the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Grass
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Its rapid fading in the heat of Palestine is a frequent image of man's frailty (Psalms 103:14-15; Psalms 90:5-6; Isaiah 40:6-7). In Jeremiah 50:11 for "the heifer at grass" (i.e., fat and frisky), since the gender of "at grass" dasha , confounded with desha "grass") does not agree with eglah "a heifer," translated "a heifer threshing (treading out) grain." The strongest were used for threshing, and as the law did not allow their mouth to be muzzled in threshing (Deuteronomy 25:4) they waxed wanton with superabundant food, an image of Judea's insolent destroyers.
It is a coincidence undesigned, and therefore a mark of genuineness, that by three evangelists the "grass" is noticed in the miraculous feeding of the 5,000; John (John 6:10) saying, "there was much grass in the place" (a notable circumstance in Palestine, where grass is neither perennial nor universal; the latter rain and sunshine stimulate its rapid growth, but the scorching summer soon withers it and leaves the hills bare); Mark (Mark 6:39), with his usual graphic vividness, mentioning "the green grass"; Matthew (Matthew 14:19) simply stating Christ's command to "sit down on the grass." But in the feeding of the 4,000 the multitude in both Gospels (Matthew 15:35; Mark 8:6) are commanded to "sit down on the ground."
This delicate distinction disproves the notion that the two miracles are really different versions of the same miracle, as also that of the 12 (small) baskets (kofinoi ) in the miracle of the 5,000, and the seven (larger) baskets (spurides ) in that of the 4,000. Compare Matthew 16:9-10 with Matthew 14:20; Luke 9:17; kofinoi) being uniformly applied to the former miracle, spurides) to the latter (Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences). In Matthew 6:30 "the lily" is classed with "the grass of the field." "Grass" must here be used for all that grows in the field, wild flowers as well as grasses, herbage.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Grass'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/g/grass.html. 1949.
