ROSENMULLER, JOHANN GEORG, father of the preceding, was born at Ummerstadt 18th De cember 1736. He was successively pastor at Hild burghausen, Hessburg, and Konigsberg in Fran conia ; and professor of theology at Erlangen, at Geissen, and at Leipzig, at which last place he also held the office of pastor of the church of St. Thomas and superintendent. He died there 14th March 1815. He exerted considerable influence both on religious opinion and on education in Germany during his long and active life, but is now remembered only as the author of Scholia ill Nov. Test., 5 vols. , Norimb. 1777, of which the 6th edition, partly edited by his son after his death, appeared r815 [COMMENTARY1—W. L. A.
ROSH (t:,;g1 and eil) occurs in several places of the O. T. The word is thought originally to signify poison,' and is therefore supposed to indi cate a poisonous plant. But this has not yet been ascertained. It is sometimes translated gall, some times bitter or bitterness, but is generally considered to signify some plant. This we may infer from its being frequently mentioned along with laanah or wormwood' (comp. Dent. xxix. 18 ; Jer. ix. 15 ; xxiii. 15 ; Lament. iii. 19; Amos vi. x2). That it was a berry-bearing plant has been inferred from Dent. xxxii. 32, For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their grapes are grapes of gall (rash), their clusters are bitter.' In Jer. viii. 14, water of gall' (rash) is mentioned ; which may be either the ex pressed juice of the fruit or of the plant, or a bitter infusion made from it ; aqux Rosch dicuntur, quia sunt succus herb, quam Rosch appellant.' That it was a plant is very evident from Hosea x. 4> where it is said their judgment springeth up as hemlock (rosh) in the furrows of the field.' Here we observe that rosh is translated hemlock in the A. V., as it is also in Amos vi. 12.
Though rosh is generally acknowledged to indicate some plant, yet a variety of opinions have been entertained respecting its identifica tion : some, as the A. V. in Hosea x. 4, and Amos vi. 12, consider cicuta or hemlock to be the plant intended. Tremellius adopts this as the meaning of rash. in all the passages, and is followed by Celsius (Hierobot. H. 49). The cicula of the Romans, the Ko5vetov of the Greeks, is gene rally acknowledged to have been what we now call hemlock, the C0111.11111 maculatum of botanists. There can be no doubt of its poisonous nature, Cicuta venenum est publica Atheniensinni pcena invisa' (Pliny, Hirt. Arat., XXV. 13). There is, however, little or no proof adduced that rosh is hemlock. Celsius quotes the description of Lin naeus in support of its growing in the furrows of fields, Frequens per Europam in ruderatis, juxta I pagos, urbes, in sepibus, aggeribus, agris.' But it does not appear to be so common in Syria. Cel sius, however, adduces Ben Melech, the most leamed of Rabbins, as being of opinion that rosh was conium or hemlock: Aqu Rosch, virus ; barbare toxicum. Herba est, cujus succum biben dum porrigunt quem interimere volunt.' But there does not appear any necessity for our considering rash to have been more poisonous than laanah or wormwood, with which it is associated so frequently as to appear like a proverbial expression.
Some have erroneously translated it wormwood, from which it is sufficiently distinguished in the atove passages. The Sept translators render it agrostis, intending some species of grass. Hence some have concluded that it must be lolium temu lentum, or darnel, the zizanium of the ancients, which is remarkable among grasses for its poison ous and intoxicating properties. It is, how ever, mther sweetish in taste, and its seeds being intermixed with corn are sometimes made into bread. It is well lcnown to grow in com-fields, and would therefore suit the passage of Hosea ; but it has not a berry-like fruit, nor would it yield any juice : the infusion in water, however, might be so understood, though it would not be very bitter or disagreeable in taste. Some have in con sequence thought that some of the solanea or lurida of Linnmus might be intended by the word rosh. These are remarkable for their narcotic properties, though not particu/arly bitter ; some of them have berried fruits, as the belladonna, which, however, is not indigenous in Palestine ; but so/azzzinz ni grum, common nightshade, a small herbaceous plant, is common in fields and road-sides from Europe to India, and is narcotic like the others. The henbane is another plant of this family, which is possessed of powerful narcotic properties, and has been used in medicine from early times, both by the Greeks and Asiatics. But no proof appears in favour of any of this tribe, and their sensible properties are not so remarkably disagreeable as to have led to their being employed in what appears to be a proverbial expression. Hiller, in his Nitro phyticon (ii. 54), adduces the centaury as a bitter plant, which corresponds with much of what is required. Two kinds of centaury, the larger and smaller, and both conspicuous for their bitterness, were known to the ancients. The latter, the Erythraa centaurium, is one of the family of gen tians, and still continues to be employed as a medicine on account of its bitter and tonic proper ties (Plin. xxv. c. 6). From the extreme bitterness of taste, from grosving in fields, and being a native of warm countries, some plant like centaury, and of the tribe of gentians, might answer all the pas sages in which rosh is mentioned, with the excep tion. of that (Dein. xxxii. 32) where it is supposed to have a berried fruit. Dr. Harris, quoting Blaney on Jen viii. 4, says, In Ps. hax. 21, which is justly considered as a prophecy of our Saviour's sufferings, it is said, they gave me nil to eat,' which the Sept. have rendered X0X7SP, gall. And accordingly it is recorded in the history (Matt. xxvii. 34), They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall,' Stos uera o?tijs. But in the parallel passage (Mark xv. 23) at is said to be 'wine mingled with myrrh,' a very bitter ingredient From whence I am induced to think that xaitaj, and perhaps MCI, may be used as a geneml name for whatever is exceedingly bitter ; and, consequently, when the sense re quires, it may be put specially for any bitter herb or plant, the infusion of which may be called +t3 VIM, Aqu Rosch."—J. F. R.