But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Verse 25. But while men slept] When the professors were lukewarm, and the pastors indolent, his enemy came and sowed tares, degenerate, or bastard wheat. The righteous and the wicked are often mingled in the visible Church. Every Christian society, how pure soever its principles may be, has its bastard wheat-those who bear a resemblance to the good, but whose hearts are not right with God. He who sows this bastard wheat among God’s people is here styled God’s enemy; and he may be considered also as a sower of them who permits them to be sown and to spring up through his negligence. Wo to the indolent pastors, who permit the souls under their care to be corrupted by error and sin! This word does not, I believe, occur in any of the Greek classics, nor in Dioscorides; but it may be seen in the Geoponica, or Greek writers De Re Rustica: see the edition by Niclas, vol. i. lib. ii. c. 43, where is said to be the same which the Greeks call ; and Florentinus, the author, says, , , , , . “Zizanion, which is called , darnel, injures the wheat; and, mixed in the bread, causes dimness of the eyes to those who eat of it.” And the author might have added vertigo also. But this does not seem to be the grain to which our Lord alludes.
The word , zizania, which is here translated tares, and which should rather be translated bastard or degenerate wheat, is a Chaldee word; and its meaning must be sought in the rabbinical writers. In a treatise in the Mishna called Kelayim, which treats expressly on different kinds of seeds, the word zunim, or zunin, is used for bastard or degenerated wheat; that which was wholly a right seed in the beginning, but afterwards became degenerate – the ear not being so large, nor the grains in such quantity, as formerly, nor the corn so good in quality. In Ps 144:13, the words mizzan al zen, are translated all manner of store; but they properly signify, from species to species: might not the Chaldee word zunin, and the Greek word , zizania, come from the psalmist’s zanzan, which might have signified a mixture of grain of any kind, and be here used to point out the mixing bastard or degenerate wheat among good seed wheat? The Persic translator renders it [Persic] telkh daneh, bitter grain; but it seems to signify merely degenerate wheat. This interpretation throws much light on the scope and design of the whole passage. Christ seems to refer, first, to the origin of evil. God sowed good seed in his field; made man in his own image and likeness: but the enemy, the devil, (Mt 13:30,) corrupted this good seed, and caused it to degenerate. Secondly, he seems to refer to the state of the Jewish people: God had sowed them, at first, wholly a right seed, but now they were become utterly degenerate, and about to be plucked up and destroyed by the Roman armies, which were the angels or messengers of God’s justice, whom he had commissioned to sweep these rebellious people from the face of the land. Thirdly, he seems to refer also to the state in which the world shall be found, when he comes to judge it. The righteous and the wicked shall be permitted to grow together, till God comes to make a full and final separation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
25, 38, 39. But while men slept, hisenemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way(Seeon Mt 13:38, 39).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But while men slept,…. Good men, ministers, and churches; whose case this sometimes is to be asleep in a spiritual sense: and which sleepiness lies in a non-exercise of grace; in a sluggishness to and in duty; in a contentment in external exercises of religion; in lukewarmness about the cause of Christ; in an unconcernedness about sins of omission and commission; and in a willingness to continue in such a state; and which arises from a body of sin and death; from worldly cares; weariness in spiritual duties; a cessation from spiritual exercises; an absenting from spiritual company; oftentimes from outward ease, peace, and plenty, sometimes from a long expectation of the bridegroom’s coming, and the delay of it; and from its being a night season, a time of darkness and security: such a case with the church, and good men, is very dangerous, as it exposes to every sin and snare; renders them liable to lose the presence of Christ, their liveliness and comfort; and tends to poverty and leanness of soul: such are in danger of being surprised with the midnight cry; and the churches are likely to be filled with hypocrites and heretics:
his enemy came; by whom is meant the devil, Mt 13:39 who is an enemy to Christ personally, and showed himself to be so in his infancy, by stirring up Herod to seek his life: and, when grown up, by instigating the Jews to contrive his death; which they attempted by various methods, and which, at last, he compassed by Judas, and the Scribes and Pharisees; and also to Christ mystical, to the church, and all true believers; whose adversary he is, going about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: the same came into the field, the world, and church in it;
and sowed tares among the wheat; by “the wheat”, is meant the same with the “good seed”, the children of God, true believers in Christ; who are comparable to wheat, for the choiceness of it, that being the choicest grain, so they are the chosen of God, and precious, and the excellent in the earth: and because it dies before it rises and springs up; so the saints do, and will do, both in a spiritual and corporal sense; and because of the purity and whiteness of it, so they are pure and white, being sanctioned by the Spirit, washed in the blood of Christ, and justified by his righteousness; and because of its substance, fulness, weight, and permanence, so they are filled from Christ’s fulness, and with the fulness of God, and fruits of righteousness, and remain, and cannot be driven as the chaff is, but continue to live, because Christ their head lives; and because of its gradual increase, so they increase in spiritual light, grace, and experience; and because of the chaff that adheres to it, so sin and corruption cleave to the saints in this life; and lastly, because it needs both the flail and the fan, so believers need chastisements, afflictions, and corrections: by “the tares” sown among them, are meant “the children of the wicked one”; Satan, the enemy and adversary, as in Mt 13:38 who are to be understood, not of profane sinners; though these are the children of the devil; but of professors of religion, men either of bad principles, or of bad lives and conversations; whom Satan, by some means or another, gets into churches, and they become members thereof: at first they look like wheat, like true believers, have a show of religion, a form of godliness, an appearance of grace, but are destitute of it; and prove tares, unfruitful, unprofitable, and of no account, yea hurtful, and whose end is to be burned.
