![]() As early as the first century, Dioscorides in his famed “De materia medica” suggested that a decoction of mandrake in wine would take away the pain of snake bite and also “make patients insensitive to incisions and cauterizations.”Ĭuriously, there seems to be no further mention of the effects of mandrake until around the 10th century, when descriptions of a “spongia somnifera,” or “soporific sponge” began to appear. The mandrake root contains atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine along with a number of other alkaloids that can in a sufficiently high dose cause effects that range from drowsiness and hallucinations to respiratory failure and death. ![]() While the Doctrine of Signatures has no scientific merit, plants of course can harbour a multitude of physiologically active compounds. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. John Donne, the British poet, apparently bought into fertility myth, “Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root,” he penned in his famous poem Song. Much later, in the Middle Ages, the myth would be resuscitated with the popularization of the “Doctrine of Signatures.” The suggestion was that God had placed a “signature” on plants by having them resemble parts of the body to give a clue about their potential medicinal use. The fertility saga may be rooted in the shape of the underground stem of the plant which, with a bit of imagination tossed in, resembles the human body. The plant’s root was supposed to impart fertility, and as the story goes, Rachel soon gave birth to Joseph and to Benjamin. Rachel, who is barren, agrees to let her sister Leah “lie” with Jacob in exchange for some mandrake that Leah’s son had found. One of the earliest mentions of the effects of mandrake takes us back to the Bible’s Book of Genesis. The next issue of Montreal Gazette Headline News will soon be in your inbox. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Manage Print Subscription / Tax ReceiptĪ welcome email is on its way.Still, Leah shows us how God often compassionately blesses us even when we act manipulatively to get our way. By these two facts, the Lord shows His people that their superstitions are worthless, for He is sovereign over procreation. Ironically, the blessing of fertility comes not to the one who ate the “magical” fruit, but to the one who gave it away. Moses tells us God listened to Leah and gave her a son even though her prayer is not recorded (vv. Both women are willing to barter for relational and sexual intimacy, things that should never be so grossly traded. 30:15) and is plainly more concerned to bear children of her own than she is for her sister’s welfare. Rachel, in a sense, prostitutes Jacob by offering him to Leah for the desired fruit (Gen. 7:1–5) is evident in her willingness to trade the rare mandrakes for just one night with him. It is no wonder that Leah accuses Rachel of stealing her husband since Jacob’s profound and sinful neglect of Leah (1 Cor. Rachel and Leah are both showing superstition by putting their hope in a plant without asking God’s blessing on the potential medicine (Ps. Rachel herself has not borne any children, Leah has become temporarily infertile (29:31–30:13), and both are seeking a cure in the mandrake.Īgain, the primary players in the chapter do not come off all that positively. 28:5), explains why both Leah and Rachel desired the plant. These qualities, coupled with the fact it was only rarely found in Paddan-aram where they lived (Gen. It has been desired in many cultures because of a belief that it is an aphrodisiac and promotes fertility. The mandrake is a Mediterranean plant with blue flowers in the winter and yellow, plum-like fruit in the summer. Verse 14 begins with a record of the time Rachel requested the mandrakes Reuben found for his mother Leah during the wheat harvest. Though doubtlessly well-known, the unspoken hostility between Rachel and her sister finds expression publicly in today’s passage. The tension that has been present for years in Jacob’s family due to the manner in which his wives envied each other comes to a boiling point after the birth of Asher to Leah’s maidservant (Gen.
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