Topical Bible: Stems

Jump to: Concordance • Thesaurus • Hebrew • Library • Subtopics • Terms

Topical Encyclopedia

In biblical literature, the term "stems" often refers to the structural parts of plants that support leaves, flowers, and fruits. Stems are mentioned in various contexts throughout the Bible, symbolizing strength, growth, and the sustaining power of God’s creation. The imagery of stems is used both literally and metaphorically to convey spiritual truths and divine principles.

Symbolism and Imagery

Stems are frequently used in Scripture to symbolize life and vitality. In the natural world, stems are essential for the nourishment and growth of plants, as they transport water and nutrients from the roots to other parts of the plant. This imagery is reflected in biblical passages that emphasize the importance of spiritual nourishment and growth in the life of a believer.

In Isaiah 11:1, the prophet speaks of a "shoot" coming forth from the "stump of Jesse," with a "Branch" growing from its roots. This passage is often interpreted as a messianic prophecy, foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ, who is the "Branch" that brings life and salvation. The stem here represents the continuity of God's promise through the lineage of David, despite apparent desolation.

Metaphorical Uses

The metaphorical use of stems in the Bible often highlights the relationship between God and His people. In John 15:5, Jesus declares, "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing." Here, the stem of the vine represents Christ, the source of spiritual life and sustenance for believers. The branches, dependent on the vine, illustrate the necessity of abiding in Christ to bear spiritual fruit.

Practical References

In addition to their symbolic significance, stems are mentioned in practical contexts within the Bible. For example, in the construction of the Tabernacle and the Temple, various plant materials, including stems, were used for crafting sacred objects and decorations. The use of natural elements in worship underscores the connection between creation and the Creator, reflecting the beauty and order of God's design.

Cultural and Historical Context

In ancient Israel, agriculture was a central aspect of daily life, and the growth of plants was crucial for survival. The understanding of stems and their function would have been well-known to the original audience of the biblical texts. This agricultural backdrop provides a rich context for the spiritual lessons drawn from plant imagery, as the people of Israel were intimately familiar with the processes of planting, growth, and harvest.

Conclusion

The concept of stems in the Bible serves as a powerful reminder of the interconnectedness of creation and the sustaining power of God. Whether used to symbolize the lineage of the Messiah, the relationship between Christ and His followers, or the practical aspects of life in ancient Israel, stems carry a depth of meaning that enriches the biblical narrative and offers insight into the divine nature of growth and life.

Strong's Hebrew

7574. rethem -- broom plant, retem
... juniper tree. Or rothem {ro'-them}; from ratham; the Spanish broom (from its
pole-like stems) -- juniper (tree). see HEBREW ratham. 7573, 7574. ...
/hebrew/7574.htm - 6k

Library

On Descartes' "Discourse Touching the Method of Using One's Reason ...
... The thoughts of men seem rather to be comparable to the leaves, flowers, and fruit
upon the innumerable branches of a few great stems, fed by commingled and ...
/.../lay sermons addresses and reviews/xiv on descartes discourse touching.htm

The Primrose of the Rock
... From highest Heaven let down. The flowers, still faithful to the stems,.
Their fellowship renew; The stems are faithful to the root,. ...
/.../palgrave/the treasury of sacred song/cclviii the primrose of the.htm

Which of the Gods Can the Romans Suppose Presided Over the ...
... Therefore they set Proserpina over the germinating seeds; over the joints and knots
of the stems, the god Nodotus; over the sheaths enfolding the ears, the ...
//christianbookshelf.org/augustine/city of god/chapter 8 which of the gods.htm

An Anonymous Sermon, Commonly Called Clement's Second Letter to ...
... before the middle of the second century; and while scholars differ widely on its
place of origin, there are a number of indications that it stems from Egypt. ...
/.../richardson/early christian fathers/an anonymous sermon commonly called.htm