And went his way; somewhere else, to do more mischief; and having done all he could at present here, undiscovered, not taken notice of by ministers and churches; they being all asleep, and having lost, in a great measure, the spirit of discerning. The word , we render “tares”, and the Ethiopic version “thistles”, probably means the same the Jewish doctors call , Zunin s; and which, they say, is a sort of wheat, and not of a different kind from it; that when it is sown it looks like wheat, and is sown for it, but is changed in the earth, both as to its nature and form, and brings forth this kind. In the generation in which the flood was, they say t, they sowed wheat, and the earth brought forth , , what we render “tares”, and bids fair to be what is here meant; and fitly expresses false professors, nominal Christians, men of degenerate principles and practices: for not what we call tares, or vetches, can be meant, which may be removed from the wheat without danger, but rather this degenerate wheat; or that wheat which is blasted, and which may be observed sometimes to grow upon the same root, and therefore cannot be taken away, without rooting up the wheat also.
s Misn. Kilaim, c. 1. sect. 1. & Trumot, c. 2. sect, 6. & Maimon. in ib. T. Hieros. Kilaim, fol. 26. 4. Maimon. Hilch. Kilaim, c. 3. sect. 3. t Bereshit Rabba, sect. 28. fol. 23. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
While men slept ( ). Same use of the articular present infinitive with and the accusative as in 13:4.
Sowed tares also ( ). Literally “sowed upon,” “resowed” (Moffatt). The enemy deliberately sowed “the darnel” ( is not “tares,” but “darnel,” a bastard wheat) over () the wheat, “in the midst of the wheat.” This bearded darnel, lolium temulentum, is common in Palestine and resembles wheat except that the grains are black. In its earlier stages it is indistinguishable from the wheat stalks so that it has to remain till near the harvest. Modern farmers are gaining more skill in weeding it out.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Sowed [] . The preposition ejpi, upon, indicates sowing over what was previously sown. Rev., “sowed also.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But while men slept,” (en de to katheudein tous anthropous) “Then while men slept,” slumbered on in lethargy and indifference, slept on the job. It appears that it was the children of the kingdom who slept, Rom 13:11-14.
2) “His enemy come and sowed tares among the wheat,” (elthen autou. ho echthros kai epespeinen zizania ana meson tou sitou) “The enemies of him (or them) came and over sowed tares among the wheat,” sowed tare seeds over the same ground where the good seed (the wheat) had been sown, Mat 7:13-18; 2Co 11:13-15.
3) “And went his way.” (kai apelthen) “And went on his way,” knowing that “every thing brings forth after his kind,” Act 20:29-30. The tares of the wicked one may be seeds of gossip, doubt, suspicion, malice, envy, jealousy left to grow, Gal 5:16-21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(25, 26) His enemy came and sowed tares.The act described was thenand still isa common form of Eastern malice or revenge. It easily escaped detection. It inflicted both loss and trouble. The enemy had the satisfaction of brooding for weeks or months over the prospect of the injury he had inflicted, and the vexation it would cause when discovered. The tares, known to botanists as the Lolium temulentum, or darnel, grew up at first with stalk and blade like the wheat; and it was not till fructification began that the difference was easily detected. It adds to the point of the parable to remember that the seeds of the tares were not merely useless as food, but were positively noxious.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. While men slept While the providence of God and human affairs were going quietly on, his enemy, the devil, sowed tares. The devil is here said to sow wicked men, just as the wicked are called children of the devil, not because he creates or procreates them, but because their moral nature as sinners was brought about by his agency. As men, God is their father; as sinners, they are the children of the devil.
