Darnel and Cockle, Vetch and Tares: That Darned Stuff Grows Every Where (Jesus in the Weeds)

Darnel and Cockle, Vetch and Tares: That Darned Stuff Grows Every Where
(Jesus in the Weeds)

“…while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.” — from Matt 13:29, NIV

In between the parable of the sower and the parables of mustard seed and yeast, Jesus gives the parable of the weeds in the wheat:

Mat 13:24-30 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 ” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 ” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ” (NIV)

This passage concerns the life-and-death matter of heaven-and-hell, but we’ll set that somewhat larger issue aside for this mere Bible Bit. Instead, our concern is more botanical in nature: what is up with these weeds and wheat? And we shall see, darnel. And tares. And vetch. And cockle. And even something called Lolium temulentum.

In the parable, some adversary has sewn weed seed into a farmer’s field of wheat. What to do? Weeds are a fact of life in agriculture and gardening, and the primary method of dealing with them is to simply hunt them down, grab them by the fist, and pull them out of the ground. And so, as suggested by the farmer’s hired hands, why not dispatch the unwanted plants by doing this ordinary weed-removal labor?

What our New International Version passage does not make quite explicit is the botanical identity of the particular enemy weed. Is it crabgrass? Kudzu? Dandelions? And why would it matter what kind of weed it is? Wheat might be inadvertently lost when removing ANY non-wheat botanical item. The enemy might have sewn cabbages or palm trees. But neither cabbages nor palm trees are the likely weed here.

More on this in a moment. But first, how do other translations handle this weed in the wheat?

The traditional — i.e., King James — word used for these weeds is tares. The authorized KJV and several other versions have tares sewn in with the wheat:

KJV verse 25: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat…

NKJV: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat…

NASB: But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat…

Tyndale (1500’s) : But whyll men slepte ther came his foo and sowed tares amoge ye wheate…

Webster (1833): But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat…

KJV 1611: But while men slept, his enemy came & sowed tares among the wheat…

This is not all that helpful. Tares. What is a tare? We expect the early 17th century King James to confuse us with strange words, but even the modern NKJV and NASB use this word tares. What are tares? Is a tare a species of plant? A salty poison? A synonym for weed?

How do other translations treat this passage?

Like the NIV, many versions of translation generalize the word, making it weeds:

NRSV: but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat…

NCV: That night, when everyone was asleep, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat…

MEV: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat…

In the mean time, the Douay-Rheims version is very old school, weighing-in with cockle:

D-R: But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat…

D-R of 1610: But when men were a sleep, his enemy came and ouersowed cockle among the wheat…

By the way, go look up the word cockle in your good dictionary with etymological backgrounds. Did the farmer’s enemies toss French oysters into his field?

A footnote in the Wycliffe Bible provides this:

WYC: But, when men slept, his enemy came, and sowed above tares, or cockles, in the midst of the wheat…

But then we have several others with our Bible Bits featured word: darnel:

YLT: and, while men are sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel in the midst of the wheat…

Darby: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel amongst the wheat…

NEB: but while everyone was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel among the wheat…

NJB: While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat…

Lexham: But while his[a] people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel in the midst of the wheat…

WEB: but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat…

If you happen to be reading the Lexham English Bible, a footnote provides an explanation for the curious word darnel: “A weed that looks similar to wheat but has poisonous seeds.”

And yes, that’s what it is. A weed is any undesired plant growth, and in the setting of a wheat field, darnel is a most vexing weed. Darnel is a common name for a species of ryegrass which very closely matches wheat in appearance for most its growth period, not distinguishing itself in appearance until its bloom is compared to the full bloom of wheat. And it is common in the Near East.

Having a second type of grass in the grass field of wheat might not be such a bad thing, but darnel has toxic properties to both humans and animals. Darnel does have its utilitarian use in agriculture as a soil enricher, but not as a grain source for pita wrappers or whole grain bread.

The Morpological Greek New Testament has for verse 25:

ἐν δὲ τῷ καθεύδειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἦλθεν αὐτοῦ ὁ ἐχθρὸς καὶ ἐπέσπειρεν ζιζάνια ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ σίτου καὶ ἀπῆλθεν

The word of interest in the Greek is ζιζάνια / zizania. We suppose English translators might have simply transliterated ζιζάνια and placed the word zizania into its position. Instead, more recent translators tend to either generalize the meaning with “weeds” or translate with the common plant name of “darnel.”

