Why was a bishop accused
of falsifying Scripture?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
February 20, 2004
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The castor bean plant (Ricinus communis Linnaeus) is a highly variable species native to Africa. The plant has been cultivated for its valuable oil for at least 4,000 years. In ancient times, the plant was known as kik or kikaijon.
The plant's Latin name, Ricinus, continued in usage among herbalists and long predated Linnaeus. John Gerard (1597) states this name is for the "seed as big as a kidney beane, of the colour and shape of a certaine vermine which haunteth cattell, called a Tik (tick)". Linnaeus made Ricinus the generic name and added the epithet communis; the botanical name meaning "common tick".
According to Gerard, the ancient name used by the Egyptians and Greeks was kik derived from kikaijon the name the Hebrews gave the plant. The plant was believed "nothing else but Ionas his (Jonah's) kikaijon", the plant that grew overnight "...that it might be a shadow over his head...." (Jonah 4:6) Gerard states the old Latine writers called the kikaijon by the name Cucurbita, a name generally applied to the gourd family. The confusion of names caused a scandal in the Church. Gerard credited this story to St. Augustine in a letter written to St. Jerome.
"...That name Kikaijon is of small moment, yet so small a matter caused a great tumult in Africa. For on a time a certaine Bishop having an occasion to intreat of this which is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Ionas his prophecie said, that this plant was called Cucurbita, a Gourde, because it encreased unto so great a quantitie, in so short a space, or else it is called Hedera (now applied to ivy).
"Upon the novelty and untruth of this his doctrine, the people were greatly offended, and thereof suddenly arose a tumult and hurly burly; so that the Bishop was inforced to goe to the Iewes (Jews), to aske their judgment as touching the name of this plant. And when he had received of them the true name, which was Kikaijon: he made his open recantation, and confessed his error, & was justly accused for a falsifier of the Holy Scripture." (The Herball or General Historie of Plants, John Gerard, 1633 edition)
For all the "hurly burly" of the "offense" over the true identity of Jonah's kikaijon, it is the gourd and not the castor bean found in modern English translations of the Bible.
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