Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)

Ripening pomegranate 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:

כִּי לֹא בֶחָרוּץ יוּדַשׁ קֶצַח וְאֹופַן עֲגָלָה עַל־כַּמֹּן יוּסָּב כִּי בַמַּטֶּה יֵחָבֶט קֶצַח וְכַמֹּן בַּשָּׁבֶט׃

kî lô vẹḥārûṣ yûdạš qẹṣạḥ vəʾôfạn ʿăgālâ ʿạl-kạmmōn yûssāv kî vạmmạṭṭê yēḥāvẹṭ qẹṣạḥ vəkạmmōn bạššāvẹṭ.

Ki lo vecharuts yudash qetsach vʿofan ʾagala ʾal-kammon yussav ki vammatte yechabet qetsach vekammon basshabet.

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 enough to allow for comparison, but differ in the way how the seeds are harvested. The term kammon [כמן] is related to Greek kyminon [κύμινον] and English cumin, and obviously has the same meaning, as similar forms with the meaning cumin appear in a multitude of European languages (mostly originating from Greek via Latin); but note that also the name caraway comes from the same root. Qetsach [קצח] is more difficult to analyze. Probably it means nigella, sometimes also called black cumin, whose seeds ripen in a closed capsule, which must first be opened (this is also the Modern Hebrew meaning of the word).

Yet in translating the Bible, botanic accuracy is less an aim than general matters of style. Black cumin is less elegant than cumin, and nigella is not an English word at all. Therefore, English Bible translations render qetsach as dill, caraway or fitches, which is an old orthographic variety for vetch, a plant not edible at all (Vicia sativa). German translators, on the other hand, who don’t have a traditional, elegant word for cumin, commonly translate kammon as caraway (which is almost certainly wrong), and have to resort to dill for qetsach, which is even wronger.