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A despondent Jonah facing east under a gourd plant.
Alice C. Linsley
Gourds were a sacred symbol among Abraham's Hebrew people. They represented fertility, new life, the arousal of the High God, the rising Sun and, as with the pomegranate, the hope for bodily resurrection. Gourd images decorated the Temple built by Solomon.
In his book, Mountains of the Pharaohs, Dr. Zahi Hawass states that the benben was the "solar symbol par excellence, thought to have existed in reality as an object, perhaps a stone with a rounded top..." (p. 34)
Gourds were a sacred symbol among Abraham's Hebrew people. They represented fertility, new life, the arousal of the High God, the rising Sun and, as with the pomegranate, the hope for bodily resurrection. Gourd images decorated the Temple built by Solomon.
Cedar gourds decorated the inner sanctuary of the temple.
In the story of Jonah, the LORD prepares a gourd plant to shelter Jonah. This pleases Jonah, but a worm destroys the plant. The gourd represents the new life to be enjoyed by the people of Ninevah after repentance and deliverance from destruction. The worm is Jonah's bitterness that his enemies should be saved, just as he feared, knowing that the LORD is gracious and merciful.
The gourd is a solar symbol and therefore spoke of the High God among the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC). As it matures, the gourd swells. Likewise, the sun swells as it rises in the morning. The Sun was the symbol of the High God among the Hebrew. There is a connection to the ancient Egyptian root bn, meaning to swell or enlarge. The Egyptian word for the rising sun is wbn, and that which is enlarged or swollen to its limits is designated by the reduplication bnbn.
The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. There was cedar on the house within, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, there was no stone seen. 1 Kings 6:18Gourds also decorated the bronze sea, a circular basin which held a supply of water for ritual use.
Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them... 1 Kings 7:24
In the story of Jonah, the LORD prepares a gourd plant to shelter Jonah. This pleases Jonah, but a worm destroys the plant. The gourd represents the new life to be enjoyed by the people of Ninevah after repentance and deliverance from destruction. The worm is Jonah's bitterness that his enemies should be saved, just as he feared, knowing that the LORD is gracious and merciful.
The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?" Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.… Jonah 4:4-6
The gourd is a solar symbol and therefore spoke of the High God among the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC). As it matures, the gourd swells. Likewise, the sun swells as it rises in the morning. The Sun was the symbol of the High God among the Hebrew. There is a connection to the ancient Egyptian root bn, meaning to swell or enlarge. The Egyptian word for the rising sun is wbn, and that which is enlarged or swollen to its limits is designated by the reduplication bnbn.
This appears to be a benben used to mark a sacred Celtic site.
Benben in Nigeria.
Benben pillars have been found in the Middle East and parts of Africa. They represent the arousal of the High God, the sole source of all life. Tombs of officials from the 4th Dynasty (2613-2494 BC) were surmounted by conical mounds or benben. These tombs, along with the east-facing royal tombs at Giza, indicate that the ancient Nilotic rulers hoped to rise from death, even as the Sun rises. The Prophet alluded to this belief when he wrote, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise [swell/be magnified] with healing in its wings.” (Malachi 4:2)
The Old Arabic word for the swelling of the sun is yakburu, meaning “he is getting big” and with the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru, it means "he is enlarging." This it is related to the word O-piru, a reference to an east-facing Sun temple. The Hebrew ruler-priests who served in the sun temples were called Hapiru, Habiru, 'Apiru or Abru, from which the English word "Hebrew" is derived. In Ancient Akkadian abru means "priest".
The Old Arabic word for the swelling of the sun is yakburu, meaning “he is getting big” and with the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru, it means "he is enlarging." This it is related to the word O-piru, a reference to an east-facing Sun temple. The Hebrew ruler-priests who served in the sun temples were called Hapiru, Habiru, 'Apiru or Abru, from which the English word "Hebrew" is derived. In Ancient Akkadian abru means "priest".
The morning ritual of the Hebrew priests involved greeting and blessing the rising sun and offering prayers as it swelled on the horizon. This practice of sun veneration continues in the morning ritual of devout Hindus (Agnihotra) and in the Jewish Sun Blessing ritual (Birkat Hachama) that is performed every 28 years.
The Horite Hebrew priests of Nekhen (c. 4000 BC) placed invocations to Horus/HR at the summit of the fortress at dawn. They faced the eastern horizon to greet the rising sun, the emblem of Re, th High God, and his son Horus/HR.
Nekhen is where the oldest life-sized human statue was found: a priest from the temple of Horus, dating to c.3000 BC. Votive offerings at the Nekhen temple were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine city. One of the Chief Inspectors of the Horite priests of Nekhen was Horemkhawef. His tomb has been identified.
The Horite Hebrew priests of Nekhen were among Abraham's ancestors. By the time of Abraham, the Horite and Sethite Hebrew were widely dispersed throughout the Ancient Near East. They preserved their customs and religion by practicing endogamy. Endogamy is a trait of caste. The Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste.
Related reading: The Pillars of God; Royal Hebrew High Places; The Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; Threshing Floors and Solar Symbolism; Sun Cities of the Ancient World; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; The Hebrew were a Caste; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant
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