Caper flower buds from Ramallah.
CAPERS ARE INCREASINGLY IN demand these days because of the popularity of Mediterranean cuisine. Caper adds a piquant taste to sauces. Are the caper plant and its products mentioned in the Bible? While caper is common throughout the Mediterranean region, most Bible researchers consider it to be included in only one verse: “When the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets” (Ecclesiastes 12:5b, NIV). Bible plant writers (for example, Zohary 1982) equate the word translated “desire” with caper, Capparis spinosa.
Caper is a shrub with sharp prickles and large, attractive flowers. It is striking, because it grows out of walls of old buildings. The plant loses its leaves during the rainy season and retains them during the dry season, which is unusual. The caper that is used for cuisine is the immature flower bud of the plant; it has a pleasant pungency and is pickled before use. I like the translation of the Ecclesiastes verse in NJB: rather than “and desire no longer is stirred,” it is rendered “and the caper-bush loses its tang.” Largest commercial producers of caper are Morocco, Spain, Turkey, and Italy (Sozzi 2001). The showy flowers produce a true berry as a fruit, which is sometimes pickled when young. The fruit has a shape somewhat resembling a human testis.
This fanciful resemblance to a human testis could explain why caper is in the NIV and other translations, no doubt based on the Doctrine of Signatures, a widespread belief that if a plant part looks like a body part, that body part will be affected by the plant. Simpson and Orgorzaly, in their widely used textbook (2000), attribute the Doctrine of Signatures to the Renaissance scholar Paracelcus, which I find unlikely since the doctrine is found in widely divergent cultures. Textual criticism provides little support for linking caper with desire (Todd 1886), and a recent review (Sozzi 2001) of the use of caper makes no mention of that plant’s use as an aphrodisiac.
Caper plant growing from an old wall in Jerusalem. There is evidence from Uzbekistan that caper can actually destroy old buildings and monuments by growing in the cracks, expanding, and cracking the stone. Because caper seeds are bird dispersed, they often find lodging on walls and monuments.
Caper’s large, showy flowers remain open for only one day and are mainly moth pollinated. In April, near Aleppo, Syria.
Fruits of caper.
Whether the caper we associate with food is actually included in the Bible verse, the caper bush is indeed an integral part of the landscape throughout the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Its spectacular presence on old walls and monuments quickly captures attention.