And so, scholars and translators reckon that the weed of interest here in Matthew 13:24-30 is what nowadays is commonly known, in English, as Bearded Darnel, or simply, darnel. Lolium temulentum in the botanical Latin. But still it is a weed to the farmer in our parable, and to Jesus in Matthew.

As with the seductive but toxic Satan, bad darnel can be tough to distinguish from good Christian wheat until inspected by Christ on his eschatological judgment seat. This is why Jesus’ farmer has his field hands wait until a darnelian judgment day, when the tares can be readily distinguished from wheat, pulled, separated, bundled, tied, and burned in the fire of hell.

In modern Greek and English, zizania might be translated variously as weed, cockle, vetch, and darnel. There seems to be an interchangeable usage whether one’s meaning is more general (weed, fodder) or botanical (darnel, cockle, vetch, tare), and where or when on earth you are practicing agriculture. And once one settles on an English word, that word itself might have a not-so-clear etymology stretching its usage from the general (weed, fodder, fertilizer) to the specific, pointing to a particular plant species.

Today, the usage and meaning of the word darnel tends toward that of the specific botanical plant Lolium temulentum. We suggest however that Jesus may very well have intended a meaning for zizania closer to “weed” than “darnel,” while at the same time being well-aware of Lolium temelentum‘s specific botanical properties. He and Matthew were not necessarily using ζιζάνια / zizania with botanical specificity but with weed-worthy-of-destruction generality. In Christ’s view, weeds of whatever type will be separated, removed, and destroyed.

Adding to our confusion is the likelihood that Jesus did not use the Greek word ζιζάνια / zizania, but instead used an Aramaic equivalent having its own etymology and vagueness in Arabic, Akkadian, Hebrew, and so-on. If this is the case, we might look for our word in what is called Syriac or Peshitta version of the New Testament. The Peshitta is an Aramaic language document, but it is thought to be a translation from the Greek. (By the way, the Jewish Tanakh — Old Testament — version in Aramaic is called the Targum, and this is a translation from the Hebrew.)

The Peshitta has for Matthew 13:25:

We will leave it to you to hunt down a transliteration and etymology for the Aramaic word, which is a lingual variation of the Greek: ܙܺܝܙܳܢܶܐ / ziyzane

ܙܺܝܙܳܢܶܐ

In any event, the parable farmer’s hired field-workers would have been unable to, during early and mid-season, walk through the infested field and distinguish between good wheat and bad zizania. In trying to remove the weeds, they would have pulled up and destroyed both good wheat and bad weeds. Not until the harvest could the judgment be made and the toxic unGodly waste be burned. Outside of a parable, in real life, agricultural workers know the issue with darnel as this has been a known problem with wheat agriculture since mankind began deliberately harvesting wheat millennia ago. Jesus wasn’t telling the disciples something they didn’t already know regarding an agricultural issue. His concern and lesson was more eternal.

Tares? What about the good ol’ tare of the King James?

Mat 13:24-30 KJV: Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

There is nothing wrong with the word “tare,” it has simply fallen out of common usage in wider English. The meaning of this English word carried (and still carries), depending on context and location and time, a meaning of either a particular type of plant used for farming fodder, or of a general usage as “weed.” Tare has an etymological complexity and vagueness similar to cockle and vetch, and dates in English usage at least to the 1300’s. Tare, however, has fallen out of common usage in English outside the Sunday School class, and so more recent translators, attempting to accurately identify the likely Palestine weed, have gone with the common, specific, and modern plant name darnel. Darnel is a better choice if one is after the specific botanical plant. Weed is a better choice if one is after the general notion of worthless nuisance. Tare has been replaced by darnel in common English usage by modern farmers and industry of agriculture and botany.

WEB: but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat…

We like the public domain Word English Bible translation for this passage, which gives us both general and particular words.

In the original Greek, all five occurrences of our word/plant are written as ζιζάνια. Here’s the full passage in the WEB, and all five hits on our zizania:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Those of you desiring to go further into the weeds on this topic can begin with these starting points of botany and etymology:

Botanical: Vicia sativa
Botanical: Lolium temulentum
English word: Vetch (look this up in its botany context, and also search for it in older Bible translations)
English word: Darnel
English word: Bearded Darnel
English word: Tare
English word: Cockle (not the oyster, but the plant)
Greek word: ζιζάνια / zizania
Aramaic word: ܙܺܝܙܳܢܶܐ ziyzane / zyzn

ܙܺܝܙܳܢܶܐ

ζιζάνια

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

We pray for God’s blessings to you, and desire for you to read the actual Bible for yourself, whether in English, Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic!