Mustard
VIEW:29 DATA:01-04-2020
MUSTARD (Gr. sinapi).The seed of this plant is used proverbially for anything exceedingly small. In this sense it occurs in the Gospels (Mat_17:20 etc.), and in the Talmud (Buxtorf, Lex. s.v. Chardal). Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to the mustard seed (Mat_13:31 etc.). The plant intended is the Sinapis nigra (Arab. [Note: Arabic.] khardal), which grows wild in Palestine, and is a familiar sight on the shores of Gennesaret. It is also found under cultivation, and in the gardens it reaches a great size, being often from 10 to 12 feet in height. An annual, growing from seed, it is naturally compared with other garden herbs, which, although it springs from the smallest seed, it quite outgrows. It bears a profusion of minute seeds, of which the birds are very fond, sitting (lodging) on the branches as they eat. Although it is not properly a tree (Luk_13:19), it quite accords with Oriental use to describe as such a great plant like this.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19. Its "seed" is proverbial for smallness, therefore not the Salvador Persica (Arabic: khardal, mustard), which moreover none would sow in his "garden," and which is not an "herb" but a "tree" strictly so-called. The mustard (Sinapis nigra) is an "herb" (not strictly a tree), but so large that compared with the other "herbs" in the "garden" it is a "great tree." It reached as high as the horses' heads of the travelers Irby and Mangles, and as horse and rider in the rich plain of Akbar according to Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, 414). The words "the least of all seeds" are used comparatively to the increase, not absolutely; Christ used the popular language. "The fowls of the air" are the smaller insessorial birds, linnets and finches, etc., which settle upon (kateskeenosen, not 'lodged in'; 'rest,' Act_2:26) its branches," seeking the seed as food which they much relish.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Mustard. Mustard is mentioned in Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Luk_117:6. It is generally agreed that the mustard tree of Scripture is the black mustard, (Sinapis nigru).
The objection commonly made against any sinapis being the plant of the parable is that the reed grew into "a tree," in which the fowls of the air are said to come and lodge.
As to this objection, it is urged, with great truth, that the expression is figurative and Oriental, and that in a proverbial simile, no literal accuracy is to be expected. It is an error, for which the language of Scripture is not accountable, to assert that the passage implies that birds "built their nests" in the tree: the Greek word has no such meaning; the word merely means "to settle or rest upon" anything for a longer or shorter time; nor is there any occasion to suppose that the expression "fowls of the air" denotes any other than the smaller insessorial kinds ? linnets, finches, etc.
Hiller's explanation is probably the correct one, ? that the birds came and settled on the mustard-plant, for the sake of the seed, of which they are very fond. Dr. Thomson also says, he has seen the wild mustard on the rich plain of Akkar, as tall as the horse and the rider. If, then, the wild plant on the rich plain of Akkar grows as high as a man on horseback, it might attain to the same or a greater height when in a cultivated garden.
