Cedar in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is Cedar?
CE'DAR
Undoubtedly several cone-bearing, evergreen trees are included under this title. But ordinarily, and especially when the full form is given ncedar of Lebanonn the still famous tree of that name (Cedrus Libani) is meant. The Scriptures correctly give its characteristics. Comp. Ps 92:12; Eze 31:3-6; 1 Kgs 7:2; Neh 10:27; Song of Solomon 4:11; Hos 14:6; Isa 2:13; Isa 10:19. It is one of the most valuable and majestic evergreen trees of Eastern forests, and is found upon Mounts Amanus and Taurus, in Asia Minor, and other parts of the Levant, but in its greatest perfection on Mount Lebanon. It grows to the height of 70 or 80 feet. The branches are thick and long, spreading out almost horizontally from the trunk, which is sometimes 30 or 40 feet in circumference. Eze 31:3, 1 Chr 24:6, 1 Kgs 15:8. Maundrell measured one which was 36 feet and 6 inches in the girth, and 111 feet in the spread of its boughs. The wood is of a red color and bitter taste, which is offensive to insects, and hence it is very durable and admirably adapted for building. A specimen of this wood in the British Museum is labelled "Cedar of Lebanon, from Palace of Nimrod; 3000 years old." Cedar was used for the most noble and costly edifices, as the palace of Persepolis, the palace of Solomon, and the temple at Jerusalem. This timber served not only for beams for the frame and boards for covering buildings, but was also wrought into the walls. 2 Sam 7:2; 1 Kgs 6:36 and Num 7:12. The gum which exudes from the trunk and the cones is as soft and fragrant as the balsam of Mecca. This tree, there is reason to believe, once quite covered the mountains of Lebanon between the heights of 3000 and 7000 feet. Rev. H. H. Jessup has visited and described eleven distinct groves of cedars on those mountains, including, altogether, several thousand trees. The principal forest visited by travellers is 8 hours' ride from Baalbec, on Cedar Mountain (Jebel el-Arz), about 6300 feet above the sea-level, a little below the summit. Baedeker (Palestine and Syria, p. 505) thus describes it: "The group occupies the top of a hill with five culminating points of various sizes, on the eastern and western sides of which runs a water-course. It consists of about 350 trees, the tallest of which does not exceed 78 feet in height. The rock on which they grow is white limestone, and the decaying spines, cones, and other matter have formed a dark-colored soil. The oldest trees, about 9 in number, are on the southeastern height. In the midst of the north-western group stands a Marnmite Cedars of Lebanon. (After Photographs.) chapel. Unfortunately, no care whatever is taken of these noble trees. The goats eat all the young shoots, and cedar branches are even used for fuel, particularly on the occasion of an annual festival in August. Countless names are cut on the trunks of the trees. ... In gloomy weather the sombre group and its black surroundings form a weird and wild picture." In most of the botanic gardens and arboretums of Europe and America growing specimens of this monarch of Eastern forests may now be seen. It thrives especially well in England. In the general appearance of its bark and foliage it is much like the larch, but it is a far more widely-branching and massive tree. Dr. G. E. Post, of Beirfit, Syria, who is a good botanist, supplies the following interesting information concerning this tree: "The first mention of the cedar in the Bible is in Lev 14:4, 1 Chr 24:6, Lev 14:49, Jer 25:51, 2 Kgs 5:52, with the parallel passage. Num 19:6. The children of Israel were then in the peninsula of Mount Sinai. Did the cedar grow in that region? or is the cedar there alluded to a different tree from the cedar of Lebanon? "There are other trees known now in Syria as cedars. The Aleppo pine is one, and it is quite probable that this tree may have grown in that region, although not more so than that the cedar itself was there. The juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus) still grows in the peninsula of Sinai; and being of the same family as the cedar, it is allowable to regard it as the plant here intended. A species of juniper is known in English by the name of 'cedar.' In view, however, of admitted changes in climate in all the countries bordering the eastern end of the Mediterranean, there is nothing to forbid the possibility of the cedar of Lebanon having once existed on Sinai. It grows on the Atlas chain and the mountains connecting Taurus with the Himalayas, as well as in the latter groups. May it not have found in Sinai a connecting station between its distant homes in the Atlas and the Lebanon and Himalayas? "Some very foolish things have been said about the durability of the cedar. It has been pronounced, perhaps from trials on specimens taken from European or American trees, a crooked, inferior, perishable wood. In point of fact, it is notable for toughness, durability, and adaptedness to the climate and circumstances of Syria. There is no such thing as a rotten cedar. Branches broken off by the tempests lie unrotten on the ground. The trunks, where barked by travellers or peeled by the lightning, remain dead, but uncorrupted. The name of Lamartine, carved on one of the giant trees 109 years ago, is fresh and legible to-day. All other woods indigenous to Syria are liable to the attacks of insects or a kind of dry rot. Cedar beams are unchangeable. No greater injury has been done to Lebanon than denuding it of its kingly tree. The cedar is a desirable wood for carving. Isa 44:14. It is hard, fragrant, takes a high polish, which develops a beautiful grain, and it grows darker and richer by time. "'The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted.' Ps 104:16. The aromatic sap of this tree exudes from the slightest scratch, and distills in copal drops down the bark. If two branches rub together, they soon unite. Several trees are often joined in this way through the superabundance of their vitality. "'The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.' A palm tree attains its height in a hundred years or less; a cedar grows for thousands of years. A palm tree soon bears fruit and flourishes; a cedar grows slowly and tarries long before it bears fruit, but it continues to bear fruit long centuries after the palm tree has decayed. It continues fat and flourishing (green). The cedar is ever green. Its vitality is equally apparent in the heat of summer and the snows of winter. How apt a likeness of the righteous, who grows in grace as he lengthens out his years! The cedar still bears multitudes of cones when it has been riven by lightning, torn and almost uprooted by the wind. So affliction but develops the graces of the righteous, and the green branches bear abundance of fruit when the blighted ones have been severed and for ever lost." See Lebanon.

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