Moist gangrene is a result of veins, rather than arteries, being occluded. The affected part undergoes putrefaction. Wounds, frostbite or other interference with the blood supply can bring about gangrene. The dead material is usually separated from the living tissue by a red line of demarcation and is cast off by a process of inflammation, or it becomes necessary to amputate by surgery. The bacteria associated with gangrene (especially in moist gangrene) can cause blood poisoning and a deadly spread of the infection if the affected part is not removed.

The apostle Paul uses the word figuratively of the teaching of false doctrine and of “empty speeches that violate what is holy.” He stresses the danger that such speech brings to the entire congregation, saying: “For they will advance to more and more ungodliness, and their word will spread like gangrene.” He then cites examples: “Hymenaeus and Philetus are of that number. These very men have deviated from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred; and they are subverting the faith of some.” (2 Tim. 2:16-18) In view of Paul’s earlier symbolism, picturing the congregation as a body with many members—feet, hands, and so forth (1 Cor. chap. 12)—his figurative use of gangrene, with its danger to the human body, gives strong emphasis to the importance of eliminating false doctrine and ungodly speech from the Christian congregation.

GARDEN

Gardens of Bible times were usually areas enclosed by a hedge of thorns or by a wall of stone or mud, perhaps with thorns along the top.—Song of Sol. 4:12.

Generally speaking, the gardens spoken of in the Bible are quite different from the ordinary gardens of the West. Many of them were more in the nature of a park with various kinds of trees, including fruit and nut trees (Eccl. 2:5; Amos 9:14; Song of Sol. 6:11), spice plants and flowers (Song of Sol. 6:2), with winding paths, and they were well watered by streams or by means of irrigation. (Isa. 1:30) Smaller gardens may have been cultivated by individual families. King Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard, he claimed, for a vegetable garden.—1 Ki. 21:2.

The above-mentioned parklike gardens would usually be outside the city, except some of those of kings or very rich men. The King’s Garden, near the place where Zedekiah and his men tried to escape from Jerusalem during the Chaldean siege, was probably situated just outside the SE wall of that city. (2 Ki. 25:4; Neh. 3:15) Josephus speaks also of a place about six miles (10 kilometers) from Jerusalem, called Etham (“very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water”), where, so he claims, Solomon was accustomed to ride in the mornings in his chariot. It must have been a large and beautiful garden in which King Ahasuerus of Persia held a great seven-day banquet, in the third year of his reign.—Esther 1:1-5.

IN BABYLON

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon constituted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. King Nebuchadnezzar built them to please his wife, a Median princess, who had come from a hilly country and, upset at the flatness of Babylonia, sighed for her native mountains. It is said that Nebuchadnezzar built four acres (1.62 hectares) of arches progressively higher, like steps, from seventy-five to three hundred feet (c. 23 to 91 meters) high and overlaid this mountain of masonry with sufficient soil to nourish the largest trees. At the top he built a reservoir, supplied from the Euphrates by a screw-type water lift.

IN EGYPT

While in Egypt, the Israelites had cultivated what seem to have been smaller vegetable gardens. Deuteronomy 11:10 says they irrigated these with the foot, possibly either by foot-powered treadmills or by conducting irrigation water by means of channels, opening and resealing the mud walls of the channels with the foot to water the various parts of the garden.

GETHSEMANE

The garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, just across the Kidron from Jerusalem, was a favorite spot with Jesus Christ, where he could find solitude with his disciples. It was to this garden that Jesus retired with his disciples after eating his last Passover and instituting the Lord’s Evening Meal. There he withdrew a short distance from his disciples and prayed fervently, being ministered to by an angel. The traitor Judas, knowing of Jesus’ custom, led the mob to Gethsemane, where he betrayed Jesus with a kiss.—Matt. 26:36, 46-49; Luke 22:39-48; John 18:1, 2.

BURIAL PLACES

Gardens were sometimes used as burial places. Manasseh and his son Amon were buried in the garden of Uzza. (2 Ki. 21:18, 25, 26) It was in a garden, in a new memorial tomb, that Jesus was buried. (John 19:41, 42) The Israelites fell into the bad practice of sacrificing to pagan gods in the gardens, seating themselves among the burial places and eating loathsome things in their observance of false religion, for which Jehovah declared that he would render judgment.—Isa. 65:2-5; 66:16, 17.

