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SECTION I.

GRAIN.

THE generic name for grain, in the Old Testament writings, is dagen, corn; so named from its abundant increase. In Gen. xxvi. 12, and Matt. xiii. 8, grain is spoken of as yielding a hundred fold; and to the ancient fertility of Palestine all authorities bear testimony. Burckhardt states, that in some parts of the Haouran, a tract of country on the east of the river Jordan, he found the barley to yield eighty fold, even in the present neglected state of the country.

It is evident from Ruth ii. 14, 2 Sam. xvii. 28, 29, and other passages, that parched corn constituted part of the ordinary food of the Israelites, as it still does of the Arabs. Their methods of preparing corn for the manufacture of bread were the following. The thrashing was done either by the staff or the flail, (Isa. xxviii. 27, 28)-by the feet of cattle (Deut. xxv. 4)-or by a sharp thrashing instrument having teeth' (Isa. xli. 15), which was something resembling a cart, and drawn over the corn by means of horses or oxen. When the corn was thrashed, it was separated from the chaff and dust, by throwing it forward across the wind, by means of a winnowing fan, or shovel (Matt. iii. 12); after which the grain was sifted to separate all impurities from it, Amos ix. 9; Luke xxii. 31. Hence the thrashing floors were in the open air, Judg. vi. 11; 2 Sam. xxiv. 19. The grain thus obtained was commonly reduced to meal by the hand-niill, which consisted of a lower mill-stone, the upper side of which was concave, and an upper mill-stone, the lower surface of which was convex. The hole for receiving the corn was in the centre of the upper mill-stone, and in the operation of grinding, the lower was fixed, and the upper made to move round upon it, with considerable velocity, by means of a handle. These mills are still in use in the East, and in some parts of Scotland, where they are called querns. The employment of grinding with these mills is confined solely to females; and the practice illustrates the prophetic observation of our Saviour, concerning the day of Jerusalem's destruction; "Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one shall be taken, and the other shall be left,' Matt. xxiv. 41. Mr. Pennant, who has given a particular account of these handmills, as used in Scotland, observes, that the women always accompany the grating noise of the stones with their voices; and that when ten or a dozen are thus employed, the fury of the song rises to such a pitch, that you would, without breach of charity, imagine a troop of female demoniacs to be assembled. As the operation of

grinding was usually performed in the morning at day-break, the sound of the females at the hand-mill was heard all over the city, which often awoke their more indolent masters. The Scriptures

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mention the want of this noise as a mark of desolation in Jer. xxv. 10, and Rev. xviii. 22. There was a humane law, that 'no man shall take the nether or upper mill-stone in pledge, for he taketh a man's life in pledge,' Deut. xxiv. 6.-He could not grind his daily bread without it.

The late editor of Calmet has some valuable remarks upon the adoption of grain as a symbol of a future state: we need no apology for offering the result of his inquiries to our readers.

The close of life at mature age is compared to a shock of corn fully ripe: "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in (to the garner) in its season,' Job v. 26. See also Gen. xxv. 8, and Job xlii. 17.

Our Lord compares himself to a corn of wheat falling into the ground, but afterwards producing much fruit (John xii. 24); and the prophet Hosea (xiv. 7,) speaks of 'growing as the vine, and reviving as the corn.' In fact, the return of vegetation, in the spring of the year, has been adopted very generally, as an expressive symbol of a resurrection. The apostle Paul uses this very simile, in reference to a renewed life; The sower sows a bare-nakedgrain of corn, of whatever kind it be, as wheat, or some other grain, but after a proper time it rises to light, clothed with verdure; clothed also with a husk and other appurtenances, according to the nature which God has appointed to that species of seed; analogous to this is the resurrection of the body,' &c. 1 Cor. xv. 37. Now if this comparison were in use among the ancients, (and a gem of Mountfaçon delares its antiquity) it could hardly be unknown to the Corinthians, in their learned and polite city, the Eye of

Greece;' neither could it well be confined to the philosophers there, but must have been known by those to whom the apostle wrote generally. If so, then not only was the sacred writer justified in selecting it by way of illustration, but he had more reason than modern inconsiderates have supposed for calling them 'fools' who did not properly reflect on what was acknowledged and admitted among themselves.

