the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Wormwood (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (ἄψινθος)
The only passage in the NT in which ἄψινθος occurs is Revelation 8:11. Wormwood is referred to several times in the OT, the Heb. word used being iÇòÂðÈä, but ἄψινθος is nowhere used in the LXX as its Greek equivalent. There is, however, no doubt that ‘wormwood’ is the correct translation of ἄψινθος (cf. Liddell and Scott, s.v.). The Heb. iÇòÂðÈä and its Arabic equivalent are both derived from a root meaning ‘to curse.’ It is nearly always associated with gall, the two together being apt emblems of sorrow and calamity by reason of the bitterness of their taste.
There are, according to Tristram, seven species of the Artemisia or wormwood, the Artemisia absinthium being the most common. They all have a bitter taste.
In Revelation 8:11 wormwood is not mixed with water but the third part of the water is turned into wormwood. The former operation would not necessarily be destructive of human life, whereas unmixed wormwood is represented as having that effect. Just as the creatures of the sea perished by reason of the burning mass cast into it (Revelation 8:9) so human life was destroyed by the conversion of the rivers and streams into wormwood.
Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible10, London, 1911, p. 493, Survey of Western Palestine, do., 1884, p. 331; H. B. Swete, Apocalypse of St. John 2, do., 1907, p. 112; EBi iv. 5354f.; SDB , p. 978; HDB iv. 940f.; Murray’s DB , p. 951.
P. S. P. Handcock.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Wormwood (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/w/wormwood-2.html. 1906-1918.
