西南学院大学
聖書植物園のご案内
-聖書を彩る植物が彩るキャンパス-
聖書の地、パレスチナは古代中近東諸民族の定住圏「肥沃な三日月地帯」の南西部にあたり、四国程度の狭い国土ですが、地形や気候は変化に富み、北東の山岳地帯の高山植物から南の乾燥地帯の砂漠植物にいたるまで2,800種類以上の多様な植物が生育します。聖書にはそのうち100種を超える植物が登場します。
空腹の兄エサウから長子の特権を譲り受ける取引に弟のヤコブが使った煮物に入っていた「レンズ豆」(創世記25:29-34)。ソロモンの神殿建築に用いられた「レバノン杉」(列王記上6:15-16)。一夜にして生じ、一夜にして滅びたという預言者ヨナの「とうごま」(ヨナ書4:6-10)。放蕩息子が空腹のため食べたいと思った豚の餌の「いなご豆」(ルカ15:16)。思い煩いから癒されるために、「見よ」と勧められた「野の花」(マタイ6:28;ルカ12:27)。小さくともやがて大きくなる神の国の譬えに登場する「からし種」(マタイ13:31-32;マルコ4:30-32;ルカ13:18-19)。群衆に囲まれたイエス・キリストを見ようと背の低い徴税人ザアカイがよじ上った「いちじく桑の木」(ルカ19:3-4)等々、聖書には、印象深い話に彩りを添える植物が多く登場します。聖書を読まれて、聖書に登場する植物が一体どのようなものなのか見てみたい。そのように思われた方は多いのではないかと思います。
西南学院大学聖書植物園は聖書に登場する植物を可能な限り復元・展示しようと、1999年11月、大学開学50周年の記念事業として大学同窓会の寄付金を基に開園されました。今から約2,000年前の古文書である聖書に登場する植物を復元・展示しようとするこの計画は、「緑の考古学」と言って良いのではないかと思います。
しかし聖書の植物の復元には困難が伴います。その第一は、古代には現代のような植物分類学がなかったことです。そのために聖書で言及される植物の同定は困難な場合が少なくありません。また、日本にはない植物も多いので、誤訳もあり、従って翻訳上の困難や混乱もあります。それは展示植物の表示板上の『聖書 新共同訳』(「新共同訳」)と『聖書』(「口語訳」)の差異にも示されているところです。第二に、聖書の地、パレスチナの気候風土が、福岡と異なる点です。現在、福岡での越冬が困難な植物は、冬期間室内で保管するため鉢植えにしています。また、高温多湿に弱い植物もあり、系統維持には困難が伴います。
9種の植物でスタートした聖書植物園ですが、試行錯誤を繰り返しつつも、現在、約100種の聖書関連の植物が集められ、全キャンパスに展開しています。ぜひこのパンフレットを片手にキャンパスを巡り、聖書を彩る数々の植物を実際に見て触れて、時には嗅いでみてください。それぞれの植物との出会いが聖書をより身近に感じ、聖書のもつリアリティを心に刻む一助になれば幸いです。
Your Guide to the Biblical Botanical Garden of Seinan Gakuin University ~a campus colored with the plants and flowers of the Bible~
Palestine, the land of the Bible, is located in the southeast of the area known as the Fertile Crescent. Although Palestine is no larger than the island of Shikoku, it is extraordinarily rich in the variety of its landscapes and climate. Today more than 2,800 varieties of trees and plants from alpine flora in the northern mountains to desert flora in the south thrive in Palestine. More than one hundred of these are mentioned in verses throughout the Bible.
Many memorable plants and flowers that enrich the Bible stories-including lentil, cedar of Lebanon, castor oil plant, carob tree, lilies of the field, mustard seed, and sycamore-can be found in the Biblical Botanical Garden of Seinan Gakuin University. The first reference to lentils occurs in the story of Jacob in which lentil stew was exchanged for Esau,s birthright as the elder son (Genesis 25:29-34). King Solomon,s Temple, also called the First Temple, was built out of cedars from Lebanon (1 Kings 6:15-16). The bush that sprouted up in a night to shade Jonah and then perished in a night is thought to have been the caster oil plant (Jonah 4:6-10). The prodigal son found himself so close to starvation that he envied pigs for their regular meals of carob pods (Luke 15:16). Jesus pointed to the lilies, or flowers, of the field as a reminder of the futility of worry when we can depend on God to attend to our needs (Matthew 6:28; Luke 12:27). The mustard seed, the eponymous herb of Jesus, parable, is used to illustrate the increase of God,s kingdom from small beginnings that grow as from a tiny seed to be the greatest of all (Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19). Because of his short stature, the tax collector Zacchaeus climbed up a sycamore tree to assure himself of getting a good look at Jesus over the crowd of people (Luke 19:3-4). After reading such stories as these from the Bible, perhaps you have wondered what the plants really look like. The Biblical Botanical Garden of Seinan Gakuin University gives you the opportunity to find out.
Our Biblical Botanical Garden was established in November 1999 as part of the University,s 50th anniversary celebrations. With a donation from the university alumni association, we began to cultivate and display some of the plants and flowers that appear in the Bible. Because the Bible is such an ancient text and because the stories within it took place in a part of the world very remote from Japan, our project has presented some special challenges. First, there are problems with identification of the plants that are mentioned in Bible verses. The writers of the Bible did not of course refer to modern plant taxonomies. Moreover, many plants and flowers native to Palestine are not found in Japan, which created naming difficulties for us. We used two different Japanese translations of the Bible and found differences between them in the naming of many of the plants, which highlights the fact that translations of many Biblical plant names are not unified or agreed upon. Our second challenge concerns the climatic differences between Palestine and Fukuoka. Fukuoka,s more extreme conditions do not suit many of the plants and flowers. The humid summers can be extremely taxing, as can the colder winters. The more delicate plants are grown in pots and kept indoors throughout the harsher months.
When the Biblical Botanical Garden opened, there were nine species of plants and flowers. Today you can find over one hundred. Please take this guide as our invitation to wander around our campus experiencing the sight, touch and fragrance of the flora that grace the stories of the Bible.