(7.) There is little doubt that Solomon's Tadmor, af- terwards the famous Palmyra, on another desert fron- tier far to the north-east of Tamar, is primarily the same word ; and that, as Gibbon says {Decline and Fall, ii, 38), "the name, by its signification in the Syriac as well as in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm-trees which afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region." In fact, while the undoubted read- ing in 2 Chron. viii, 4 is li^'l^) '^e best text in 1 Kings ix, 18 is "i"^!^. See Josephus, .4 n1. viii, 6, 1. The springs which he mentions there make the palm-trees almost a matter of course. Abidfeda, who flourished in the 14th century, expressly mentions the palm-tree as common at Palmyra in his time ; and it is still called by the Arabs by the ancient natne of Tadinr.
(8.) Nor, again, are the places of the N. T. without their associations with this characteristic tree of Pales- tine. Bkthany, according to most authorities, means "the house of dates;" and thus we are reminded that the palm grew in the neighborhood of the Mount of Olives. Tills helps our realization of our Saviour's en- try into Jerusalem, when the people " took branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet him" (John xii, 13). This, again, carries our thoughts backward to the time
when the Feast of Tabernacles was first kept after the Captivit}', when the proclamation was given that they should "go forth unto the mount and fetch palm-branches" (Neh. viii, 15) — the only branches, it may be observed (those of the willow excepted), which are specified by name in the original institution of the festival (Lev. xxiii, 40). From this Gospel incident comes Palm- Sunday (Dominica in Kamis Palmarum), which is ob- served with much ceremony in some countries where true palms can be had. PLven in northern latitudes (in Yorkshire, for instance) the country jieople use a sub- stitute which comes into flower just before Easter: "And willow-brnnches hallow,
That they piUmes do use to call."
(9.) The word Piicenicia (^oiviV/;), which occurs twice in the N. T. (Acts xi, 19; xv, 3), is in all proba- bilit}' derived from the Greek word {(poiril) for a palm. Sidonius mentions palms as a product of Pha-nicia {Pa- neg. Majorian. 44). See also Plinj^, JJist. A\it. xiii, 4; Athen. i, 21. Thus we may imagine the same natural objects in connection with Paul's journeys along the coast to the north of Palestine, as with the wanderings of the Israelites through the desert on the south.
(10.) Lastly, Ph<knice {(PoiriS,), in the island of Crete, the harbor which Paul was prevented by the storm from reaching (Acts xxvii, 12), has doubtless the same derivation. Both Theophrastus and Pliny say that palm-trees are indigenous in this island. See Hock's Kreta, i, 38, 388.
3. From the passages where there is a literal refer- ence to the palm-tree we may pass to the emblematical uses of it in Scripture. Under this head may be classed the following :
(1.) The striking appearance of the tree, its upright- ness and beauty, would naturally suggest the giving of its name occasionally to women. As we find in the Odyssey (vi, 163) Naasicaa, the daughter of Alcinous, compared to a palm, so in Cant, vii, 7 we have the same comparison, "Thy stature is like to a palm-tree." In the O. T. three women named Tamar are mentioned: Judah's daughter-in-law (Gen. xxxviii, 6), Absalom's sister (2 Sam. xiii, 1), and Absalom's daughter (xiv, 27). The beauty of the last two is expressly mentioned.
(2.) We have notices of the employment of this form in decorative art, both in the real temple of Solomon and in the visionary temple of Ezekiel. In the former case we are told (2 Chron. iii, 5) of this decoration in general terms, and elsewhere more specifically that it was applied to the walls (1 Kings vi, 29), to the doors (ver. 32, 35), and to the " bases" (vii, 36). So in the prophet's vision we find palm-trees on the posts of the gates (Ezek. xl, 16, 22, 26, 31, 34, 37), and also on the walls and the doors (xli, 18-20, 25, 26). This work seems to have been in relief. We do not stay to inquire whether it had any symbolical meanings. It was a natural and doubtless customary kind of ornamentation in Eastern architecture. Thus we are told bj- Herodo- tus (ii, 169) of the hall of a temple at Sais, in Egypt; which was r)nKr)iiivi] aTvXotai (poivticag ret SivSpta Hipijimiivoirji ; and we are familiar now with the same sort of decoration in Assyrian buildings (Layard's Nine- veh and its Remains, ii, 137, 396, 401). The image of such rigid and motionless forms may possibly have been before the mind of Jeremiah when he said of the idols of the heathen (x, 4, 5), " They fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not: they are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not."
(3.) With a tree so abundant in Juda5a, and so marked in its growth and appearance, as the palm, it seems rather remarkable that it does not appear more fre- quently in the imagery of the O. T. There is, how- ever, in the Psalms (xcii, 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 fruit- fulness, the perpetual greenness of its foliage, or the height at which the foliage grows— as far as possible