[195] Theophrast. _Hist. Lib. 4. Cap. 7. 8._
[Sidenote: _Grain of Mustard-seed in S._ Matt 13. 31, 32.]
23. _The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed, which a Man took and sowed in his Field, which indeed is the least of all Seeds; but when 'tis grown is the greatest among Herbs, and becometh a Tree, so that the Birds of the Air come and lodge in the Branches thereof._
Luke 13. 19. _It is like a grain of Mustard-seed, which a Man took and cast it into his Garden, and it waxed a great Tree, and the Fowls of the Air lodged in the Branches thereof._
This expression by a grain of Mustard-seed, will not seem so strange unto you, who well consider it. That it is simply the least of Seeds, you cannot apprehend, if you have beheld the Seeds of _Rapunculus_, Marjorane, Tobacco, and the smallest Seed of _Lunaria_.
But you may well understand it to be the smallest Seed among Herbs which produce so big a Plant, or the least of herbal Plants, which arise unto such a proportion, implied in the expression; _the smallest of Seeds_, and _becometh the greatest of Herbs_.
And you may also grant that it is the smallest of Seeds of Plants apt to δενδρίζειν, _arborescere_, _fruticescere_, or to grow unto a ligneous substance, and from an herby and oleraceous Vegetable, to become a kind of Tree, and to be accounted among the _Dendrolachana_, or _Arboroleracea_; as upon strong Seed, Culture and good Ground, is observable in some Cabbages, Mallows, and many more, and therefore expressed by γίνεται τὸ δένδρον, and γίνεται εἰς τὸν δένδρον, it becometh a Tree, or _arborescit_, as _Beza_ rendreth it.
Nor if warily considered doth the expression contain such difficulty. For the Parable may not ground it self upon generals, or imply any or every grain of Mustard, but point at such a grain as from its fertile spirit, and other concurrent advantages, hath the success to become arboreous, shoot into such a magnitude, and acquire the like tallness. And unto such a Grain the Kingdom of Heaven is likened which from such slender beginnings shall find such increase and grandeur.
The expression also that it might grow into such dimensions that Birds might lodge in the Branches thereof, may be literally conceived; if we allow the luxuriancy of plants in _Judæa_, above our Northern Regions; If we accept of but half the Story taken notice of by Tremellius, from the _Jerusalem Talmud_, of a Mustard Tree that was to be climbed like a Figg Tree; and of another, under whose shade a Potter daily wrought: and it may somewhat abate our doubts, if we take in the advertisement of _Herodotus_ concerning lesser Plants of _Milium_ and _Sesamum_ in the Babylonian Soil: _Milium ac Sesamum in proceritatem instar arborum crescere, etsi mihi compertum, tamen memorare supersedeo, probè sciens cis qui nunquam Babyloniam regionem adierunt perquam incredibile visum iri._ We may likewise consider that the word κατασκηνῶσαι doth not necessarily signifie _making a Nest_, but rather sitting, roosting, covering and resting in the Boughs, according as the same word is used by the _Septuagint_ in other places[197] as the Vulgar rendreth it in this, _inhabitant_, as our Translation, _lodgeth_, and the Rhemish, _resteth_ in the Branches.