GARDENER (κηπουρός, G3058). Mentioned only in John 20:15: “Supposing him to be the gardener.” Of course, spiritually He is the Gardener, for He waters and cares for His plants who must stay where He puts them, and bear “fruit” a hundredfold.

By inference, however, gardeners are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. Adam and Eve were gardeners tending the Garden of Eden. Cain became a gardener growing vegetables and fruits when Abel was a farmer.

In Luke 13:8 it is surely a gardener who asks whether he may not organically manure a tree which had become unproductive.

Gardeners tended the groves or gardens of a nature-loving heathen God, Baal (2 Kings 10:19-23). Paul was a tentmaker, but he may have been a keen amateur gardener also, for he knows about the “stocks” of fruit trees and grafting. Isaiah used a gardener’s metaphor of taking cuttings (Isa 17:10). Solomon’s writings suggest that he was an interested amateur gardener, also.