An important Biblical crop, as one would imagine, wheat is mentioned fifty-two times, most frequently as ḥittâ. There are several striking passages in which wheat occurs, for instance, when Gideon threshed wheat at the time of his call (
Wheat is, of course, Triticum aestivum, the ordinary summer or winter wheat, or Triticum compositum, the bearded wheat, with several ears on one stalk. There is also the Egyp. wheat, Triticum tungidum; the one-grained wheat, Triticum monoccum; the wild wheat, Triticum dicoccoides.
The writer found only two actual varieties growing in Pal. on his last visit. These were Triticum durum zenati x Bonterli and Triticum vulgare Florence x aurore.
When the Israelities settled in Pal., they became great farmers and produced vast quantities of wheat which they exported. Much went by ship to Tyre (
The wheat harvest in Pal. is from the third week of April until the second week of June, depending on the soil, situation, and time of sowing. This is such an important time of the year that people referred to “after the wheat harvest” or “at the time of the wheat harvest” as in
The threshing was done as a rule with a long, flexible stick known as a flail (
The terms “corn” and “wheat” seem to be alternatives, and even today one refers to the “corn fields” of Great Britain. Americans must not confuse this corn with sweet corn.
Our Lord’s reference to one-hundred-fold in
The sowing of wheat was usually done in the winter in Pal.—broadcast and lightly plowed in. Occasionally, the sowing was done in rows (
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
((1) chiTTah, the specific word for wheat (
(2) bar, or bar (