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Bible Dictionaries
Mustard
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Matthew 13:31; Matthew 17:20; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19. Its "seed" is proverbial for smallness, therefore not the Salvador Ρersica (Arabic: khardal , mustard), which moreover none would sow in his "garden," and which is not an "herb" but a "tree" strictly so-called. The mustard (Sinapis nigra ) is an "herb" (not strictly a tree), but so large that compared with the other "herbs" in the "garden" it is a "great tree." It reached as high as the horses' heads of the travelers Irby and Mangles, and as horse and rider in the rich plain of Akbar according to Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, 414). The words "the least of all seeds" are used comparatively to the increase, not absolutely; Christ used the popular language. "The fowls of the air" are the smaller insessorial birds, linnets and finches, etc., which settle upon (kateskeenosen , not 'lodged in'; 'rest,' Acts 2:26) its branches," seeking the seed as food which they much relish.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Mustard'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/m/mustard.html. 1949.
