(Vol. iv., p. 255.)
The Romaic version of Matt. iv. 4. is almost verbally taken from the
Greek, "[Greek: he de trophe autou en akrides kai meli agrion]." In Mark
i. 6., the expression is [Greek: esthion akridas]. The only other place
in the New Testament were the word [Greek: akris] is found, is in Rev.
ix. 3. 7., where it plainly means a locust.
In the Septuagint version the word is commonly used for the Hebrew
[Hebrew: `arbeh], locust, of the meaning of which there is no dispute; as
in Exodus, x. 4. 12, 13, 14.; Deut. xxviii. 38.; Joel, i. 4., ii. 25.;
Ps. cv. 34., &c.
In other places the word [Greek: akris] in the Septuagint corresponds to
[Hebrew: chagab], in the Hebrew, as in Numb. xiii. 33.; Is. xl. 22.; and
that this was a species of locust which was eatable, appears from Lev.
xi. 21, 22.:
"Yet there may ye eat of every _flying_ creeping thing that goeth
upon all fours, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal
upon the earth; even those of them ye may eat, the locust
([Hebrew: th ha`arbeh], [Greek: ton brouchon]) after his kind, and
the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and
the grasshopper ([Hebrew: `eth hechagab], [Greek: ten akrida])
after his kind."
That locusts were eaten in the East is plain from Pliny, who in xi. 29.
relates this of the Parthians; and in vi. 30. of the Ethiopians, among
whom was a tribe called the Acridophagi, from their use of the [Greek:
akris] for food.
There seems, then, no reason to suppose that in Matt. iv. 4., Mark i.
6., the word [Greek: akrides] should be taken to mean anything but
locusts.
It was, however, a very ancient opinion that the word [Greek: akrides]
here means [Greek: akrodrya], or [Greek: akra dryon], or [Greek:
akremones], or [Greek: akrismata], the ends of the branches of trees;
although the word [Greek: akrides] is never used in this sense by pure
Greek writers.