The expression "which is indeed, the least of all seeds" is in all probability hyperbolical, to denote a very small seed indeed, as there are many seeds which are smaller than mustard. The Lord Jesus in his popular teaching," says Trench, ("Notes on Parables", 108), "adhered to the popular language;" and the mustard-seed was used proverbially to denote anything very minute; or may mean that it was the smallest of all garden seeds, which it is in truth.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
σιναπι, Mat_13:32; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Luk_17:6; a well known garden herb. Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in the earth, which indeed, said he, is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof, Mat_13:31-32. This expression will not appear strange, says Sir Thomas Browne, if we recollect that the mustard seed, though it be not simply and in itself the smallest of seeds, yet may be very well believed to be the smallest of such as are apt to grow unto a ligneous substance, and become a kind of tree. The expression, also, that it might grow into such dimensions that birds might lodge on its branches, may be literally conceived, if we allow the luxuriancy of plants in India above our northern regions. And he quotes upon this occasion what is recorded in the Jewish story, of a mustard tree that was to be climbed like a fig tree. The Talmud also mentions one whose branches were so extensive as to cover a tent. Without insisting on the accuracy of this, we may gather from it that we should not judge of eastern vegetables by those which are familiar to ourselves. Scheuchzer describes a species of mustard which grows several feet high, with a tapering stalk, and spreads into many branches. Of this arborescent or treelike vegetable, he gives a print; and Linnaeus mentions a species whose branches were real wood, which he names sinapi erucoides. But whatever kind of tree our Lord meant, it is clear, from the fact that he never takes his illustrations from any objects but such as were familiar, and often present in the scene around him, that he spoke of one which the Jews well knew to have minute seeds, and yet to be of so large growth as to afford shelter for the birds of the air.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
mus?tard (σίναπι, sı́napi Mat_13:31; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Mat_17:20; Luk_17:6 : The minuteness of the seed is referred to in all these passages, while in the first three the large size of the herb growing from it is mentioned. In Mat_13:32 it is described as ?greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree? (compare Luk_13:19); in Mar_4:32 it ?becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches.? Several varieties of mustard (Arabic, khardal) have notably small seed, and under favorable conditions grow in a few months into very tall herbs - 10 to 12 ft. The rapid growth of an annual herb to such a height must always be a striking fact. Sinapis nigra, the black mustard, which is cultivated, Sinapis alba, or white mustard, and Sinapis arvensis, or the charlock (all of Natural Order Cruciferae), would, any one of them, suit the requirements of the parable; birds readily alight upon their branches to eat the seed (Mat_13:32, etc.), not, be it noted, to build their nests, which is nowhere implied.
Among the rabbis a ?grain of mustard? was a common expression for anything very minute, which explains Our Lord's phrase, ?faith as a grain of mustard seed? Mat_17:20; Luk_17:6.
The suggestion that the New Testament references may allude to a tall shrub Salvadora persica, which grows on the southern shores of the Dead Sea, rests solely upon the fact that this plant is sometimes called khardal by the Arabs, but it has no serious claim to be the sinapi of the Bible.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Mustard
(σίναπι, Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Luk_17:6; in Talmudic Chaldee חִרְדָּל, chardal, Mishna, Shabb. 20:2, from the Syriac chardal,), a well-known pod-bearing shrub-like plant (genus Sinapis, of thirteen species, five of which are indigenous in Egypt, Descript. de l'Egypte, 19:96) that sometimes grows wild, and at other times is raised from the seed, which is employed as a condiment, being usually of the two kinds, the black and the white (see Penny Cyclopcedia, s.v. Sinapis). The Jews likewise cultivated mustard in their gardens (Mishna, Maaser. 4:6). The round kernels (Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20), which were used also by the ancients as a spice (Pliny, 19:54), passed in Jewish phrase as an emblem for a small, insignificant object (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 822); being the smallest seed commonly gathered in Palestine, although not literally the most diminutive known. "The Lord in his popular teaching," says Trench (Notes on Parables, page 108), "adhered to the popular language" (see also the Koran, Sur. 31). The statements in Mat_13:32, that when fully grown it is the greatest of plants, and becomes a tree under which the fowls may find shelter, has been supposed to indicate a larger growth than ordinary in Western countries (see Margrave, Hist. nat. Brasil. Page 291; Bauhin, Hist. Plant. 2:855); but is confirmed by the statements of the Talmudists, one of whom describes it as a tree of which the wood was sufficient to cover a potter's shed (Talm. Hieros. Peah, 7:4), and another says that he was wont to climb into it, as men climb into a fig-tree (ib. Ketuboth, fol. 3:2; comp. Rosenmuller, Alterth. 4:105). Mr. Buckham (On the Mustard-tree of the Scriptures, 1829) cites the following from Alonzo de Orvallo's Travels in Chili (as given in Awnshaw and Churchill's Collection): "The mustard-plant thrives so rapidly that it is as big as one's arm, and so high and thick that it looks like a tree. I have travelled many leagues through mustard-groves which were taller than horse and man; and the birds built their nests in them as the Gospel mentions." The statement of Irby and Mangles has also been referred to (Lambert, in the Linncean Transactions, 17:450), that they found the mustard-plant (Sinapis nigra) growing wild between Beisan and Ajlun as high as their horses' heads. (See further in Celsii Hierobot. 2:253 sq.; Billerbeck, Flora class. page 172.) Prof. Hackett states that he was for a long time disappointed in his search for any specimens of the mustard answering to the requirements of the above texts of Scripture; but that while on his way across the plain of Akka, towards Carmel, he had the satisfaction of seeing a little forest-like field of these plants, in full blossom, from six to nine feet in height, with branches from each side of a trunk an inch or more thick; and that he actually witnessed the alighting of birds upon the stems (Illustra. of Script. Page 124). Dr. Thomson also (The Land and the Book, 2:100) says that he has seen the wild mustard on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and the rider.