Changed Conditions
... the year is controlled by some fortunate or untoward influence, governed by the
conjunction of the "Celestial Branches" and "Earthly Stems," complicated with ...
/.../the fulfilment of a dream of pastor hsis/chapter xx changed conditions.htm

A Letter from a West Indian Cottage Ornee
... The old ones have straight gray stems, often prickly enough, and thickened in the
middle; gray last year's leaves hanging down; and feathering round the top, a ...
//christianbookshelf.org/kingsley/at last/chapter v a letter from.htm

Seed among Thorns
... The roots were there, although the branches and the stems had been cut down, or
if the roots were not there, abundant seeds were lying buried, and when the ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture e/seed among thorns.htm

The High Woods
... And a noble grass it is, with its stems as thick as one's wrist, tillering out below
in bold curves over the well-hoed dark soil, and its broad bright leaves ...
//christianbookshelf.org/kingsley/at last/chapter vii the high woods.htm

The Fig-Tree.
... chosen people. Fig-trees were they, too"naked stems, fruitless and leafless;
but then they made no boastful pretensions. The Jews ...
//christianbookshelf.org/macduff/memories of bethany/xix the fig-tree.htm

1 Thessalonians iv. 13
... [1012] Seest thou not the fig tree, what a trunk it has, what stems, how many leaves,
and ... For tell me, how is that grape-stone resolved into leaves and stems? ...
/.../homily vii 1 thessalonians iv.htm

Thesaurus

Stems (31 Occurrences)
...Stems (31 Occurrences). 1 Corinthians 3:12 But on the base a man may put gold, silver,
stones of great price, wood, dry grass, cut stems; (BBE). ...
/s/stems.htm - 15k

Grain-stems (2 Occurrences)
Grain-stems. Grains, Grain-stems. Grain-stores . Multi-Version
Concordance Grain-stems (2 Occurrences). Psalms 129:7 ...
/g/grain-stems.htm - 7k

Cane (11 Occurrences)
... 1. (n.) A name given to several peculiar palms, species of Calamus and Daemanorops,
having very long, smooth flexible stems, commonly called rattans. ...
/c/cane.htm - 11k

Strong (736 Occurrences)
... In the Teutonic languages the vowel stems have held the original endings most firmly,
and are called strong; the stems in -n are called weak other constant ...
/s/strong.htm - 44k

Dry (217 Occurrences)
... (BBE). 1 Corinthians 3:12 But on the base a man may put gold, silver, stones
of great price, wood, dry grass, cut stems; (BBE). Hebrews ...
/d/dry.htm - 37k

Stem (18 Occurrences)
... 15. (vt) To remove the stem or stems from; as, to stem cherries; to remove the stem
and its appendages (ribs and veins) from; as, to stem tobacco leaves. 16. ...
/s/stem.htm - 13k

Languages (36 Occurrences)
... Sounds 2. Letters Representing Two Sounds 3. Consonants Representing Vowels 4. The
Syllable 5. Three-Letter Roots 6. Conjugations or Derived Stems 7. Absence ...
/l/languages.htm - 49k

Nehelamite (4 Occurrences)
... Sounds 2. Letters Representing Two Sounds 3. Consonants Representing Vowels 4. The
Syllable 5. Three-Letter Roots 6. Conjugations or Derived Stems 7. Absence ...
/n/nehelamite.htm - 89k

Overseers (47 Occurrences)
... Exodus 5:10 And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and
said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems. (BBE). ...
/o/overseers.htm - 22k

Wood (226 Occurrences)
... 5. (n.) The fibrous material which makes up the greater part of the stems and branches
of trees and shrubby plants, and is found to a less extent in herbaceous ...
/w/wood.htm - 42k

Resources

How can I become a child of God? | GotQuestions.org

Why does Moses have horns in some ancient statues / sculptures? | GotQuestions.org

What does the Bible say about pride? | GotQuestions.org

Stems: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.com

Bible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus

Concordance

Stems (31 Occurrences)

