Jonah's Gourd

There are different accounts of what was really the plant mentioned in the Biblical Book of Jonah.

This is how the New International Version ( NIV ) puts it :

 ⁵ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city ( Nineveh ). There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

 ⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

   “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

 ¹⁰ But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Other versions of bible translate it differently too, generally based on Hebrew Masoretic Texts, and Latin translations of Bible :

kikayon ןקיקין in Hebrew ( BHS 1977 );

hederam in Latin, which means ‘ivy’ ( Sacra Vulgata 1899 );

ivy ( Wycliffe 1395, Douay-Rheims 1609 );
gourd ( Darby 1854 , KJV 1611 , ERV 1885, ASV 1901, JPS 1917 );

vine ( CEV 1995 ); 

broad-leafed tree ( MSG 2002 );

a plant ( NAS 1971, GNT 1976, NKJV 1982, GW 1995, ESV 2001 ); 

蓖麻, in Mandarin, pronounced bìmā , which is castor oil plant ( Ricinus communis ) ( CUV 和合本1919 ).

Kikayon ( Hebrew ) – A Plant - Broad-leafed Tree

The older Hebrew versions indicate it as ‘kikayon’, which is not very determinative of the plant species. 

A conservative translation would simply put is as ‘a plant’, not even an indication of the shape or size of the plant.  But it would most probably a broad-leafed, be it a tree, a shrub, or a liana, as does most terrestrial plants do, except palms, grasses etc.

From the scripture, we know that it is leafy and capable to provide shade over Jonah’s shelter to ease his discomfort.  This fits the practice of training a gourd vine over a shelters, to help cooling down the shelter’s temperature.

Jonah was very happy about the plant, as we were told ( Jonah 4:6 ).  Yet it is very subjective of a man’s happiness, and his level of expectations.  So, there are still room for discussion about the leafiness of the plant.

However, it is not to be taken into consideration the growth rate of the plant, of which it seems to grow overnight into a shady plant.  This is of course God’s work, and it is not necessarily to our comprehension.  

Hederam ( Latin ) – Ivy - Vine

The later Latin translation, put is as ‘hederam’, which means ivy.  ‘Hederam’ is an accusative singular of ‘hedera’.  Today’s plants classification uses Hedera to name ivy, a genus of 12 – 15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woodly plants in the family Araliaceae. 

Some newer Bible versions translated from the Latin Vulgate seems to maintain the ‘hedera’ translation of ‘ivy’ ( Wycliffe, Duoy-Rheims ).  Ivy is a climbing plants, thus falls into the category of ‘vine’ ( CEV ).

Ivies ( genus : Hedera ) are natives to Europe ( H.helix, H.colchica, H.cypria, H.Iberica, H.pastuchowii, H.hibernica ), Macaronesia ( H.canariensis, H.maderensis, H.azorica ), NW Africa ( H. algeriensis, H.maroccana ), and Asia ( H.nepalensis, H.rhombea ).  None is close to the city of Nineveh, which was ancient Assyrian city in present day Iraq. 

Gourd

JPS’ ( Jewish Publication Society of America ) Hebrew translation of The Holy Scriptures in 1917 was based on KJV, thus maintained the usage of the word ‘gourd’. 

The word ‘gourd’ also appears in OT’s 2^nd Book of Kings, where Elisha’s servant harvested gourds from wild vine and cook a pot of stew of it ( 2Kings 4:39, KJV ).  The wild gourd seems to be poisonous ( 2Kings 4:40 ), yet edible after cooked.

 

Gourd refers to the plants of the family Cucurbitaceae.  The term is also used for the plants’ fruits which include crops like cucumber, squashes, pumpkins, luffas, and melons.  However, the term ‘gourd’ is more specifically refers to the hard-rinded inedible, dried, and hard fruit shells of the plants of 2 Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita, which are often used for ornament, instruments, utensil, and vessels.  

But the type of gourd remains a mystery.

蓖麻 ( castor oil plant,  Ricinus communis )

The CUV ( Chinese Union Version, 和合本 ) was translated from English Revised Version.  ERV was revised from KJV to adapt the old English language to modern version.  While both ERV and KJV uses the word ‘gourd’, but CUV uses ‘蓖麻 castor oil plant’ instead.

The word ‘kikayon’ is philologically appears to be connected with ‘kiki’, an Egyptian name for the plant Ricinus communis.  R.communis is native to southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India.  Its leaves are large, with >5 lobes, whence its name of Palma Christi. 

It is planted for its seeds, of which oil are extracted from them.  The castor oil is known for its medicinal properties.