Even these descriptions, however, seem hardly to come up to the ancient accounts of the plant in question. Hence the conclusion of Dr. Royle (in a paper read before the Royal Asiatic Society, March 16, 1844) has been preferred, who shows that there is a plant still known in the East by the name of khardal (which corresponds to the rabbinical title, and is indeed the modern Arabic for "mustard"), growing near Jerusalem, but most abundantly on the banks of the Jordan and round the sea of Tiberias; its seed being employed as a substitute for mustard. The plant is the Salvadora Persica of Linnaeus (the Cissus' arborea of Forskal), a large shrub, or tree of moderate size, a native of the hot and dry parts of India, of Persia, and of Arabia. Dr. Roxburgh (Flor. Ind. 1:389 sq.) describes the berries as much smaller than a grain of black pepper, having a strong aromatic smell, and a taste much like that of garden cresses. The plant has a small seed, which produces a large tree with numerous branches, in which the birds of the air may take shelter. It is probably the tree which Irby and Mangles themselves suppose to be the mustard-tree of Scripture, rather than the ordinary shrub. They met with it while advancing towards Kerak, from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. It bore its fruit in bunches resembling the currant; and the seeds had a pleasant, though strongly aromatic taste, nearly resembling mustard. A specimen of the tree had been brought home by Mr. W. Barker, and it had been ascertained by Messrs. Don and Lambert to be the Salvadora Persica of botanists; but both had written against its claim to be the mustard-tree of Scripture, while Mr. Frost, hearing a conversation on the subject, had supposed the tree to be a Phytolacca, and had hence maintained it to be the mustard-tree of Scripture, but without adducing proofs of any kind (Remarks on the Mustard-tree of the N.T. [Lond. 1827]; Bulletin des sciences nat. Mai, 1826, page 74; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, ut sup.).
On the other hand, "Hiller, Celsius, Rosenmiiller, who all studied the botany of the Bible, and older writers, such as Erasmus, Zezerus, Grotius, are content to believe that some common mustard-plant is the plant of the parable. The objection commonly made against any Sinapis is that the seed grew into 'a tree' (δένδρον), or, as Luke has it, 'a great tree' (δένδρον μέγα), in the branches of which the fowls of the air are said to come and lodge. Now, in answer to the above objection, it is urged with great truth that the expression is figurative and Oriental, and that in a proverbial simile no literal accuracy is to be expected; it is an error, for which the language of Scripture is not accountable, to assert, as Dr. Royle and some others have done, that the passage implies that birds 'built their nests' in the tree; the Greek word κατασκηνόω has no such meaning, the word merely means 'to settle or rest upon' anything for a longer or shorter time; the birds came, 'insidendi et versandi causa,' as Hiller (Hierophyt. 2:63) explains the phrase; nor is there ally occasion to suppose that the expression 'fowls of the air' denotes any other than the smaller insessorial kinds-linnets, finches, etc. and not the 'aquatic fowls by the lake-side, or partridges and pigeons hovering over the rich plain of Genesareth' which Prof. Stanley (S. and P. page 427) recognises as 'the birds that came and devoured the seed by the way-side' for the larger birds are wild and avoid the way-side or as those 'which took refuge in the spreading branches of the mustard-tree.' Hiller's explanation is probably the correct one; that the birds came and settled on the mustard-plant for the sake of the seed, of which they are very fond. Again, whatever the aivant may be, it is expressly said to be an herb, or, more properly, 'a garden herb' (λάχανον, olus).