1 Corinthians 3:12
But on the base a man may put gold, silver, stones of great price, wood, dry grass, cut stems;
(BBE)

Genesis 37:7
We were in the field, getting the grain stems together, and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went down on the earth before mine.
(BBE)

Exodus 2:3
And when she was no longer able to keep him secret, she made him a basket out of the stems of water-plants, pasting sticky earth over it to keep the water out; and placing the baby in it she put it among the plants by the edge of the Nile.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:7
Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:10
And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:11
Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:12
So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:13
And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:16
They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong.
(BBE)

Exodus 5:18
Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.
(BBE)

Joshua 2:6
But she had taken them up to the roof, covering them with the stems of flax which she had put out in order there.
(BBE)

Judges 8:7
Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-floor.
(BBE)

Judges 8:16
Then he took the responsible men of the town and had them crushed on a bed of thorns and sharp stems.
(BBE)

Judges 15:5
Then firing the sticks, he let the foxes loose among the uncut grain of the Philistines, and all the corded stems as well as the living grain and the vine-gardens and the olives went up in flames.
(BBE)

2 Samuel 16:1
And when David had gone a little way past the top of the slope, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, came to him, with two asses on which were two hundred cakes of bread and a hundred stems of dry grapes and a hundred summer fruits and a skin of wine.
(BBE)

Job 21:18
How frequently are they as dry stems before the wind, or as grass taken away by the storm-wind?
(BBE)

Job 41:28
The arrow is not able to put him to flight: stones are no more to him than dry stems.
(BBE)

Psalms 72:16
May there be wide-stretching fields of grain in the land, shaking on the top of the mountains, full of fruit like Lebanon: may its stems be unnumbered like the grass of the earth.
(BBE)

Psalms 83:13
O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry stems before the wind.
(BBE)

Psalms 126:6
Though a man may go out weeping, taking his vessel of seed with him; he will come again in joy, with the corded stems of grain in his arms.
(BBE)

Isaiah 5:24
For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel.
(BBE)

Isaiah 25:10
For in this mountain will the hand of the Lord come to rest, and Moab will be crushed down in his place, even as the dry stems of the grain are crushed under foot in the waste place.
(BBE)

Isaiah 29:5
And the army of your attackers will be like small dust, and all the cruel ones like dry stems gone before the wind; suddenly it will come about.
(BBE)

Isaiah 41:2
Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he goes? he gives the nations into his hands, and makes him ruler over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as dry stems before the wind to his bow.
(BBE)

Isaiah 41:15
See, I will make you like a new grain-crushing instrument with teeth, crushing the mountains small, and making the hills like dry stems.
(BBE)

Isaiah 47:14
Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated.
(BBE)

Obadiah 1:18
And the children of Jacob will be a fire and those of Joseph a flame, and the children of Esau dry stems of grass, burned up by them till all is gone: and there will be no people living in Esau; for the Lord has said it.
(BBE)

Micah 4:12
But they have no knowledge of the thoughts of the Lord, their minds are not able to see his purpose: for he has got them together like stems of grain to the crushing-floor.
(BBE)

Nahum 1:10
For though they are like twisted thorns, and are overcome as with drink, they will come to destruction like stems of grass fully dry.
(BBE)

Habakkuk 3:14
You have put your spears through his head, his horsemen were sent in flight like dry stems; they had joy in driving away the poor, in making a meal of them secretly.
(BBE)

Malachi 4:1
For see, the day is coming, it is burning like an oven; all the men of pride and all who do evil will be dry stems of grass: and in the day which is coming they will be burned up, says the Lord of armies, till they have not a root or a branch.
(BBE)

Subtopics

Stems

Related Terms

Nostrils (22 Occurrences)

Stems (31 Occurrences)

Step (41 Occurrences)

Odious (9 Occurrences)

Offensive (15 Occurrences)

Odor (46 Occurrences)

Officials (229 Occurrences)

Task (37 Occurrences)

Remove (173 Occurrences)