Lost Biblical Tree Resurrected From 1,000 Year-Old Seed!

Scientists have resurrected a mysterious, 1,000-year-old seed believed to belong to a lost lineage described in the Bible.

The 1,000-year-old seed was discovered in the Judean desert and it has taken researchers nearly 14 years to grow the ancient seed.

Scientists believe the tree is the source of the biblical “story,” a medicinal balm described in Ezekiel and Genesis.

The tree has been named “Sheba,” and it currently stands around 10 feet tall.

Lost Biblical tree resurrected from 1,000-year-old mystery seed found in the Judean Desert https://t.co/lBbEr4UxWj

— Live Science (@LiveScience) September 23, 2024

Per The Times of Israel:

The resin of a tree germinated from a mysterious 1,000-year-old seed found in a Judean Desert cave could be the source of the biblical tsori, a type of medicinal balm, according to newly published research.

Radiocarbon dating has put the date of the seed’s origin somewhere between 993 CE and 1202 CE.

The tree, still in a pot, has been identified as a species of Commiphora, part of the frankincense and myrrh family.

Dr. Sarah Sallon, director of the Louis Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, found the seed in the Institute of Archaeology of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Prof. Joseph Patrich had excavated it from Wadi el Makkuk in the mid-1980s.

Sallon in the past also located an unconnected batch of 1,900-year-old date seeds. The first to be germinated was nicknamed Methuselah, a biblical figure reputed to have died aged 969.

Lost Biblical tree resurrected from 1,000-year-old mystery seed found in the Judean Desert
Source: LiveScience https://t.co/Ksy5etL3Qf

— West-Langley, Carolyn (@langley_west) September 23, 2024

Here’s what MSN reported:

Scientists have revived a mysterious, 1,000-year-old seed discovered in the Judean Desert — and the tree that has grown from it could belong to a lost lineage mentioned in the Bible, they say.

It has taken researchers almost 14 years to grow a tree from the ancient seed, which archaeologists excavated from a cave in the late 1980s. Dubbed “Sheba,” the cryptic specimen now stands around 10 feet (3 meters) tall, meaning scientists can finally describe its fully-fledged characteristics. They were also able to perform DNA, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the tree, revealing new clues about its origins, according to a study published Sept. 10 in the journal Communications Biology.

The seed from which Sheba grew dates to between A.D. 993 and 1202, according to the study. It likely survived from a now-extinct population of trees that existed in the Southern Levant, a region comprising modern-day Israel, Palestine and Jordan, and is the first of its kind to be found there.

Remarkably, researchers say the fully-grown specimen could be the source of Biblical “tsori” — a resinous extract associated with healing in Genesis, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

“The identity of Biblical ‘tsori’ (translated in English as ‘balm’) has long been open to debate,” the researchers wrote in the study. The substance is linked with the historical region of Gilead, which sits to the east of the Jordan River between the Yarmuk River and the northern end of the Dead Sea. Now, having revived Sheba, the team thinks it has finally unraveled the mystery behind Biblical tsori.