The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

by Sir Thomas Browne

Reeds in Scripture.

47. Though the famous paper Reed of Ægypt, 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[249] of a measuring Reed of six Cubits: we find that they smote our Saviour on the Head with a Reed,[250] 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 Judæa: For we find in the portion of Ephraim,[251] 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[252] overfloweth 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,[253] God maketh the understanding to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of Harvest.

Zizania, in S. Matt. 13. 24, 25, etc.

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 Turoye 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 hæc sit eadem vox aut species, cum Zizaniâ apud Evangelistam, quærant 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[254] named Lolium Αἰρα, and hath often mentioned that Plant; and in one place saith that Corn doth sometimes Loliescere degenerate into Darnel. Dioscorides, who travelled over Judæa, gives it the same name, which is also to be found in Galen, Ætius and Ægineta; and Pliny hath sometimes latinized that word into Æra.