GARDEN OF EDEN

The most celebrated garden of history is the Garden of Eden. It seems to have been an enclosed area, bounded, no doubt, by natural barriers. The garden, located “in Eden, toward the east,” had an entrance on its eastern side. It was here that cherubs were stationed with the flaming blade of a sword to block men’s access to the tree of life in the middle of the garden. (Gen. 2:8; 3:24) The garden was well watered by a river flowing throughout it and parting to become the headwaters of four large rivers. This parklike “paradise of pleasure” (Gen. 2:8, Dy) contained every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food, as well as other vegetation, and was the habitat of animals and birds. Adam was to cultivate it and to keep it and eventually to expand it earth wide as he carried out God’s command to “subdue” the earth. It was a sanctuary, a place where God representatively walked and communicated with Adam and Eve, a perfect home for them.—Gen. 2:9, 10, 15-18, 21, 22; 1:28; 3:8-19.

Although the Bible does not state how long the cherubs remained to guard the way of the tree of life, it may have been that such an arrangement existed until the Flood, some 1,656 years later. Untended by Adam, who with Eve had been driven out for their disobedience in eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and bad, the garden likely suffered deterioration. At any rate, it would at the latest have been obliterated by means of the Flood.

The beauty of the Garden of Eden was recalled centuries after the Flood when Lot viewed the whole District of the Jordan, observing “that all of it was a well-watered region, . . . like the garden of Jehovah.” (Gen. 13:10) Jehovah kept his eyes on the Promised Land, preserving it as an inheritance for Israel. Moses contrasts it with Egypt, where the Israelites had to do irrigating as in a vegetable garden, describing the Promised Land as a land watered by “the rain of the heavens.”—Deut. 11:10-12.

FIGURATIVE USES

In a warning to Judah through Joel, Jehovah tells of a people “numerous and mighty” who will devastate the land, converting it from a state “like the garden of Eden” into a wilderness. (Joel 2:2, 3) By contrast, those who do Jehovah’s will and enjoy his good pleasure are likened to a well-watered garden. (Isa. 58:8-11) Such was to be the situation of Jehovah’s covenant people restored from Babylonian exile. (Isa. 51:3, 11; Jer. 31:10-12) At Ezekiel 28:12-14 the “king of Tyre” is spoken of as having been in the garden of Eden and on “the holy mountain of God.” By the slopes of Mount Lebanon with its famous cedars, the king, decked in gorgeous robes and royal splendor, had been as in a garden of Eden and on a mountain of God. The shepherd lover of The Song of Solomon likens his Shulammite girl companion to a garden with all its pleasantness, beauty, delight and fine fruitage.—Song of Sol. 4:12-16; see EDEN No. 1; PARADISE.

GAREB

(Gaʹreb) [scabby, reviler, despiser].

1. One of David’s mighty men, an Ithrite of the tribe of Judah.—2 Sam. 23:8, 38; 1 Chron. 2:4, 5, 18, 19, 50, 53; 11:26, 40.

2. A hill mentioned in a restoration prophecy written by Jeremiah (31:39), evidently indicating the western limits of the rebuilt city of Jerusalem. Its precise location is unknown.

GARLAND

This term (Heb., ts^ephi·rahʹ) was used symbolically in a prophecy of Jehovah’s judgment on Samaria, the capital city of Ephraim, the ten tribe kingdom of Israel. Samaria was at that time full of political “drunkards,” drunk over the northern kingdom’s independence from Judah and its political alliances with Syria and other enemies of Jehovah’s kingdom in Judah. (See Isaiah 7:3-9.) Just as drunkards would wear garlands of flowers on their heads during their wine bouts, so Samaria wore the garland of this political power. It was a decoration of beauty, but was a fading blossom that would disappear. Then Jehovah would become for the remaining ones of his people as a crown of decoration and as a garland (or “diadem” according to several translations) of beauty.—Isa. 28:1-5.

The same Hebrew word appears at Ezekiel 7:7, 10. Translators, however, are uncertain as to the sense or application of the word in this case. A similar Aramaic word means “morning,” and Lamsa’s translation of the Syriac (Peshitta) version here reads “dawn,” rather than garland (or diadem). Some translators (AS, AT, RS) link the word with a cognate Arabic noun and render it as “doom.” Still, others, on the belief that the root meaning of the Hebrew word is “to go round,” translate it as “turn,” in the sense of a turn of events.—JB, JP; “circle,” Ro.

In the Christian Greek Scriptures the plural form of the Greek word stemʹma, “garland,” appears at Acts 14:13. As there related, the priest of Zeus at Lystra brought bulls and garlands to the city gates to offer sacrifices, because the people supposed that Paul and Barnabas were gods. They may have intended to put garlands on the heads of Paul and Barnabas, as was sometimes done to idols, or on themselves and the sacrificial animals. Such garlands were generally made up of foliage supposed to be pleasing to the god worshiped.—Acts 14:8-18; see CROWN.

