The Life of Jesus in Harmony | Index

tares

Tares (Gk. zizanion); RV darnel. (A type of weeds)

Tares are numerous in the grainfields, along with a large number of other species of plants not suitable for human food. They are left until the stalks are well grown, and then, not long before the harvest (Mt 13:30), women and children, and sometimes men, go carefully among the grain and pull up all but the wheat and barley.

There are four kinds of tares in the Holy Land, by far the most common of which in the grainfields is Lolium temulentum, L., or the bearded darnel. It is a poisonous grass, almost indistinguishable from wheat while the two are growing into blade. But when they come into ear, they can be separated without difficulty.

Today these weeds are not burned but fed to cattle. If any tares remain unnoticed until the grain is harvested and threshed out, the seeds are separated from the wheat and barley and set aside for poultry.