Pistachio
Plants and Trees in the Bible
The true pistachio (Pistacia vera) is a small tree with many branches that lose their leaves in winter. The seeds are nuts with a hard, red, heart-shaped shell about 2 centimeters (1 inch) long, and the oily green kernel inside is about a centimeter (1/2 inch) long.
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In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
בָּטְנִים botnim · 1 verse
What it stands for
Whatever botnim referred to, whether true pistachio nuts or the fruit of the terebinth, they were obviously highly valued, as we see Jacob sending them with his sons as a gift to Joseph.
Pistachio nuts in European shops are often dyed red. This tradition started in the 1930s, when importers began dyeing the shells to hide blemishes that occurred during harvesting.
More about it
The plant genus Pistacia has representatives throughout the world, especially in Europe and Asia. The fruit-bearing ones grow well in the Mediterranean region and in West Asia up to Pakistan, and they were probably there in Bible times. There are three species that concern us: Pistacia vera, the True Pistachio; the Pistacia palaestina; and the Pistacia atlantica (also called the Atlas pistacio or Mount Atlas mastic tree). The latter two are called ’elah or ’alah (“terebinth”) in the Bible; see 1.24 Terebinth. Zohary holds that in the botnim that Jacob’s sons carried to Egypt as a gift to Joseph could have been the fruit of any of these three species, since all grew there. He also believes that the place named Betonim in is a reference to the fruit of either the terebinth or the true pistachio tree.
Also in Domestic trees and shrubs
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema