Matthew 13:24-30. Zizanion, Arabic, zowan, Hebrew zownin; zan means "nausea." Not our vetch, but darnel; at first impossible to distinguish from wheat or barley, until the wheat's ear is developed, when the thin fruitless ear of the darnel is detected. Its root too so intertwines with that of the wheat that the farmer cannot separate them, without plucking up both, "till the time of harvest." The seed is like wheat, but smaller and black, and when mixed with wheat flour causes dizziness, intoxication, and paralysis; Lolium temulentum, "bearded darnel", the only deleterious grain among all the numerous grasses.
        French, ivraie, "tipsy grass," from from whence our harmless "rye grass" is named. Hollow professors, having the form without the reality of godliness, nay, even hurtful and bad (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6; Ezekiel 33:31). None but the Lord of the harvest can distinguish the seeming from the real. The attempt to forestall His judgment for the sake of securing a pure church has always failed, and has only tended to foster spiritual pride and hypocrisy. Trench makes the "tares" into degenerate wheat (Parables, 91); sin is not a generation but a degeneracy.