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What is a Pomegranate?
        POMEGRAN'ATE
        (pronounce pum-gran'nate). This word designates a large bush (Punica granatum) of the myrtle family, and its fruit. Our English name comes from the Latin, which means "grained apple," referring to the beautiful pink pips or grains which fill the interior. The pomegranate has been cultivated from early times in Syria, Num 13:23; Deut 8:8, and the warmer regions of the East. It rarely exceeds 10 feet in height, and has small lance-shaped, glossy leaves, of a reddish-green when young, but becoming pea-green and remaining alive through the winter. The flowers are of a brilliant scarlet or orange, and in August or September the fruit ripens. This is of the size of an orange, flattened at the ends like an apple, is of a beautiful brown-red color, Song 4:3; Song 6:7, has a hard rind, and is filled with pulp of a highly-grateful flavor. The abundant juice was made into wine. Zech 8:2, and used for a cooling drink. Some cultivated trees bear sweet fruit and some sour, while the wild pomegranates yield only a small and worthless apple. Rimmon, the Hebrew word for this fruit, gave name, in whole or in part, to several places in Palestine, near which the pomegranate was doubtless abundant. The Pomegranate. The bush of this kind under which Saul tarried must have been of unusual size. 1 Sam 14:2. "The graceful shape of the pomegranate was selected as one of the ornaments on the skirt of the high priest's blue robe and ephod, alternating with the chieftains, golden bells, Ex 28:33-34; Ex 39:24-26, and hence was adopted as one of the favorite devices in the decoration of Solomon's temple, being carved on the capitals of the pillars. 1 Kgs 7:18, etc. Whether the design was taken from the fruit or the flower, it would form a graceful ornament. We have frequently noticed the pomegranate sculptured on fragments of columns among the ruins of Oriental temples. "The Syrian deity Rimmon has been supposed by some to have been a personification of the pomegranate, as the emblem of the fructifying principle of nature, the fruit being sacred to Venus, who was worshipped under this title. Hadad-rimmon is mentioned in Zech 12:11, Hadad being the Sun-god of the Syrians; and when combined with the symbol of the pomegranate, he stands for the Sun-god, who ripened the fruits, and then, dying with the departing summer, is mourned 'with the mourning of Hadad-rimmon.' "- Tristram.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'pomegranate' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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