Corn? in the new testament?

[JRKH]

Just a simple question -
Rereading the Gospels and ran agross the term “Corn-Fed”. (NAB translation)

I thought corn was from the “New-World”.



Peace
James

 

[JeanneH]

Hi James,

Can you tell me Chapter and Verse where you found these words? I would like to search them out and maybe find an answer my self.

Thanks
Jeanne

 

[Stitchwort]

The word “corn” originally meant any grain, but especially wheat, and is still used in that sense in England. (My English-born husband would speak of the “corn fields” as we were driving through Essex; they were definitely wheat fields and not what we North Americans think of as corn or maize.) In England, our corn or maize is called “sweet corn.”

Thus in the familiar nursery rhyme “Little boy blue” the cow is really into the wheatfield, not a field of corn.

Likewise, when you encounter the word in the New Testament, they are talking of fields of some grain (wheat? barley? rye? etc.), but not the American maize.

The word is being used in an older/broader sense than we are used to here.

 

[Todd_Easton]

In this case, corn probably means a cereal grain, such as wheat.

 

[tobinatorstark]

Hi James,

Can you tell me Chapter and Verse where you found these words? I would like to search them out and maybe find an answer my self.

Thanks
Jeanne

me too.

 

[JRKH]

Hi James,

Can you tell me Chapter and Verse where you found these words? I would like to search them out and maybe find an answer my self.

Thanks
Jeanne

I can’t right now - but it was in the section about the King giving a wedding banquet for his son and - I believe he referred to the “Corn fed bullock”. It was in either Matthew or Mark. It didn’t hit me until after I was well past the passage and I didn’t go back to look it up.

Thanks Stitchwort for the info. I find it interesting though that in other places in the Gospels - wheat is called wheat.

Ah well -

Peace
James

 

[tobinatorstark]

Just a simple question -
Rereading the Gospels and ran agross the term “Corn-Fed”. (NAB translation)

I thought corn was from the “New-World”.



Peace
James

Are you sure it was the NAB???

 

[tobinatorstark]

please get correct Bible and book and chapter and verse. I searched the NAB and no corn-fed appears

 

[JRKH]

please get correct Bible and book and chapter and verse. I searched the NAB and no corn-fed appears

OK - Here it is.

From - The New American Bible, copyright 1970.

Matthew 22:4
"A second time he sent other servants, saying: "Tell those who are invited, See, I havemy dinner prepared!My Bullocks and corn-fed cattleare killed; everything is ready. Come to the feast.

Peace
James

 

[tobinatorstark]

OK - Here it is.

From - The New American Bible, copyright 1970.

Matthew 22:4
"A second time he sent other servants, saying: "Tell those who are invited, See, I havemy dinner prepared!My Bullocks and corn-fed cattleare killed; everything is ready. Come to the feast.

Peace
James

Never mind. You have the the 1970 version and my NABs have the 1970 OT, 1986 NT (which is significantly different) and the 1991 Psalms (which are the pitts)

This is how the NAB translate it today

A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’

The Douay-Rheims translates it

Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my calves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the marriage.

It appears that corn-fed means fattened.

 

[JeanneH]

Hi

The Douay-Rheims translates it

Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my calves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the marriage.

It appears that corn-fed means fattened.

This is how the Greek interlinear has it with Strong’s concordance

KJV w/ Strong’s) Matthew 22:4 Again <3825>, he sent forth <649> (5656) other <243> servants <1401>, saying <3004> (5723), Tell <2036> (5628) them which are bidden <2564> (5772), Behold <2400> (5628), I have prepared <2090> (5656) my <3450> dinner <712>: my <3450> oxen <5022> and <2532> [my] fatlings <4619> [are] killed <2380> (5772), and <2532> all things <3956> [are] ready <2092>: come <1205> (5773) unto <1519> the marriage <1062>.

This is why I like the DR. I think it is more accurate.

Jeanne

 

[JRKH]

Thanks guys.
It appears that it was just one of those translation things that crop up every once in a while.
Like I said origianlly, no big deal - just caught me off guard and thought I’d ask some of my more learned friends here on the board.

Peace
James

 

[tobinatorstark]

Thanks guys.
It appears that it was just one of those translation things that crop up every once in a while.
Like I said origianlly, no big deal - just caught me off guard and thought I’d ask some of my more learned friends here on the board.

Peace
James

I am glad we can help you

 

[Leopard]

The word “corn” originally meant any grain, but especially wheat, and is still used in that sense in England… The word is being used in an older/broader sense than we are used to here.

This is similar to the development of the word meat. A few hundred years ago, meat meant anything eaten or intended to be eaten, what we would call food today.

Thus we have in Genesis 1:29-30 in the King James Version:

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Food from animal sources, that which we would call meat today, back then was called flesh.

This linguistic development is also why the word holocaust today correctly means more than its original definition as a wholly burnt sacrificial offering, but that’s another thread.

 

[rwoehmke]

In many European countrys corn is used for most any grain. For example Voll Corn Brot in Germany is a whole grain bread. The word for “corn” from the New World is Maize.

 

[Axion]

The Cornfield. by John Constable.

http://knowledgerush.com/wiki_image/8/86/Constable.cornfield.600pix.jpg

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

The word “corn” originally meant any grain, but especially wheat, and is still used in that sense in England. (My English-born husband would speak of the “corn fields” as we were driving through Essex; they were definitely wheat fields and not what we North Americans think of as corn or maize.) In England, our corn or maize is called “sweet corn.”

Thus in the familiar nursery rhyme “Little boy blue” the cow is really into the wheatfield, not a field of corn.

Likewise, when you encounter the word in the New Testament, they are talking of fields of some grain (wheat? barley? rye? etc.), but not the American maize.

The word is being used in an older/broader sense than we are used to here.

The difference in linguistic usage regularly causes hiccoughs when Bibles of US origin Atlantic (I can’t offhand think of versions that go in the opposite direction, other than the AV & RV).​

Isn’t maize what American Indians eat ?

 

[JRKH]

The difference in linguistic usage regularly causes hiccoughs when Bibles of US origin Atlantic (I can’t offhand think of versions that go in the opposite direction, other than the AV & RV).​

Isn’t maize what American Indians eat ?

Yup - Maize is the indian term, but you won’t hear any amercian use that term.
We grow Field corn, Sweet corn, and Popcorn, not maize. That is why I was confused.
I certainly have gotten some interesting insights from the folks here - no surprise there though.

Peace
James

 

[Jolly_Joe]

I would add that to someone from the Midwest US, translating that as corn fed really is accurate. That’s what we do today and how people use the term. But if you extrapolated that to think they had corn as such in biblical times. Well that’s where the problem comes in.

So the term fattened is probably better. Because it’s not as susceptible to having too much read into it.

 

[JRKH]

I would add that to someone from the Midwest US, translating that as corn fed really is accurate. That’s what we do today and how people use the term. But if you extrapolated that to think they had corn as such in biblical times. Well that’s where the problem comes in.

So the term fattened is probably better. Because it’s not as susceptible to having too much read into it.

Yep -
I LIVE in the mid-west and recognized the term immediately - Which is probably why it never hit me before.

Of course when we say “Corn-Fed” around here it really does mean “Corn-Fed”. Fattened on Field Corn (maize).

It’s obvious that in the NAB they just chose a poor term. Fattened is what it should have been. I believe someone already pointed out that it has been changed in later addtions.