Scientists have managed to cultivate an ancient seed found in a cave in the Judean desert in the late 1980s and grow a tree that likely belongs to a local extinct species with medicinal properties mentioned several times in the Bible.

It took researchers almost 14 years to cultivate the lost, biblical tree called Sheba. According to LiveScience, the tree is now about 3 meters tall, meaning scientists can finally describe its fully developed features.

Scientists were also able to perform DNA, chemical and radiocarbon analyzes on the tree, revealing new clues to its origin, according to a study published in September in the journal Communications Biology.

The seed from which Sheba grew dates back to between a.d. 993 and 1202, according to the study.

It probably survived from a now-extinct population of trees that existed in the Southern Levant, an area that includes modern-day Israel, Palestine and Jordan, and is the first of its kind to be found there.

Remarkably, the researchers say the fully grown specimen could be the source of the biblical “chori” – a resinous extract associated with healing in Genesis, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

“The identity of the biblical ‘chori’ (translated as ‘balm’) has long been open to debate,” the researchers wrote in the study.

The substance is associated with the historical region of Gilead, which is located east of the Jordan River between the Yarmouk River and the northern end of the Dead Sea.
Now, having “resurrected” Sheba, the team believe they have finally uncovered the mystery behind the biblical “chori”.