applied to Hezekiah’s boil (2 Kings, xx, 7) is an interesting
reminiscence of Israelitish home medicine. The fig tree often appears
in the Bible. Some very learned Biblical commentators (Celsius,
Gesenius, Knobel, among them) have believed that the fig leaves with
which Adam and Eve made aprons were in fact the very long leaves of the
banana tree. This, however, is scarcely possible, as the banana is a
native of the Malay Archipelago, and there is no evidence that it was
known to the Jews at the time when the Pentateuch was written.