As to the plant being called a 'tree' or a 'great tree,' the expression is not only an Oriental one, but it is clearly spoken with reference to some other thing; the σίναπι, with respect to the other herbs of the garden, may, considering the size to which it grows, justly be called 'a great tree,' though, of course, with respect to trees properly so named, it could not be called one at all. Now it is clear from Scripture that the σίναπι was cultivated in our Lord's time, the seed a 'man took and sowed in his field;' Luke says, 'cast into his garden:' if, then, the wild plant on the rich plain of Akkar grows as high as a man on horseback, it might attain to the same or a greater height when in a cultivated garden; and if, as lady Callcott has observed, we take into account the very low plants and shrubs upon which birds often roost, it will readily be seen that some common mustard-plant is able to fulfil all the scriptural demands. As to the story of the rabbi Simeon ben-Calaphtha having in his garden a mustard-plant into which he was accustomed to climb as men climb into a fig-tree, it can only be taken for what Talmudical statements generally are worth, and must be quite insufficient to afford grounds for any argument.
But it may be asked, Why not accept the explanation that the Salvadora Persica is the tree denoted?-a tree which will literally meet all the demands of the parable. Because, we answer, where the commonly received opinion can be shown to be in full accordance with the scriptural allusions, there is no occasion to be dissatisfied with it; and again, because at present we know nothing certain of the occurrence of the Salvadora Persica in Palestine, except that it occurs in the small tropical low valley of Engedi, near the Dead Sea, whence Dr. Hooker saw specimens, but it is evidently of rare occurrence. Mr. Ameuny says he had seen it all along the banks of the Jordan, near the lake of Tiberias and Damascus; but this statement is certainly erroneous. We know from Pliny, Dioscorides, and other Greek and Roman writers, that mustard-seeds were much valued, and were used as a condiment; but it is more probable that the Jews of our Lord's time were in the habit of making a similar, use of the seeds of some common mustard (Sinapis) than that they used to plant in their gardens the seeds of a tree which certainly cannot fulfil the scriptural demand of being called 'a pot-herb."' Dr. Tristram likewise (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, page 472 sq.) takes strong ground in favor of the common black mustard and against the Salvadora Persica. See Kitto, Pict. Bible, note on Luk_17:6.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19. Its "seed" is proverbial for smallness, therefore not the Salvador Persica (Arabic: khardal, mustard), which moreover none would sow in his "garden," and which is not an "herb" but a "tree" strictly so-called. The mustard (Sinapis nigra) is an "herb" (not strictly a tree), but so large that compared with the other "herbs" in the "garden" it is a "great tree." It reached as high as the horses' heads of the travelers Irby and Mangles, and as horse and rider in the rich plain of Akbar according to Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, 414). The words "the least of all seeds" are used comparatively to the increase, not absolutely; Christ used the popular language. "The fowls of the air" are the smaller insessorial birds, linnets and finches, etc., which settle upon (kateskeenosen, not 'lodged in'; 'rest,' Act_2:26) its branches," seeking the seed as food which they much relish.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Mustard. Mustard is mentioned in Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Luk_117:6. It is generally agreed that the mustard tree of Scripture is the black mustard, (Sinapis nigru).
The objection commonly made against any sinapis being the plant of the parable is that the reed grew into "a tree," in which the fowls of the air are said to come and lodge.
As to this objection, it is urged, with great truth, that the expression is figurative and Oriental, and that in a proverbial simile, no literal accuracy is to be expected. It is an error, for which the language of Scripture is not accountable, to assert that the passage implies that birds "built their nests" in the tree: the Greek word has no such meaning; the word merely means "to settle or rest upon" anything for a longer or shorter time; nor is there any occasion to suppose that the expression "fowls of the air" denotes any other than the smaller insessorial kinds ? linnets, finches, etc.
