146 PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 



word is not mentioned 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 the Spanish. The 

 low Dutch renders it oncruidt, the German oncraut, or 

 herba ma/a, the French yvroye or folium, and the 

 English tares. 



Besides, this being conceived to be a Syriac word, 

 it may still add unto the uncertainty of the sense. 

 For though this gospel were first written in Hebrew 

 or Syriac, yet it is not unquestionable whether the true 

 original be any where extant. And that Syriac copy 

 which we now have, is conceived to be of far later time 

 than St. Matthew. 



Expositors and annotators 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 



