{
  "id": "dict_001237",
  "term": "Crops",
  "slug": "crops",
  "letter": "C",
  "entry_type": "agricultural_term",
  "entry_family": "theological_term",
  "depth_profile": "standard",
  "short_definition": "Crops are cultivated plants grown for food and other uses. In Scripture, they are part of God’s ordinary provision through seedtime, growth, harvest, and human labor.",
  "simple_one_line": "Cultivated plants grown from the land, often used in the Bible to illustrate God’s provision, blessing, and judgment.",
  "tooltip_text": "A general agricultural term for plants grown for food or practical use; in the Bible, crops often highlight providence, labor, and harvest.",
  "aliases": [],
  "scripture_references": [],
  "original_language_terms": [],
  "related_entries": [
    "Harvest",
    "Seedtime and Harvest",
    "Sowing and Reaping",
    "Famine",
    "Firstfruits",
    "Rain",
    "Providence"
  ],
  "see_also": [
    "Agriculture",
    "Grain",
    "Vineyard",
    "Olive",
    "Plague",
    "Locusts"
  ],
  "lede_intro": "Crops are cultivated plants grown from the land for food, drink, fiber, oil, and other practical uses. Scripture presents them as part of the normal rhythm of creation under God’s providence: sowing, growth, rain, seasons, and harvest. Crop failure can signal judgment or hardship, while abundance can signal blessing and mercy.",
  "at_a_glance_definition": "Biblical crops are the produce of the land, such as grain, grapes, olives, and similar cultivated growth. They are not a specialized theological category, but they frequently appear in passages about providence, stewardship, obedience, famine, and harvest.",
  "at_a_glance_key_points": [
    "A general agricultural term, not a distinct doctrine",
    "Linked to seedtime, seasons, and harvest",
    "Used in Scripture for blessing, provision, and judgment",
    "Reflects human labor under God’s care and sovereignty"
  ],
  "description_academic_short": "Crops are the produce of the land, including grain, vines, olives, and other cultivated plants. Biblically, they function as ordinary evidence of God’s providence and are often used to frame themes of labor, abundance, famine, and covenant blessing or judgment.",
  "description_academic_full": "Crops are cultivated plants raised from the soil for food and other practical uses, including grain, vines, olives, and similar produce. In the Bible, crops belong to the ordinary order of creation under God’s providential rule: He sends rain, appoints seasons, grants fertility, and gives harvest. Human beings sow, tend, and reap, but the increase ultimately comes from the Lord. Crop abundance can picture blessing and peace, while crop failure may accompany famine, pestilence, drought, or covenant judgment. Because the term is primarily agricultural rather than doctrinal, it should be handled descriptively, with attention to biblical themes of providence, stewardship, dependence, and harvest.",
  "background_biblical_context": "The Old Testament repeatedly connects crops with the land, rain, obedience, and covenant life. The promised land was described in agricultural terms, and Israel’s experience of crops was tied to God’s blessing, warnings, and seasonal faithfulness. The New Testament continues the pattern by using planting and harvest language to speak of patience, labor, and spiritual fruitfulness.",
  "background_historical_context": "In the ancient Near East, crop yield shaped daily life, economics, worship, and survival. Drought, locusts, and poor harvests could bring widespread hardship. Biblical writers assume this agrarian world and use it to communicate realities that would have been immediately understood by their first audiences.",
  "background_jewish_ancient_context": "In ancient Israel, crop production was closely connected to covenant obedience, firstfruits offerings, Sabbath patterns, and dependence on God for rain and increase. Harvest seasons also shaped pilgrimage, feasting, and social order. The crop cycle therefore carried both practical and theological significance in Israel’s life.",
  "key_texts_primary": [
    "Genesis 8:22",
    "Psalm 65:9-13",
    "Deuteronomy 11:13-15",
    "Deuteronomy 28:3-5, 38-42",
    "Joel 1:10-12"
  ],
  "key_texts_secondary": [
    "Leviticus 26:3-5, 19-20",
    "Proverbs 10:5",
    "Ecclesiastes 11:6",
    "James 5:7"
  ],
  "original_language_note": "English crop language covers several biblical agricultural terms for grain, produce, and harvest. The Bible’s emphasis is usually on the field’s produce rather than on a single technical term.",
  "theological_significance": "Crops illustrate God’s common grace, providential care, and covenant governance of the created order. They remind readers that daily bread depends on God’s provision, even though human labor remains real and necessary. Scripture also uses crop imagery to warn that prosperity should never be mistaken for human self-sufficiency.",
  "philosophical_explanation": "Crops reflect the biblical view that material life is not spiritually neutral but lived before God. Ordinary agricultural processes are both natural and dependent on divine order, showing the harmony of means and providence: people work, but God gives increase.",
  "interpretive_cautions": "Do not turn every crop reference into an allegory. In context, crop language usually concerns literal agriculture, land, hunger, or harvest. Theological applications should follow the text rather than replace its plain meaning.",
  "major_views_note": "Most interpreters treat crop references as straightforward agricultural imagery with theological implications drawn from context. The main question is usually not symbolic meaning but whether the passage emphasizes blessing, judgment, stewardship, patience, or eschatological harvest language.",
  "doctrinal_boundaries": "Crop abundance is not a guaranteed proof of personal righteousness, and crop failure is not always direct punishment for specific sin. Scripture presents these realities within broader covenant and providential frameworks, not as mechanical formulas.",
  "practical_significance": "Biblical crop language encourages gratitude for daily provision, diligence in work, wise stewardship of resources, and patience in seasons of waiting. It also reminds readers to depend on God for what cannot be controlled by human effort alone.",
  "meta_description": "Crops in the Bible are cultivated plants tied to God’s provision, human labor, harvest, blessing, and judgment.",
  "public_url": "/companion-bible-dictionary/crops/",
  "json_url": "/companion-bible-dictionary/data/dictionary/crops.json",
  "final_disposition": "PUBLISH_CANONICAL"
}