Hiller's explanation is probably the correct one, ? that the birds came and settled on the mustard-plant, for the sake of the seed, of which they are very fond. Dr. Thomson also says, he has seen the wild mustard on the rich plain of Akkar, as tall as the horse and the rider. If, then, the wild plant on the rich plain of Akkar grows as high as a man on horseback, it might attain to the same or a greater height when in a cultivated garden.
The expression "which is indeed, the least of all seeds" is in all probability hyperbolical, to denote a very small seed indeed, as there are many seeds which are smaller than mustard. The Lord Jesus in his popular teaching," says Trench, ("Notes on Parables", 108), "adhered to the popular language;" and the mustard-seed was used proverbially to denote anything very minute; or may mean that it was the smallest of all garden seeds, which it is in truth.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
σιναπι, Mat_13:32; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Luk_17:6; a well known garden herb. Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in the earth, which indeed, said he, is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof, Mat_13:31-32. This expression will not appear strange, says Sir Thomas Browne, if we recollect that the mustard seed, though it be not simply and in itself the smallest of seeds, yet may be very well believed to be the smallest of such as are apt to grow unto a ligneous substance, and become a kind of tree. The expression, also, that it might grow into such dimensions that birds might lodge on its branches, may be literally conceived, if we allow the luxuriancy of plants in India above our northern regions. And he quotes upon this occasion what is recorded in the Jewish story, of a mustard tree that was to be climbed like a fig tree. The Talmud also mentions one whose branches were so extensive as to cover a tent. Without insisting on the accuracy of this, we may gather from it that we should not judge of eastern vegetables by those which are familiar to ourselves. Scheuchzer describes a species of mustard which grows several feet high, with a tapering stalk, and spreads into many branches. Of this arborescent or treelike vegetable, he gives a print; and Linnaeus mentions a species whose branches were real wood, which he names sinapi erucoides. But whatever kind of tree our Lord meant, it is clear, from the fact that he never takes his illustrations from any objects but such as were familiar, and often present in the scene around him, that he spoke of one which the Jews well knew to have minute seeds, and yet to be of so large growth as to afford shelter for the birds of the air.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
mus?tard (σίναπι, sı́napi Mat_13:31; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Mat_17:20; Luk_17:6 : The minuteness of the seed is referred to in all these passages, while in the first three the large size of the herb growing from it is mentioned. In Mat_13:32 it is described as ?greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree? (compare Luk_13:19); in Mar_4:32 it ?becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches.? Several varieties of mustard (Arabic, khardal) have notably small seed, and under favorable conditions grow in a few months into very tall herbs - 10 to 12 ft. The rapid growth of an annual herb to such a height must always be a striking fact. Sinapis nigra, the black mustard, which is cultivated, Sinapis alba, or white mustard, and Sinapis arvensis, or the charlock (all of Natural Order Cruciferae), would, any one of them, suit the requirements of the parable; birds readily alight upon their branches to eat the seed (Mat_13:32, etc.), not, be it noted, to build their nests, which is nowhere implied.
Among the rabbis a ?grain of mustard? was a common expression for anything very minute, which explains Our Lord's phrase, ?faith as a grain of mustard seed? Mat_17:20; Luk_17:6.