There is a very sudden turn of metaphor used by the apostle Paul, in Romans vi. 3-5; 'Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death-that we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together [with him] in the likeness of his death, we shall be also planted in the likeness of his resurection.' But what has baptism to do with planting? Wherein consists their similarity, so as to justify the resemblance here implied? In 1 Peter iii. 21, we find the apostle speaking of baptism, figuratively, as 'saving us ;' and alluding to Noah, who long lay buried in the Ark, as corn long lies buried in the earth. Now, as after having died to his former course of life, in being baptized, a convert was considered as rising to a renewed life, so after having been separated from his former connexions, his seed-bed as it were, after having died in being planted, he was considered as rising to a renewed life, also. The ideas therefore conveyed by the apostle in these verses are precisely the same; though the metaphors are different. Moreover, if it were anciently common to speak of a person, after baptism, as rising to a renewed life, and to consider corn also as sprouting to a renewed life, then we see how easily Hymeneus and Philetus (2 Tim. ii. 17, 18,) 'concerning the truth might err, saying, that the resurrection was past already,' in baptism, [quasi in planting—that is, in being transferred to Christianity] in which error they did little more than annex their old heathen notions to the Christian institution. The transition was extremely easy; but unless checked in time, the error might have become very dangerous.

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THIS is the principal and most valuable of all kinds of grain. It is called in Hebrew chetah, a word the etymology of which it is not easy to ascertain. In 2 Samuel xvii. 28, the word occurs in a plural form, whence Scheuchzer infers, that it comprehended, anciently, all sorts of wheaten corn cleansed from impurities. This, however, seems doubtful, because barley is expressly mentioned in connexion with it: it refers perhaps to several kinds of wheat; or what is more probable, is a specimen of that lax mode of expression which is so common, and indeed necessary, in all languages.

The meat-offerings, as they are called in the English Bible, of the Levitical dispensation, were not what their designation would seem to imply; animal flesh, but wheat, either in its simple state, or reduced to flour, or inade up into cakes. See Lev. ch. ii.

The wheat (ber) of Jer. xxiii. 28, Joel ii. 24, and Amos v. 11, is no doubt the burr or wild corn of the Arabs, mentioned by Forskal, In Gen. xli. 35, the same word is rendered corn.

BARLEY.

THIS well known grain derives its Hebrew name shoreh, from the long hairy beard which grows upon its ear.

In Palestine, the barley was sown in the month of October, and reaped in the end of March, just after the passover. In Egypt, at the time of the seventh plague (Exod. ix. 13), which happened a few days before the passover, the barley was in the green ear, from which it seems that the harvest was later there than in the land of Canaan.

In 1 Kings iv. 28, barley is spoken of as the usual food for horses, and so it still continues to be in Syria.

Pliny states barley to have been the most ancient aliment of mankind, and it is evident from several passages of scripture, that it was used for the making of bread among the Jewish people. See 2 Sam. xvii. 28; 2 Kings iv. 22; 2 Chron. ii. 15; John vi. 8—10, &c.

RYE.

THIS species of corn is called cesmeth, probably from its long hair or beard. Dr. Shaw supposes that rice is the grain intended by the original. On the other hand, Hasselquist states that the Egyptians learned the cultivation of rice under the Caliphs; and Parkhurst has shown that the traveller has misunderstood the statement of the Roman naturalist. In Ezek. iv. 9, the Hebrew word is rendered fitches, a kind of tare.

MILLET.

THE Hebrew name of this grain is dechen, from a root which signifies to thrust forth, impel, &c.; and it is so called, perhaps, from its thrusting forth such a quantity of grains, above every other known plant. Thus, in Latin it is called milium, as if one stalk bore a thousand grains. It is no doubt the same kind of grain as is now called in the East durra, which is a kind of millet, and when made into bad bread, with camel's milk, oil, butter, or grease, is almost the only food which is eaten by the common people in Arabia Felix. Niebuhr found it so disagreeable, he states, that he would willingly have preferred to it plain barley-bread. This remark tends to illustrate Ezekiel iv. 9.

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