the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Bible Dictionaries
Grass
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or GRASS.—In the OT there are several Heb. words which are translated ‘grass,’ but they are all very general terms; in the NT the only word so translated is χόρτος. Strictly speaking, no plant should be called a grass unless it belongs to the botanical order Gramineae, but this is a comparatively modern distinction. The Biblical writers do not, of course, employ the term with scientific precision. The modern Arab includes, under the common designation hashîsh (grass), field-flowers such as anemones, poppies, and tulips. If, as is probable, it was in this wider sense that Christ and His contemporaries used the word, it lends new point and charm to His appeal, ‘If God so clothe the grass of the field’ (Matthew 6:30), and invests with fresh beauty the familiar words, ‘All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass’ (1 Peter 1:24 Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885; cf. James 1:10-11).
The true grasses of Palestine are very numerous; Dr. Post gives the figures for Palestine and Syria as 90 genera and 243 species (Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible ii. 258). Pasture grasses vary greatly in quality and profusion according to climate, soil, and elevation. Turf is rare. Grass is much used as fuel (Matthew 6:30), especially in districts where wood is scarce (see Oven).
Hugh Duncan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Grass'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/g/grass.html. 1906-1918.
