible come alive, says the pastor. When the congregation works in the garden, digging, planting, pruning, harvesting and even eating the plants, their experience of the plant and its spiritual teaching is much more concrete.

Planting a biblical Garden, however, isn't as easy as looking through the Bible, jotting down a list of plants and going to the garden store for seeds. Reverend Hudson-Knapp says that biblical translators were not botanists, and many species were mistakenly identified in the translation, like the apple. Over the last hundred years, as scholars have learned more about the plants that were in the Middle East in biblical times, they have been able to identify which plants are actually referred to in the Bible. But there is still controversy over other key plants, such as the "lilies of the field". Some botanists claim that they were true lilies, while others think they were anemones or wildflowers.

Interest in biblical gardens seems to be catching on. Reverend Hudson-Knapp knows of over 50 churches and families that have started biblical gardens, from Indiana to Scotland. He has received inquiries from all over the world on how to start a biblical garden, including places as far as Zambia.

CONTACTS

Marsh Hudson-Knapp: Reverend
First Congregational Church
Fair Haven, Vermont
Phone: (802) 265-8864

LINKS
The First Congregational Church Web site provides extensive resources on biblical plants and gardening, including a database of biblical plants. Included also is a book of prayers related to children’s gardens.

BiblicalGardens.com is an online resource for cultivating and maintaining plants mentioned in the Bible.

Neot Kedumim is a biblical landscape preserve in Israel.

The Catholic Dictionary provides descriptions of plants in the Bible.

A Christian Science Monitor article titled "Mislabeled in Translation" discusses recent botanical identification of biblical plants.

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