GARLIC

A bulbous perennial plant, the strong scented, pungent-tasting bulb of which is composed of up to twenty smaller bulbs or cloves. The flower stalk of garlic, bearing tiny bulblets and sterile flowers, at times may attain a height of one foot (c. .3 meter) or more.

The indications are that garlic was extensively cultivated in ancient Egypt. In the wilderness the mixed crowd and the Israelites longed for the garlic they used to eat there. (Num. 11:4, 5) The Greek historian Herodotus (Book II, sec. 125) tells of an inscription that listed garlic as one of the foods provided for the laborers on a certain pyramid. Garlic is still widely used by the inhabitants of Mediterranean areas. The Jewish Talmud even contains directions specifying the kinds of food to season with it. The cloves, or the oil pressed from them, have been used medicinally as a digestive stimulant, a diuretic or as an antispasmodic.

GARMENT

See DRESS.

GARMITE

(Garʹmite) [pertaining to Gerem (bone)].

This designation is linked with Keilah, a name appearing in a listing of Judah’s descendants.—1 Chron. 4:19.

GARNER

See STOREHOUSE.

GARRISON

The Hebrew term n^etsivʹ may denote a rather permanent contingent of soldiers stationed at a military installation. The related Hebrew word mats·tsavʹ carries a similar idea.—1 Sam. 13:23; 14:1, 4, 6, 11, 12, 15; 2 Sam. 23:14.

The Philistines had garrisons in Israelite territory during the reigns of Saul and David. (1 Sam. 10:5; 13:3, 4; 1 Chron. 11:16) After David defeated Syria and Edom he maintained garrisons in their territory to prevent rebellion. (2 Sam. 8:6, 14; 1 Chron. 18:13) For the peace and security of the land Jehoshaphat installed garrisons in Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa had captured. (2 Chron. 17:1, 2) The presence of such a military body did much to maintain order and protect royal interests in territories where the native inhabitants were likely to rebel.

A Roman garrison was maintained at Jerusalem during the first century C.E. Their quarters were in the high Castle of Antonia adjoining the temple grounds. When a crowd of Jews dragged Paul outside the temple and sought to kill him, soldiers of the garrison were able to come down quickly enough to rescue him. (Acts 21:31, 32) During Jewish festival seasons, extra troops were brought in to strengthen this garrison.—See ANTONIA, CASTLE OF.

GATAM

(Gaʹtam) [lean and weak].

The fourth-named son of Esau’s firstborn Eliphaz. Gatam became one of the sheiks of the sons of Esau.—Gen. 36:10, 11, 15, 16; 1 Chron. 1:36.

GATE, GATEWAY

The Bible speaks of several different kinds of gates: (1) gate of the camp (Ex. 32:26, 27), (2) gate of the city (Jer. 37:13), (3) gate of the courtyard of the tabernacle (Ex. 38:18) (4) “gates of the Castle that belongs to the house” (Neh. 2:8), (5) temple gates (Acts 3:10) and (6) gate of a house.—Acts 12:13, 14.

CONSTRUCTION

Cities usually had as few gates as possible, since these were the vulnerable points of their fortifications, some cities having only one gate. Where there were inner and outer walls, there were, of course, gates in each wall. Early gateways were L-shaped to hinder the enemy’s entry. Later, after the chariot was introduced (c. 18th century B.C.E.), city gates had a straight, direct entrance. In some uncovered ruins the city gate is composed of an entrance flanked by square towers leading into a vestibule about forty-nine to sixty-six feet (some 15 to 20 meters) long. The passage through the vestibule was flanked by as many as six pilasters, which narrowed the passageway at three places. In some cases there may have been two or three sets of doors for these deep gates. Small rooms inside the vestibule walls were used as guard chambers. In Ezekiel’s visionary temple, the gates were provided with guard chambers. (Ezek. 40:6, 7, 10, 20, 21, 28, 29, 32-36) Some gates had a roof over the vestibule and some were multistoried, as is evidenced by the stairways found inside.—Compare 2 Samuel 18:24, 33.

Ancient fortress cities have been uncovered revealing small postern or side gates. These were sometimes at the bottom of the rampart and provided easy access for the inhabitants of the city during peacetime. In time of siege they apparently were used as sortie gates through which the defenders could sally forth to attack besiegers and at the same time receive covering fire from their comrades on the walls.