Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n
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A29858
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Certain miscellany tracts written by Thomas Brown.
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Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B5151; ESTC R25304
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83,412
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232
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the Jewish custom these Herbs were dipped in the Charoseth or Sawce made of Raisins stamped with Vinegar and were also eaten with Bread and they had four Cups of Wine allowed unto them and it was sufficient to take but a pittance of Herbs or the quantity of an Olive 47. Though the famous paper Reed of Aegypt be onely particularly named in Scripture yet when Reeds are so often mention'd without special name or distinction we may conceive their differences may be comprehended and that they were not all of one kind or that the common Reed was onely implied For mention is made in Ezekiel of a measuring Reed of six Cubits we find that they smote our Saviour on the Head with a Reed and put a Sponge with Vinegar on a Reed which was long enough to reach to his mouth while he was upon the Cross And with such differences of Reeds Vallatory Sagittary Scriptory and others they might be furnished in Judaea For we find in the portion of Ephraim Vallis arundineti and so set down in the Mapps of Adricomius and in our Translation the River Kana or Brook of Canes And Bellonius tells us that the River Jordan affordeth plenty and variety of Reeds out of some whereof the Arabs make Darts and light Lances and out of others Arrows and withall that there plentifully groweth the fine Calamus arundo Scriptoria or writing Reed which they gather with the greatest care as being of singular use and commodity at home and abroad a hard Reed about the compass of a Goose or Swans Quill whereof I have seen some polished and cut with a Webb which is in common use for writing throughout the Turkish Dominions they using not the Quills of Birds And whereas the same Authour with other describers of these parts affirmeth that the River Jordan not far from Jerico is but such a Stream as a youth may throw a Stone over it or about eight fathoms broad it doth not diminish the account and solemnity of the miraculous passage of the Israelites under Joshua For it must be considered that they passed it in the time of Harvest when the River was high and the Grounds about it under Water according to that pertinent parenthesis As the Feet of the Priests which carried the Ark were dipped in the brim of the Water for Jordan oversloweth all its Banks at the time of Harvest In this consideration it was well joined with the great River Euphrates in that expression in Ecclesiasticus God maketh the understanding to abound like Euphrates and as Jordan in the time of Harvest 48. The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good Seed in his Field but while men slept his Enemy came and sowed Tares or as the Greek Zizania among the Wheat Now how to render Zizania and to what species of Plants to confine it there is no slender doubt for the word is not mention'd in other parts of Scripture nor in any ancient Greek Writer it is not to be found in Aristotle Theophrastus or Dioscorides Some Greek and Latin Fathers have made use of the same as also Suidas and Phavorinus but probably they have all derived it from this Text. And therefore this obscurity might easily occasion such variety in Translations and Expositions For some retain the word Zizania as the Vulgar that of Beza of Junius and also the Italian and Spanish The Low Dutch renders it Oncruidt the German Oncraut or Herba Mala the French Yuroye or Lolium and the English Tares Besides this being conceived to be a Syriack word it may still add unto the uncertainty of the sense For though this Gospel were first written in Hebrew or Syriack yet it is not unquestionable whether the true Original be any where extant And that Syriack Copy which we now have is conceived to be of far later time than S. Matthew Expositours and Annotatours are also various Hugo Grotius hath passed the word Zizania without a Note Diodati retaining the word Zizania conceives that it was some peculiar Herb growing among the Corn of those Countries and not known in our Fields But Emanuel de Sa interprets it Plantas semini noxias and so accordingly some others Buxtorfius in his Rabbinical Lexicon gives divers interpretations sometimes for degenerated Corn sometimes for the black Seeds in Wheat but withall concludes an hoec sit eadem vox aut species cum Zizaniâ apud Evangelistam quoerant alii But Lexicons and Dictionaries by Zizania do almost generally understand Lolium which we call Darnel and commonly confine the signification to that Plant Notwithstanding since Lolium had a known and received Name in Greek some may be apt to doubt why if that Plant were particularly intended the proper Greek word was not used in the Text. For Theophrastus named Lolium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath often mentioned that Plant and in one place saith that Corn doth sometimes Loliescere or degenerate into Darnel Dioscorides who travelled over Judoea gives it the same name which is also to be found in Galen Aetius and Aegineta and Pliny hath sometimes latinized that word into Aera Besides Lolium or Darnel shews it self in the Winter growing up with the Wheat and Theophrastus observed that it was no Vernal Plant but came up in the Winter which will not well answer the expression of the Text And when the Blade came up and brought forth Fruit or gave evidence of its Fruit the Zizania appeared And if the Husbandry of the Ancients were agreeable unto ours they would not have been so earnest to weed away the Darnel for our Husbandmen do not commonly weed it in the Field but separate the Seeds after Thrashing And therefore Galen delivereth that in an unseasonable year and great scarcity of Corn when they neglected to separate the Darnel the Bread proved generally unwholsome and had evil effects on the Head Our old and later Translation render Zizania Tares which name our English Botanists give unto Aracus Cracca Vicia sylvestris calling them Tares and strangling Tares And our Husbandmen by Tares understand some sorts of wild Fitches which grow amongst Corn and clasp upon it according to the Latin Etymology Vicia à Vinciendo Now in this uncertainty of the Original Tares as well as some others may make out the sense and be also more agreeable unto the circumstances of the Parable For they come up and appear what they are when the Blade of the Corn is come up and also the Stalk and Fruit discoverable They have likewise little spreading Roots which may intangle or rob the good Roots and they have also tendrils and claspers which lay hold of what grows near them and so can hardly be weeded without endangering the neighbour Corn. However if by Zizania we understand Herbas segeti noxias or vitia segetum as some Expositours have done and take the word in a more general sense comprehending several Weeds and