Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
Europe do not possess a single piece of pottery or metal work, a single weapon or household
utensil, an ornament or a piece of armor of Israelite make, which can give us the least conception
of the manners or outward appliances of the nation before the date of the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus. The coins form the single exception. M. Renan has named two circumstances which
must have had a great effect in suppressing art or architecture amongst the ancient Israelites, while
their very existence proves that the people had no genius in that direction. These are (1) the
prohibition of sculptured representations of living creatures, and (2) the command not to build a
temple anywhere but at Jerusalem.
Pallu
(distinguished), the second son of Reuben, father of Eliab, (Isaiah 6:14; Numbers 26:5,8; 1
Chronicles 5:3) and founder of the family of Palluites.
Palluites
(descendants of Pullu), The. (Numbers 26:5)
Palm Tree
(Heb. tamar). Under this generic term many species are botanically included; but we have here
only to do with the date palm, the Phoenix dactylifera of Linnaeus. While this tree was abundant
generally in the Levant, it was regarded by the ancients as peculiarly characteristic of Palestine and
the neighboring regions, though now it is rare. (“The palm tree frequently attains a height of eighty
feet, but more commonly forty to fifty. It begins to bear fruit after it has been planted six or eight
years, and continues to be productive for a century. Its trunk is straight, tall and unbroken, terminating
in a crown of emerald-green plumes, like a diadem of gigantic ostrich-feathers; these leaves are
frequently twenty feet in length, droop slightly at the ends, and whisper musically in the breeze.
The palm is, in truth, a beautiful and most useful tree. Its fruit is the daily food of millions; its sap
furnishes an agreeable wine; the fibres of the base of its leaves are woven into ropes and rigging;
its tall stem supplies a valuable timber; its leaves are manufactured into brushes, mats, bags, couches
and baskets. This one tree supplies almost all the wants of the Arab or Egyptian.”—Bible Plants.)
Many places are mentioned in the Bible as having connection with palm trees; Elim, where grew
three score and ten palm trees, (Exodus 15:27) and Elath. (2:8) Jericho was the city of “palm trees.”
(31:3) Hazezon-tamar, “the felling of the palm tree,” is clear in its derivation. There is also Tamar,
“the palm.” (Ezekiel 47:19) Bethany means the “house of dates.” The word Phoenicia, which occurs
twice in the New Testament— (Acts 11:19; 15:3)—is in all probability derived from the Greek
word for a palm. The, striking appearance of the tree, its uprightness and beauty, would naturally
suggest the giving of Its name occasionally to women. (Genesis 38:6; 2 Samuel 13:1; 14:27) There
is in the Psalms, (Psalms 92:12) the familiar comparison, “The righteous shall flourish like the
palm tree.” which suggests a world of illustration whether respect be had to the orderly and regular
aspect of the tree, its fruitfulness, the perpetual greenness of its foliage, or the height at which the
foliage grows, as far as possible from earth and as near as possible to heaven. Perhaps no point is
more worthy of mention, we wish to pursue the comparison, than the elasticity of the fibre of the
palm and its determined growth upward even when loaded with weights. The passage in (Revelation
7:9) where the glorified of all nations are described as “clothed with white robes and palms in their
hands,” might seem to us a purely classical image; but palm branches were used by the Jews in
token of victory and peace. (To these points of comparison may be added, its principle of growth:
it is an endogen, and grows from within; its usefulness; the Syrians enumerating 360 different uses
to which it may be put; and the statement that it bears its best fruit in old age.—ED.) It is curious
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William Smith