The suggestion that the New Testament references may allude to a tall shrub Salvadora persica, which grows on the southern shores of the Dead Sea, rests solely upon the fact that this plant is sometimes called khardal by the Arabs, but it has no serious claim to be the sinapi of the Bible.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Mustard
(σίναπι, Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20; Mar_4:31; Luk_13:19; Luk_17:6; in Talmudic Chaldee חִרְדָּל, chardal, Mishna, Shabb. 20:2, from the Syriac chardal,), a well-known pod-bearing shrub-like plant (genus Sinapis, of thirteen species, five of which are indigenous in Egypt, Descript. de l'Egypte, 19:96) that sometimes grows wild, and at other times is raised from the seed, which is employed as a condiment, being usually of the two kinds, the black and the white (see Penny Cyclopcedia, s.v. Sinapis). The Jews likewise cultivated mustard in their gardens (Mishna, Maaser. 4:6). The round kernels (Mat_13:31; Mat_17:20), which were used also by the ancients as a spice (Pliny, 19:54), passed in Jewish phrase as an emblem for a small, insignificant object (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. col. 822); being the smallest seed commonly gathered in Palestine, although not literally the most diminutive known. "The Lord in his popular teaching," says Trench (Notes on Parables, page 108), "adhered to the popular language" (see also the Koran, Sur. 31). The statements in Mat_13:32, that when fully grown it is the greatest of plants, and becomes a tree under which the fowls may find shelter, has been supposed to indicate a larger growth than ordinary in Western countries (see Margrave, Hist. nat. Brasil. Page 291; Bauhin, Hist. Plant. 2:855); but is confirmed by the statements of the Talmudists, one of whom describes it as a tree of which the wood was sufficient to cover a potter's shed (Talm. Hieros. Peah, 7:4), and another says that he was wont to climb into it, as men climb into a fig-tree (ib. Ketuboth, fol. 3:2; comp. Rosenmuller, Alterth. 4:105). Mr. Buckham (On the Mustard-tree of the Scriptures, 1829) cites the following from Alonzo de Orvallo's Travels in Chili (as given in Awnshaw and Churchill's Collection): "The mustard-plant thrives so rapidly that it is as big as one's arm, and so high and thick that it looks like a tree. I have travelled many leagues through mustard-groves which were taller than horse and man; and the birds built their nests in them as the Gospel mentions." The statement of Irby and Mangles has also been referred to (Lambert, in the Linncean Transactions, 17:450), that they found the mustard-plant (Sinapis nigra) growing wild between Beisan and Ajlun as high as their horses' heads. (See further in Celsii Hierobot. 2:253 sq.; Billerbeck, Flora class. page 172.) Prof. Hackett states that he was for a long time disappointed in his search for any specimens of the mustard answering to the requirements of the above texts of Scripture; but that while on his way across the plain of Akka, towards Carmel, he had the satisfaction of seeing a little forest-like field of these plants, in full blossom, from six to nine feet in height, with branches from each side of a trunk an inch or more thick; and that he actually witnessed the alighting of birds upon the stems (Illustra. of Script. Page 124). Dr. Thomson also (The Land and the Book, 2:100) says that he has seen the wild mustard on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and the rider.
Even these descriptions, however, seem hardly to come up to the ancient accounts of the plant in question. Hence the conclusion of Dr. Royle (in a paper read before the Royal Asiatic Society, March 16, 1844) has been preferred, who shows that there is a plant still known in the East by the name of khardal (which corresponds to the rabbinical title, and is indeed the modern Arabic for "mustard"), growing near Jerusalem, but most abundantly on the banks of the Jordan and round the sea of Tiberias; its seed being employed as a substitute for mustard. The plant is the Salvadora Persica of Linnaeus (the Cissus' arborea of Forskal), a large shrub, or tree of moderate size, a native of the hot and dry parts of India, of Persia, and of Arabia. Dr. Roxburgh (Flor. Ind. 1:389 sq.) describes the berries as much smaller than a grain of black pepper, having a strong aromatic smell, and a taste much like that of garden cresses. The plant has a small seed, which produces a large tree with numerous branches, in which the birds of the air may take shelter. It is probably the tree which Irby and Mangles themselves suppose to be the mustard-tree of Scripture, rather than the ordinary shrub. They met with it while advancing towards Kerak, from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. It bore its fruit in bunches resembling the currant; and the seeds had a pleasant, though strongly aromatic taste, nearly resembling mustard. A specimen of the tree had been brought home by Mr. W. Barker, and it had been ascertained by Messrs. Don and Lambert to be the Salvadora Persica of botanists; but both had written against its claim to be the mustard-tree of Scripture, while Mr. Frost, hearing a conversation on the subject, had supposed the tree to be a Phytolacca, and had hence maintained it to be the mustard-tree of Scripture, but without adducing proofs of any kind (Remarks on the Mustard-tree of the N.T. [Lond. 1827]; Bulletin des sciences nat. Mai, 1826, page 74; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, ut sup.).
