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Mat 13:25. Τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, the men) sc. those whose business it was to watch the field. The Lord Himself does not sleep.-Αὐτοῦ, His) it is not said their enemy.-ζιζάνια, zizans[625]) This word does not occur in the LXX. nor in the more ancient Greek writers; it is therefore evidently formed from the Hebrew ציץ, a flower. Many flowers which are noxious to the husbandman grow among the corn.-ἀνὰ, κ.τ.λ., throughout, etc.) everywhere among the wheat.-ἈΠῆΛΘΕΝ, departed[626]) on which account the zizans[627] remained for some time unnoticed.
[625] E. V. “Tares.”-“Apparently the darnel or bastard wheat (lolium album), so often seen in our fields and by our hedgerows; if so, what follows will be explained, that the ‘tares’ appeared when the wheat came into ear, having been previously not noticeable. It appears to be an Eastern word, expressed in the Talmud by זו̇נִים. Our Lord was speaking of an act of malice practised in the East; persons of revengeful disposition watch the ground of a neighbour being ploughed, and in the night following sow destructive weeds.” (Roberts’ Oriental Illustrations, p. 541, cited by Trench on the Parables, p. 68.) (The practice is not unknown even in England at present. Since the publication of the first edition of this Commentary, a field at Gaddesby, in Leicestershire, was maliciously sown with charlock [sinapis arvensis] over the wheat. An action at law was brought, and heavy damages obtained against the offender.) “Jerome in loc. says:-‘Inter triticum et zizania quod nos appellamus lolium, quamdiu herba est, et nondum culmus venit ad spicam, grandis similitudo est, et in discernendo nulla aut perdifficilis distantia.’ Jerome, it must be remembered, resided in Palestine.“-ALFORD in loc. Wordsworth says, that it was a degenerate wheat, and which may also be reclaimed into wheat. See also footnote 5.-(I. B.)
[626] He went his way, in order that he might not be observed.-V. g.
[627] DR KITTO, in his Illustrated Commentary, says, “The Darnel, called Zuwan by the Arabs and Turks, and Zizanion by the Spaniards, is described by Dr Russell and Forskal as well known to the people of Aleppo, as often growing abundantly in their corn-fields. If its seeds remain mixed with the meal, it is found to occasion dizziness and other injurious effects upon those who eat of the bread: the reapers in that neighbourhood, however, do not separate the plant, but, after the threshing, reject the seeds by means of a van or sieve. We are also informed that, in other parts of Syria, the plant is drawn up by hand, in time of harvest, along with the wheat, and is then gathered out, and bound up in separate bundles.”-(I. B.)