BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Biblical Balm from a Resurrected Seed

Scientists bring a thousand-year-old seed to life

While it is not the first time that the team at the Arava Institute has brought an ancient seed back to life, this time is no less exciting, as it might be the rediscovery of a biblical balm. Publishing in the journal Communication Biology, the team cataloged the amazing journey of a small seed discovered in an archaeological excavation in the Judean Desert in 1986.

---

---

Growing Antiquity

The biblical balm (tsori in Hebrew) has long been a source of mystery, with some scholars believing it is simply a synonym for the Judean Balsam or the Balm of Gilead. However, some questions might now be answered by a tiny seed, nicknamed Sheba. Uncovered in a cave in Wadi el-Makkuk in the West Bank, the seed sat in the basement of the Hebrew University for decades before it was picked out by a member of the Arava team, along with a collection of other seeds. The goal: to see if they could get these millennia-old seeds to sprout and grow. And grow they did. Sheba, which was radiocarbon dated to the late 11th to early 13th centuries CE, now stands nearly 10 feet tall in the Arava Institute’s greenhouse.

However, this story is about more than just bringing an ancient seed to life, something that the Arava team had done before when they resurrected a grove’s worth of 2,000-year-old date palm seeds found at Masada. The tree that sprouted from Sheba is now a leading candidate for the source of biblical tsori. A member of the same family as frankincense and myrrh, the tree produces a clear resin that has a wide range of medicinal purposes, including healing wounds and serving as an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antiviral, and even anti-tumoral substance. Although the seed managed to make its way into a desert cave nearly a thousand years ago—likely helped by rodents—the plant that it sprouted does not match any other known today.

According to the team, this makes Sheba a great candidate for the biblical balm, mentioned in numerous biblical sources and noted for its healing properties. The balm extracted from these trees would have been incredibly valuable during the biblical period and afterward. However, like other plants mentioned in the Bible, it has either gone extinct in the region or been largely forgotten.

---

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Searching for the Balm of Gilead

Harvesting the Balm of Gilead 

Tasting the Past

Biblical Persimmon Depicted in Ancient Jerusalem Seal

The Egyptian “Scent of Eternity”

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Plants as Biblical Metaphors

Living Plants as Archaeological Artifacts

Balm of Gilead

Ancient Medicine: In case of emergency, contact your local prophet

Weeds & Seeds: What Archaeobotany Can Teach Us

Arch-Tech: New Fruit from Old Seeds