Wheat

Wheat (Hebrew hittah) was one of the primary grain crops of ancient Palestine and the ancient Near East, cultivated since at least the tenth millennium BC. It appears throughout Scripture as a staple food and a measure of prosperity: God's blessing on Israel included "the finest of the wheat" (Psalm 81:16; 147:14; Deuteronomy 32:14). Egypt's seven years of plenty in Joseph's era were characterized by abundant wheat harvests (Genesis 41:5–7). The annual wheat harvest in early summer was the occasion for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost). Wheat appears frequently in Jesus's parables: the parable of the tares (Matthew 13:24–30) involves wheat growing alongside weeds, with the harvest as the image of final judgment; John 12:24 uses the grain of wheat falling into the ground to die as a figure for Christ's death and resurrection; Luke 22:31 records Jesus telling Peter that Satan has desired to sift him "as wheat." The separation of wheat from chaff at threshing became a classic image of divine judgment (Matthew 3:12).