spend their last farthing in the efibrt(cf. Thomson, LB ii. p. 640).
In the parable of the Sower (Mt IS-", Mk 4-', Lk 8^), where the AV has 'some (seeds) fell by the wayside,' the picture is really of grains of wheat or barley which fell on the trodden pathivay leading across the field, and so were left exposed wliere the birds could see and devour them (cf. Lk 8= 'trodden under foot'). It is still common in Pale- stine to see flocks of birds fc-'Jowing the peasant as he sows his seed, eagerly picking up every grain that is not covered by the qtiick-following harrow. And where it is said ' some fell upon stony places ' (AV), the real allusion is to the underlying rock of limestone. The traveller finds numberless places where a broad, flat, limestone rock lies just beneath the surface of the field, with only a thin layer of earth ujion it (cf. Lk 8"" 'the rock'). ' Stony ground ' (AV, following early English ver- sions) suggests a soil abounding in loose stones, such as is often found there producing good wheat ; but the picture is rather of a soil into which the seeds could not sink deep, and, the film of earth being readily heated because of the underlying rock, they would come up sooner than elsewhere, and at first would look imcommonly flourishing ; but, not being able to send roots deep into the moist earth (cf. Lk 8«), when the hot, dry weather came the stalks would wither, and thus show that the fair promise of a crop there had been deceptive (cf. Ps 129'^ ' gi-ass upon the house-tops ').
In the fields of Palestine, too, tliere are still found spots that are rich, but are peculiarly in- fested with briars and thorn-bushes, where one inay see the wheat in scattered and spindling .stalks struggling for life (cf. Mt 13'). In Mk 2-» and Lk 6' (AV) we have 'corn-fields' where the Gr. word {(nr6pi./j.a) is the same as in Mt 12', where it is rendered simply ' corn,' — ' through the corn ' (after Tindale). It is literally ' through tlie soum (places),' i.e. the grain-fields, as Noyes and Bib. Un. Vers, render it, fields of wheat or barley, not of maize or Indian corn, of course. The picture is of Jesus and His disciples goinff a/o,i,/, citht-r tliioiicl, the stand- ing grain, or by afootpatli which IhhiikIciI the fields, the grain in either case being within e.asy icacli. It was customary then, as it is now, in Palestine, for the lands (.f diHerent owners to be separated, not liy fen<cs ci walls, but usually only by crude indi\ iilu.il stones set up at intervals on the surface of tlie gvuui;il as landmarks (cf. Dt 19'*) ; and the roads, mere footpaths as a rule, were not dis- tinct from the fields, as they are with us, but ran through them, so that the grain grew right up to the edge of the path. "We are not meant to think of Jesus and His disciples as going ruthlessly through the fields and trampling down the grain, but as following one of these paths over or between the fields. But neither plucking the ears of wheat to eat, nor even walking across a pathless field, was, according to Jewish ideas (cf. Dt 23^), a vio- lation of the rights of inoiierty any more than it is to-day among the Arabs. It \\ as not of this, but of Sabbath-breaking, that the Pharisees coniijlained. Geo. B. Eagee.
FIERCENESS.— The word 'fierce' occurs twice in AV(Mt828of the two deiiK.niacs rynXfTroi'], Lk 23^ of our Lord's accusers [fTrij-yr.,!- ];\' 'urgent']). But the purpose of the jircsenl .nticle is to examine in what sense and to what extent this attribute may be attributed to Christ. The pojju- lar concejition of Him is perhaps too much that of a speaker of smooth things. It is forgotten that He could utter on occasion words of fierce energy. The beauty of the unanswenng innocence of the Passion, that type of silent suffering and enduring, has made His outbursts of fierce reproach or con- demnation fade from the memory. His ' judge
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not ' (Mt 7'), or His parable of patience that has its part iu the ' wlieat and tares ' being allowed to grow together (IS**), or His doctrine of unlimited lorgi%'eness (Lk 17'"^), — these are thought to be entirely representative. Yet, while they undoubt- edly indicate the prevailing elements, something would be lost in our understanding of Jesus if we overlooked the impassioned fterceaess with which He sometimes acted and spoke.
Of recorded deeds the incident of the driving out of the vendors and money-changers from the temple precincts (Mt 21'-, JVIk 11^', Jn 2'*) is the most notable : but it is in the vigour of His language that the possibilities of fierceness in Him are most revealed. He has small patience with certain failings, such as the lack of an apprehensive faith, or worldliness, or hypocris}-, or vanity. Tliere is a denunciatory strain in Him much resembling the force of the Baptist's 'off- spring of vipers' of Lk 3'. It is present in the Nazareth sermon in His OT illustrations of prophets not honoured in their own co\intry (Lk 4) ; in His declaration of war with evil, — ' I am come to send tire on the earth' (12^'), and 'I came not to send peace but a sword ' (Mt 10^^) ; it even finds expression in the very phrase yefwrmara (x^dvQv used by the Baptist (Mt 12^). None of the mildness of diplomacy is in the message to Herod — ' Go ye, and tell that fox ' (Lk 13^-). Wlien He encounters men or communities incapable of the heavenly vision. His words are swords. To trouble about them is to ' throw pearls before swine' (Mt 7"). They are a 'faith- less and perverse generation,' or 'a wicked and adulterous generation ' seeking after a visible and tangible sign of spiritual things (16^); they shall lose the Kingdom of God (21-") ; the heathen of Nineveh shall show themselves better judges of eternal realities (Lk 11'-) ; there is more hope for Tyre and Sidon (10'^) or for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the spiritualljr blind (Mt 10'^) ; ' Ye are of your father the devil ' ( Jn 8"). The fierceness which marks His rejection of the third temptation (Mt 4'") is paralleled in the 'Get thee behind nie, Satan ' with which Peter's profl'ered intervention is repelled (Mk 8^). The perverter of tlie simplicity of childhood is told that he had better luave beeii drowned with a millstone about liis neck (Mt 18"). But the white heat of fierceness in the utterance of Christ comes when He meets with Pharisees, scribes, and teachers of the Law, who are unworthy of their high professions. They are ' false prophets . . . ravening wolves' (Mt 7''); 'hypocrites' is hurled at them in everj phrase of Mt 23, in the close of Lk 11, and in Mk 7^, where Isaiah's bitterest words against lip - service are quoted against them. They are 'whited sepulchres,' 'blind guides,' 'sons of them that slew the phets,' 'serpents.' They 'say, and do not,' that ' the publicans and the harlots kingdom ' before them (Mt 21^).