| his entry on the pomegranate | (http://www- | ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/germ/index | .html) considers the problem of the | names of plants in the Bible: | | "The pomegranate tree is an ancient | cultigen in Western Asia; it is | mentioned in the oldest part of the | Old Testament (the Pentateuch). | Although the Old Testament is not a | collection of cooking recipes, it | names many plants of everyday or | cultic usage in ancient Israel; the | New Testament, though, has less | descriptive character, and plants are, | consequently, named much less | frequently. | | If one wants to set up a "collection | of biblical spices", one must not | forget that there are three millennia | between the language of the Old | Testament and ours; therefore, exact | translations are sometimes impossible. | The following quote (Isaiah 28,27) may | illustrate the difficulties of | translation: | | 'QETSACH is not threshed with a | sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over | KAMMON; QETSACH is beaten out with a | rod, and KAMMON with a stick.' | | Because of the dialectic structure, we | may infer that the two plants are | similar, but differ in details of | their harvest. The term KAMMON | obviously is related to Greek KÝMINON | (cumin), but also lies behind English