HOBART_Medical_Langu.. - Bbc-cromwell.org

—
—
78 THE MEDICAL LANGUAGE OF ST. LUKE. [part u.
LV.
(Barog.
A saying of our Lord is recorded by St. Matthew (vii. 16)
thus : "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?''—
imtjTi (TvWiyovcnv airo ciKavBCov aTacjivXag, rj airo
T^i(36Xojv avKa.
St. Luke, vi. 44 "
: For of thorns men do not gather figs,
nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes"
oi) yap £^ aKavOuiv avWiyovat avKa, ovde Ik jSarou
Tpvyu)(n
ara^vXriv.
Here St. Luke uses (Barog, " the bramble bush," instead
of Tpi(5o\og, " a thistle."
He, no doubt, was well acquainted
with it, as it was extensively used medicinally by the ancient
physicians. Theophrastus, H. P. i. 5, mentions it
(5aTog
ctKavOivdrjg and Dioscorides, Mat. Med. iv. 37 {inpl /3arou),
describes its medicinal properties, and states that the fruit,
juice, leaves, and tender shoots were used.
Galen also has a
chapter on its medicinal use. Galen. Aliment. Facul. ii. 13
(vi. 589) : irspl tCov row jSarou Kapirwv. There were several
varieties of it, and Sprengel (Note on Dioscor. iv. 37) identifies
it with the rubus fnicticosus, "the blackberry bush,"
whenever it is mentioned by itself without any distinguishing
epithet, as here by St. Luke.
On account of the bramble being so well known to physicians,
it is probable that St. Luke translated by (ddrog the
Syriac word used by our Lord, which St. Matthew translated
by rpiftoXog.
The medical writers abound in prescriptions in which the
/3oroc formed an ingredient, and Wetstein on Matt. vii. 16,
quotes from Galen an expression very similar to this saying
of our Lord : 6 yetopyog ovk av ttotb Swiiaairo 7roii}(jai tov
Qarov ^K