The verb βοσκω (bosko) means to [put out to] feed or graze, and specifically of herds and cattle. The derived noun βοσκος (boskos) is a relatively uncommon word for herdsman and unused in the New Testament (in Matthew 8:33, Mark 5:14 and Luke 8:34, pig herders are indicated by a participle of our verb). The more common word for shepherd is ποιμην (poimen).

Our verb βοσκω (bosko) stems from the Proto-Indo-European root "geh-", to feed, but is also reminiscent of the noun βους (bous), meaning ox or cattle, and the apparently unrelated Proto-Indo-European root "buH-", to grow, from which English gets its noun bush (and Dutch the equivalent bos).

Our verb is used 9 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, possibly most spectacular in Jesus' command to Peter to feed his lambs and sheep (John 21:15-17). From this verb derives:

The noun βοτρυς (botrus) describes a cluster of grapes (Revelation 14:18 only). One would expect this word to fit right into the above, but the experts have deemed it of non-Greek origin, and perhaps even Semitic. The Hebrew noun בסר (boser) describes a comparable fruit, although it derives from the verb בסר (basar), to be early, and rather describes a sour or unripe grape or date (Job 15:33, Isaiah 18:5, Ezekiel 18:2): "Everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge" (Jeremiah 31:29-30).

The noun συκον (sukon) means fig, whose tree is related to the μορον (moron), the proverbially dim berry, which came to symbolize intellectual primitivity and immaturity. The Hebrew word for the first ripe fig, namely בכורה (bikkura), derives from the verb בכר (bakar), meaning to rise early.

The Hebrew for cluster is אשכול ('eshkol), hence the Valley of Eshcol (Numbers 13:23). The common word for grape is ענב ('anab).

The noun σταφυλη (staphule) describes the ripe juicy grape as it occurs in clusters (Matthew 7:16, Luke 6:44 and Revelation 14:18 only). The singular form of this noun often indicates the categorical grape rather than an individual fruit: someone might be growing grape or harvesting grape, meaning that they are growing or harvesting grape as a produce (not one single grape). In the Greek classics, our noun is contrasted by ομφαξ (omphax), a hard and unripe grape, and ασταφφις (astaphis), dried grapes or raisons.

It's unclear where this noun came from, although its formation was probably helped along by the Proto-Indo-European root "steb-", stiff (hence the English words stiff and staff), implying that our word describes a grape stiff with juice. Still, there is also the noun στεμφυλιτης (stemphulitis), which describes anything made from pressed grapes (like a cake or wine), which appears to have to do with the verb στεμβω (stembo), to deal roughly with, from a PIE root "stemb-", to stamp. That suggests that our noun σταφυλη (staphule) is perhaps a compound, perhaps with a Semitic element. That element might then be אפל ('opel), dark (indicative of a grape's ripeness and stampability), or פול (pul), a widely attested Semitic word for bean (or comparable item).

The noun στοιβας (stoibas) is a mystery word that, in the whole of extant Greek literature, appears in Mark 11:8 only. Fortunately, Matthew 21:8 tells of the same event and uses the noun κλαδος (klados), which describes a fragment of something broken off, and stems from the verb κλαω (klao), which means to break in the sense of to branch off and disperse into a delta or spray or crown of branches.

Our noun στοιβας (stoibas) is harder to explain, as it seems native to the verb στοιβαζω (stoibazo), to pile into a firmly packed heap (or wall). This verb (one way or the other) also associates to the noun στοιβη (stoibe), which initially described a species of thorny bush from which brooms were made (and see Isaiah 14:23: "I will sweep [Babylon] with the broom of destruction!"), and then the heap of dust that was produced by sweeping, which in turn resulted in the same word describing padding and cushioning. The ultimate source of all these words appears to be the verb στειβω (steibo), to stamp or chomp, which ultimately hails back to the PIE root "steb-", to be or make stiff, we mentioned above.

This not only brings to mind what Jesus said about salt that has lost its saltiness, which is good for nothing but to be thrown out onto the street to be walked on (hence also the streets of gold of the New Jerusalem, indicative of an economy that's not based on scarcity, like ours is, but on abundance and designed purpose: compare Matthew 5:13 to Revelation 21:21). It also brings to mind the broom as political campaign symbol, which shows up wherever some politician promises to rid the cities of dirt (such as immigrants, prostitutes, drug users, gays, queers, blacks, infidels and folks of the wrong faith, the wrong cultures or the wrong language, folks who are too rich or not rich enough, too poorly connected or too well), which is such an idiotic premise that the Coen brothers made jolly good fun of it in their 2000 film O Brother, Were Art Thou (and for the fans: the mattenklopper (carpet beater) of Het Simplisties Verbond (The Simplistic Union) makes similar fun of the same simple folly; the carpet in The Big Lebowski and the "badly written" chompers in Galaxy Quest draw from that same well).

The broom, rather obviously, symbolizes fascism (after the Latin word fasces, a broom-like bundle of rods), which is based on the fundamental proposition that the wielder of said broom knows the difference between what's dirt and what's not. And this is usually where things go sideways, because salvation, or even mild progress, invariably comes from the most unlikely places. This in turn happens because the alphas of society have no incentive to chance anything. The people who desire chance are the people who don't like the status quo, which are the botched and bungled and not the successful members of society (Matthew 22:9). People pride themselves in their lofty coiffures, their handsome faces, their rationality and their erudite speech, and hide and abhor whatever comes out of their other end. But as a matter of biological irony, children come out from one's other end.

Someone who actually knows the difference between good and evil can be recognized by their signature abstinence from judging (Luke 6:37, Romans 2:1). This is because such people appreciate the vast complexities of both human society and the human mind, and also understand that one never quite knows what one doesn't know. A judgement based on incomplete data is always wrong (even if it is accidentally correct). Judging can only be done by someone who has all the data available, which is God alone (James 4:12), and everyone else is to forgive and draw to virtue like a moth to a flame without condemning the darkness or whatever might come out of it, namely all other moths (Romans 16:19, Philippians 4:8).

The people of Jerusalem thought they had the wisdom to judge between good and bad, and ended up calling out for Jesus' death. But as the Psalmist said: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone (Psalm 118:22, also see Zechariah 4:6).

For more on fascism, see our article on Three Taverns or the verb βασκαινω (baskoino), to bewitch.