IN MATTHEW 3 V.3 WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT THE LOCUSTS. ARE THEY THE LOCUST LIKE WE HAVE TODAY?
The following quotation is the most concise and informative portrayal of which I am aware of the locust that was typical and thus available in Palestine for the prophet, John the Baptist, to eat.
There are ten Hebrew words used in Scripture to signify locust. In the New Testament locusts are mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6). By the Mosaic law they were reckoned “clean,” so that he could lawfully eat them. The name also occurs in Rev. 9:3, 7, in allusion to this Oriental devastating insect. Locusts belong to the class of Orthoptera, i.e., straight-winged. They are of many species. The ordinary Syrian locust resembles the grasshopper, but is larger and more destructive. “The legs and thighs of these insects are so powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies. When so raised they spread their wings and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving mass.” Locusts are prepared as food in various ways. Sometimes they are pounded, and then mixed with flour and water, and baked into cakes; “sometimes boiled, roasted, or stewed in butter, and then eaten.” [Easton, M. G., M. A. D. D., Easton’s Bible Dictionary, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1996.]
