Topic
Lily
18 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Song of Songs 5:13Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE — Of the lips of the beloved
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
- Luke 12:27Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave Lessons of trust gathered from
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
- 1 Kings 7:19Easton · ISBE · Nave The principal capitals of the temple ornamented with carvings of
And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.
- 1 Kings 7:22Easton · ISBE · Nave The principal capitals of the temple ornamented with carvings of
And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.
- 1 Kings 7:26Easton · ISBE · Nave The principal capitals of the temple ornamented with carvings of
And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
- 2 Chronicles 4:5Easton · ISBE · Nave Molded on the rim of the molten laver in the temple
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
- Song of Songs 2:1Easton · Smith · ISBE
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
- Song of Songs 2:16Easton · Smith · ISBE
¶ My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
- Song of Songs 4:5Easton · Smith · ISBE
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
- Matthew 6:28Easton · Smith · ISBE
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
- Song of Songs 2:2Easton · Smith
As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
- Song of Songs 6:2Easton · ISBE
My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
Show 6 more
- Song of Songs 6:3 Easton · Smith
- Song of Songs 7:2 Easton · ISBE
- Hosea 14:5 Smith · ISBE
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 39:14 Smith · ISBE
- Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 50:8 ISBE
- Matthew 6:28–30 Nave Lessons of trust gathered from
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 14 references
The Hebrew name shushan or shoshan, i.e., “whiteness”, was used as the general name of several plants common to Syria, such as the tulip, iris, anemone, gladiolus, ranunculus, etc. Some interpret it, with much probability, as denoting in the Old Testament the water-lily (Nymphoea lotus of Linn.), or lotus (Cant. 2:1, 2; 2:16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2, 3; 7:2). “Its flowers are large, and they are of a white colour, with streaks of pink. They supplied models for the ornaments of the pillars and the molten sea” (1 Kings 7:19, 22, 26; 2 Chr. 4:5). In the Canticles its beauty and fragrance shadow forth the preciousness of Christ to the Church. Groser, however (Scrip. Nat. Hist.), strongly argues that the word, both in the Old and New Testaments, denotes liliaceous plants in general, or if one genus is to be selected, that it must be the genus Iris, which is “large, vigorous, elegant in form, and gorgeous in colouring.”
The lilies (Gr. krinia) spoken of in the New Testament (Matt. 6:28; Luke 12:27) were probably the scarlet martagon (Lilium Chalcedonicum) or “red Turk’s-cap lily”, which “comes into flower at the season of the year when our Lord’s sermon on the mount is supposed to have been delivered. It is abundant in the district of Galilee; and its fine scarlet flowers render it a very conspicous and showy object, which would naturally attract the attention of the hearers” (Balfour’s Plants of the Bible).
Of the true “floral glories of Palestine” the pheasant’s eye (Adonis Palestina), the ranunuculus (R. Asiaticus), and the anemone (A coronaria), the last named is however, with the greatest probability regarded as the “lily of the field” to which our Lord refers. “Certainly,” says Tristram (Nat. Hist. of the Bible), “if, in the wondrous richness of bloom which characterizes the land of Israel in spring, any one plant can claim pre-eminence, it is the anemone, the most natural flower for our Lord to pluck and seize upon as an illustration, whether walking in the fields or sitting on the hill-side.” “The white water-lily (Nymphcea alba) and the yellow water-lily (Nuphar lutea) are both abundant in the marshes of the Upper Jordan, but have no connection with the lily of Scripture.”
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 11 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 23 references
lil'-i (shushan (1Ki 7:19), shoshannah (2Ch 4:5; So 2:1 f; Ho 14:5); plural (So 2:16; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2 f; 7:2; Ecclesiasticus 39:14; 50:8); krinon (Mt 6:28; Lu 12:27)): The Hebrew is probably a loan word from the Egyptian the original s-sh-n denoting the lotus-flower, Nymphaea lotus. This was probably the model of the architectural ornament, translated "lily-work," which appeared upon the capitals of the columns in the temple porch (1Ki 7:19), upon the top of the pillars (1Ki 7:22) and upon the turned-back rim of the "molten sea" (1Ki 7:26).
Botanically the word shoshannah, like the similar modern Arabic Susan, included in all probability a great many flowers, and was used in a way at least as wide as the popular use of the English word "lily." The expression "lily of the valleys" (So 2:1) has nothing to do with the plant of that name; the flowers referred to appear to have been associated with the rank herbage of the valley bottoms (So 4:5); the expression "His lips are as lilies" (So 5:13) might imply a scarlet flower, but more probably in oriental imagery signifies a sweet-scented flower; the sweet scent of the lily is referred to in Ecclesiasticus 39:14, and in 50:8 we read of "lilies by the rivers of water." The beauty of the blossom is implied in Ho 14:5, where Yahweh promises that repentant Israel shall "blossom as the lily." A "heap of wheat set about with lilies" (So 7:2) probably refers to the smoothed-out piles of newly threshed wheat on the threshing-floors decorated by a circlet of flowers.
The reference of our Lord to the "lilies of the field" is probably, like the Old Testament references, quite a general one.
The Hebrew and the Greek very likely include not only any members of the great order Liliaceae, growing in Palestine, e.g. asphodel, squill, hyacinth, ornithogalum ("Star of Bethlehem"), fritillaria, tulip and colocynth, but also the more showy irises ("Tabor lilies" "purple irises," etc.) and the beautiful gladioli of the Natural Order. Irideae and the familiar narcissi of the Natural Order Amaryllideae.
In later Jewish literature the lily is very frequently referred to symbolically, and a lotus or lily was commonly pictured on several Jewish coins.
E. W. G. Masterman
In the topical indexes
Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 8 references, grouped by sub-topic
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.