Mustard seed

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The seed of some representatives of the plant species mustard and cabbage is called mustard seed ( Latin granum sinapis ) .

White mustard seeds
Black mustard seeds

The seeds of the black mustard consist of blackish-brown-red spheres, which are densely pitted and have a bitter-sharp taste. The seeds of the white mustard consist of yellow, smooth balls that only taste sharp. Processed black and whole white grains have been used as medicine for a long time. Whole grains are both used for cooking , frying and marinating . Only those of the white mustard are used, for example, for pickling mustard cucumbers and mixed pickles and for making sausages. Various mustard products are made from the grains of both seeds .

Literary adaptation

Although by no means all types of mustard produce particularly small seeds, the mustard seed is regarded as a metaphor for something very small in both Western and Asian cultures .

In his parable of the mustard seed ( Mt 13.31-32  EU ; Mk 4.30-32  EU ) Jesus describes it as the smallest of all seeds, from which something really big becomes. It is likely that he is referring to the black mustard seed . With reference to this parable, little Bibles are referred to as mustard seed Bibles . Some Christian initiatives have the Latin or German term in their name, such as the Mustard Seed Order . A famous folk-language, mystical poem or even a song text, which was handed down in several manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries, received its title Granum sinapis from a Latin commentary attributed to the theologian Meister Eckhart .

Shane Claiborne interprets the parable in such a way that the object of comparison of the mustard seed is not the smallness of the seed and the size of the plant, but the weed-like rapid expansion of the kingdom of God.

Web links

Commons : Mustard Seed  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ^ " Senf " in: Karl Ernst Georges: Small German-Latin concise dictionary. Hannover and Leipzig 71910 (reprint Darmstadt 1999), column 2121.
  2. ↑ Mustard seeds . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 15 . Altenburg 1862, p. 844 ( zeno.org ).
  3. ↑ Bernhard Peter: Opium Weights from Burma , 2004 & 2005, accessed: April 23, 2009
  4. ↑ L. Wehr: Mustard Seed . In: Manfred Görg , Bernhard Lang (Ed.): New Bible Lexicon . tape III . Benziger-Verlag, Düsseldorf / Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-545-23074-0 , Sp. 570 .
  5. ↑ Mustard Seed Order . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 15 . Altenburg 1862, p. 843 ( zeno.org ).
  6. ↑ Granum sinapis on eckhart.de
  7. ↑ Paul Hirtz: “Inexpressible is the Divine” - mystical 'speaking' of God , semester 11.2, Curriculum Commission for Catholic Religion G8 in Saarland (ed.), November 7, 2009
  8. ↑ Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living As an Ordinary Radical