Flowers and fruits of papyrus are tiny and borne in large numbers in globe-shaped masses.
WHILE GIANT CANE AND COMmon reed are the most widespread of Bible wetland plants, perhaps the best known is bulrush mentioned in the story of baby Moses (Exodus 2), where the child was hidden in the vegetation along the Nile River. Still found in parts of the Nile Valley, bulrush, or papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), occurs throughout much of Africa. Papyrus is the source of the English word “paper.” Paper was made by pounding the soft papyrus stems together, one layer of stems at right angles to the other, to form a sheet.
Papyrus is an obligate aquatic plant. Its distribution in the Middle East and Egypt has been reduced by the draining of wetlands and otherwise altering waterways. The plant grows in large mats, often forming floating islands, at the margins of rivers, in lakes, and along impoundments. Resembling a grass but in a related family, papyrus has a round stem several meters (6 feet or more) tall that bears a spherical mass of tiny flowers on long, flexuous stalks. The thick stems are filled with cells that contain air, which may be the reason why papyrus is called agam (with variations), meaning “absorbent” in Hebrew. In some places, for example, papyrus is the translation for cuwph (Exodus 2:3, NIV).
The large air spaces in the stout stems provided buoyancy when used in making boats. In Isaiah, an apparent reference is made to the Nile: “Woe to the land of whirring wings [or locusts] along the rivers of Cush [the region of southern Egypt and adjacent Sudan and Ethiopia], which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water” (Isaiah 18:1–2, NIV).
Mats of papyrus in the Hula Swamp in northern Israel. This site is the only one in the Middle East with extant papyrus populations, and now is a preserve. In the early 1900s, there was a big industry for baskets, mats, and other items made from papyrus.
At one time, there was a large population of papyrus in northern Israel in an area that the Bible refers to as the waters of Merom (Joshua 11:5) or Lake Merom. This swamp, the Hula Swamp, was a malarial area. So Zionists drained most of it in the early 1900s, destroying the habitat of the papyrus, the northernmost population of this plant in the world. Fortunately, there has been a concerted effort to restore part of the Hula Swamp, and it is now possible to visit the area and see impressive stands of papyrus.
Paper as a writing material is mentioned in only one place in the Bible. In Isaiah 19:7, the Hebrew word arah is translated “paper reed” in the KJV, perhaps an illusion to papyrus. The NIV renders this as “plants along the Nile,” which could also be papyrus. The only New Testament reference is: “I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink” (II John 12a, NIV). Chartes, the Greek word used here, is related to the English word “chart.” Greeks imported papyrus via the Phoenician town of Byblos, from which comes our word “bible” and related terms. Thus, in New Testament times, paper was well known to writers such as the Apostle John.
Despite the enormous impact of the papyrus plant on the development of writing and books, it is almost extirpated in the Middle East.