mustard Summary and Overview

a plant of the genus sinapis, a pod-bearing, shrub-like plant, growing wild, and also cultivated in gardens. The little round seeds were an emblem of any small insignificant object. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament; and in each of the three instances of its occurrence in the New Testament (Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 4:31, 32; Luke 13:18, 19) it is spoken of only with reference to the smallness of its seed. The common mustard of Israel is the Sinapis nigra. This garden herb sometimes grows to a considerable height, so as to be spoken of as "a tree" as compared with garden herbs.

is mentioned in #Mt 13:31; 17:20; Mr 4:31; Lu 13:19; 17:6| It is generally agreed that the mustard tree of Scripture is the black mustard (Sinapis nigru). The objection commonly made against any sinapis being the plant of the parable is that the reed grew into "a tree," in which the fowls of the air are said to come and lodge. As to this objection, it is urged with great truth that the expression is figurative and Oriental, and that in a proverbial simile no literal accuracy is to be expected. It is an error, for which the language of Scripture is not accountable, to assert that the passage implies that birds "built their nests" in the tree: the Greek word has no such meaning; the word merely means "to settle or rest upon" anything for a longer or shorter time; nor is there any occasion to suppose that the expression "fowls of the air" denotes any other than the smaller insessorial kinds--linnets, finches, etc. Hiller's explanation is probably the correct one,--that the birds came and settled on the mustard-plant for the sake of the seed, of which they are very fond. Dr. Thomson also says he has seen the wild mustard on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and the rider. If, then, the wild plant on the rich plain of Akkar grows as high as a man on horseback, it might attain to the same or a greater height when in a cultivated garden. The expression "which is indeed-the least of all seeds" is in all probability hyperbolical, to denote a very small seed indeed, as there are many seeds which are smaller than mustard. The Lord in his popular teaching," says Trench ("Notes on Parables", 108), "adhered to the popular language;" and the mustard-seed was used proverbially to denote anything very minute; or may mean that it was the smallest of all garden seeds, which it is in truth.

MUS'TARD . Matt 13:31-32; Matt 17:20; Luke 17:6. There can no longer be any question that this plant is the black mustard (Sinapis nigra), which often grows wild in our own country. In the fertile and warm soil of Palestine, especially when cultivated, this herb must have reached considerable size. Dr. Thomson has seen it there as tall as the horse and his rider, and the ground near the Sea of Galilee is often "gilded over with its yellow flowers." The Bible does not say, as is often supposed, that the birds build nests in the mustard, but only that they lodge there, as they often do in much smaller plants. Flocks of goldfinches and linnets are accustomed to settle in these plants and eat the seed, of which they are very fond. "Small as a grain of mustard-seed" was a proverbial expression of which Christ made use. Divested of the Orientalisms of the language, which our Saviour used in Mustard. (Sinapis nigra. After Dr. Carruthers.) popular teaching, the following is an accurate paraphrase of his well-known parable, as suggested in Smith's Bible Dictionary: "The gospel dispensation is like a grain of mustard-seed which a man sowed in his garden; which indeed is one of the least of all seeds, but which, when it springs up, becomes a tall branched plant, on the branches of which the birds come and settle, seeking their food."

Matthew 13:31; Matthew 17:20; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19. Its "seed" is proverbial for smallness, therefore not the Salvador Persica (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.