Seddction

See art. Ceimes AND PUNISH- MENTS, vol. i. p. 52J''. SEED, SEEDTIME There is a threefold usage of tlie words rendered by EV 'seed.' 1. Botaniciil ami ugrieultnnd. — The common Heb. term is yij (Aram, m Dn 2"), usually 'seed,' but in Gn 8', ' ' seed time,' and in Lv 2(5° ' sowing time.' In Ezk \-o VT'T^i? is tr. ' fruitful field ' (KV ' fruitful soil '). ' Sowing seed ' (Lv ll")and ' things that are sown' (Is 61") are equivalents of vni. In Jl 1" nhn^ is tr. • seed ' (RV ' seeds ').

' Mingled seed ' (Lv l9'») and 'divers seeds' (l)t 22') are renderings of b:><^j. In Is 1!»' )rvp '73 appears in AV as 'every thing sown,' UV 'all that is sown.' The usual Gr. word in Apocr. and NT is airipiia, but awipos also occurs Mk 4-'' [cf. Swete's note], Lk 8»' ", 2 Co 9'». The most interesting Scripture references to 'seed' in this sense are the poetic figure in Ps 120" and our Lord's parables of the Sower and the Tares. See Aghicultuke, vol. i. 49*. 2. Physioloqical.—Ihe phrase nr"3?

»' i» variously tr. in Lv IS'"' "■ '•" 18-' 19'" 22, Nu 5". 'To conceive seed' stands in Lv 12'-' for the Hiph. of jn;, in Nu 5^ for the Niph. with the noun VIJ, and in He 11" for eli >cara/3o\7)i» OTripiioLTot. ffHptm has this meaning in Wis 7-, and airiipa bears the same sense in the metajdior of 1 r 1^, where Christians are said to have been ' begotten again, not of corruptible seed (Ik ciropat 4>6apTrji), but of incorrnptible {dipOdprov), through the word of God.' 3.

A/itn/i/idriidl for oj/'xprin/j, whether of animals (Jer 31-'') or of man. Here the Words are n; and airipixa. The former is twice tr. ' child ' (Lv 22'^ 1 S 1"). ' Seed ' has the meaning of genealogy or pedigree, Ezr 2°", Neli 7". 'The holy .seed' is a special designation of the people of Israel, Is 6", Ezr 9", 1 Es 8'". ' Seed,' like ' genera- tion,' is sometimes used to describe a class of people with reference to character rather than to descent.

Thus we have ' seed of evil-doers ' (Is 1), 'of falsehood ' (Is 57), ' blameless seed ' (Wis 10"), 'accursed seed' (Wis 12"), a seed 'honoured' or 'dishonoured ' (Sir 10'"). Two NT passages call for separate remark. (a) The words airipua aiVoC iv avrip ij.{vei (1 Jn 3°!

have been interi)reted to mean either (1) that Christians, as the ' seed ' or children of God, abide in Ilim and are thus kept from sinning ; or (2) that a Divine [irinciple of lite remains in the Christian, which secures the same result. The latter is the view now almost universally accepted. It makes avTou = 8tov, and the mripixa OcoO is much the same as the aropa i<p0apTos of 1 P 1^. (i) In Gal 3'" St.

Paul bases an argument on the promises of Gn 13" 17*, and lays much emphasis on the use of the singular aTripiinTi rather than the plural airipixainv as pointing to the fulfilment of the promi.ses in an individual, viz. Christ. Now it has to be admitted, first, that neither in Heb. nor in Gr. would it have been natural to use the plural form of ' seeds,' even if the promises had been meant to point only to a jjlurahty of descendants of Abraham ; and, second, that St.

Paul's Language elsewhere (lio 4'* 9') shows that he did not regard the singular crir^p/ian as necessarily excluding the plural meaning. St. Paul's argument in Gal 3" is therefore somewhat artificial and Rabbinical in its form. It does not logically prove that the promise to Abraham 7nust be fulfilled in a single individual.

But we can take from it the thought that the collective noun, with its singular form, suggests an individual in whom the destiny of Abraham's posterity is summed up, and by whom their mission to the world is carried out. The terms of the promise, though not incompatible with a multiple or national fulfil- ment, are peculiarly compatible with one which centres in a single person, as Christ's fulfilment does (see Lightfoot, Beet, Eadie, Findlay, Lip.sius, Meyer, ad loc). James Patiuck.