On the other hand, "Hiller, Celsius, Rosenmiiller, who all studied the botany of the Bible, and older writers, such as Erasmus, Zezerus, Grotius, are content to believe that some common mustard-plant is the plant of the parable. The objection commonly made against any Sinapis is that the seed grew into 'a tree' (δένδρον), or, as Luke has it, 'a great tree' (δένδρον μέγα), in the branches of which the fowls of the air are said to come and lodge. Now, in answer to the above objection, it is urged with great truth that the expression is figurative and Oriental, and that in a proverbial simile no literal accuracy is to be expected; it is an error, for which the language of Scripture is not accountable, to assert, as Dr. Royle and some others have done, that the passage implies that birds 'built their nests' in the tree; the Greek word κατασκηνόω has no such meaning, the word merely means 'to settle or rest upon' anything for a longer or shorter time; the birds came, 'insidendi et versandi causa,' as Hiller (Hierophyt. 2:63) explains the phrase; nor is there ally occasion to suppose that the expression 'fowls of the air' denotes any other than the smaller insessorial kinds-linnets, finches, etc. and not the 'aquatic fowls by the lake-side, or partridges and pigeons hovering over the rich plain of Genesareth' which Prof. Stanley (S. and P. page 427) recognises as 'the birds that came and devoured the seed by the way-side' for the larger birds are wild and avoid the way-side or as those 'which took refuge in the spreading branches of the mustard-tree.' Hiller's explanation is probably the correct one; that the birds came and settled on the mustard-plant for the sake of the seed, of which they are very fond. Again, whatever the aivant may be, it is expressly said to be an herb, or, more properly, 'a garden herb' (λάχανον, olus).
As to the plant being called a 'tree' or a 'great tree,' the expression is not only an Oriental one, but it is clearly spoken with reference to some other thing; the σίναπι, with respect to the other herbs of the garden, may, considering the size to which it grows, justly be called 'a great tree,' though, of course, with respect to trees properly so named, it could not be called one at all. Now it is clear from Scripture that the σίναπι was cultivated in our Lord's time, the seed a 'man took and sowed in his field;' Luke says, 'cast into his garden:' if, then, the wild plant on the rich plain of Akkar grows as high as a man on horseback, it might attain to the same or a greater height when in a cultivated garden; and if, as lady Callcott has observed, we take into account the very low plants and shrubs upon which birds often roost, it will readily be seen that some common mustard-plant is able to fulfil all the scriptural demands. As to the story of the rabbi Simeon ben-Calaphtha having in his garden a mustard-plant into which he was accustomed to climb as men climb into a fig-tree, it can only be taken for what Talmudical statements generally are worth, and must be quite insufficient to afford grounds for any argument.
But it may be asked, Why not accept the explanation that the Salvadora Persica is the tree denoted?-a tree which will literally meet all the demands of the parable. Because, we answer, where the commonly received opinion can be shown to be in full accordance with the scriptural allusions, there is no occasion to be dissatisfied with it; and again, because at present we know nothing certain of the occurrence of the Salvadora Persica in Palestine, except that it occurs in the small tropical low valley of Engedi, near the Dead Sea, whence Dr. Hooker saw specimens, but it is evidently of rare occurrence. Mr. Ameuny says he had seen it all along the banks of the Jordan, near the lake of Tiberias and Damascus; but this statement is certainly erroneous. We know from Pliny, Dioscorides, and other Greek and Roman writers, that mustard-seeds were much valued, and were used as a condiment; but it is more probable that the Jews of our Lord's time were in the habit of making a similar, use of the seeds of some common mustard (Sinapis) than that they used to plant in their gardens the seeds of a tree which certainly cannot fulfil the scriptural demand of being called 'a pot-herb."' Dr. Tristram likewise (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, page 472 sq.) takes strong ground in favor of the common black mustard and against the Salvadora Persica. See Kitto, Pict. Bible, note on Luk_17:6.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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