“The tare abounds all over the East, and is a great nuisance to the farmer. It resembles the American cheat, but the head does not droop like cheat, nor does it branch out like oats. The grain, also, is smaller, and is arranged along the upper part of the stalk, which stands perfectly erect. The taste is bitter, and when eaten separately, or even when diffused in ordinary bread, it causes dizziness, and often acts as a violent emetic. Barn-door fowls also become dizzy from eating it. In short, it is a strong soporific poison, and must be carefully winnowed, and picked out of the wheat, grain by grain, before grinding, or the flour is not healthy.” Dr. Thomson.
Mat 13:25 . ] Darnel, lolium temulentum , a grain resembling wheat, acting injuriously upon the brain and stomach, and likewise known by the name of ; see Suidas. In Talmudic language it is called ; Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 680.
The people who slept are men generally (pragmatic way of hinting that it was during the night, when no one else would be present), not merely the agri custodes (Bengel), or the labourers (Michaelis, Paulus), whom it would have been necessary to indicate more particularly by means of or some similar expression. This little detail forms part of the drapery of the parable (comp. Mat 25:5 ), and is not meant to be interpreted (as referring, say to the sleep of sin, Calovius; or to the negligence of instructors, Chrysostom, Jerome; or to the slowness of man’s spiritual development, Lange), as is further evident from the fact that Jesus Himself has not so explained it.
.] his enemy; comp. note on Mat 8:3
: to sow over what was previously sown, Pind. Nem. viii. 67; Theophr. c. pl. iii. 15. 4; Poll. i. 223.
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Ver. 25. But while men slept ] Christ, the Lord of the husbandry, neither slumbereth nor sleepeth; but the labourers and landholders, to whom he lets out his vineyard, are frequently found to be safe and secure, Zec 4:1 . It fared with the good prophet, as with a drowsy person; who, though awake and set to work, is ready to sleep at it. And albeit we watch against greater, yet lesser evils are ready to steal upon us at unawares, as Austin hath it. a
His enemy came ] This is the minister’s misery. Other men find their work as they left it; but when ministers have done their best on one sabbath day, the enemy comes ere the next, and mars all. They sleep and are fearless; he wakes for a mischief, and is restless. Learn for shame of the devil (said father Latimer to careless ministers) to watch over your flocks. God will shortly send out summons for sleepers; and the devil waketh and walketh, seeking whom to devour. His instruments also are wondrous active in evil. O pray (said a dying man in the beginning of the German Reformation) that God would preserve the gospel; for the pope of Rome and the Council of Trent to bestir themselves wonderfully! May not we say as much and more today? b
And sowed tares among the wheat ] Better it were rendered blasted grain, that yields nothing better at harvest than dust and chaff; c though it be in all things like the good grain, and the contrary appeareth not till towards harvest, when the dust is driven away by the wind, the chaff cast into the fire. Hereby are meant hypocrites and heretics, qui nobiscum in horreo esse possunt, in area non possunt, who shall be sifted out one day.
And went his way ] As if he had done no such thing. Satan hides his cloven feet as much as he can, and would seem no other than an angel of light. Or abiit, id est, latuit, saith one: he went away, that is, he lurked, as his imps use to do, under the fair penthouse of zeal and seeming devotion, under the broad leaves of formal profession.
a Adversus maiora vigilantibus, quaedam incautis minutiora surrepunt. Aug.
b Ut iugulent homines surgunt de necte latrones.
Ut teipsum serves non expergiscere?
Pontifex enim Rom. et Concilium Tridentinum mira moliuntur.
c Frumentum adustum, , quasi , quod frugibus noceat. Aug.
25. ] . not, ‘ the men ’ belonging to the owner of the field, but men generally: and the expression is used only to designate ‘ in the night time ,’ not to charge the servants with any want of watchfulness.
. ] ‘ superseminavit ,’ sowed over the first seed.
, apparently the darnel , or bastard wheat (lolium album), so often seen in our fields and by our hedgerows; if so, what follows will be explained, that the tares appeared when the wheat came into ear, having been previously not noticeable. It appears to be an Eastern word, expressed in the Talmud by .
Our Lord was speaking of an act of malice practised in the East: persons of revengeful disposition watch the ground of a neighbour being ploughed, and in the night following sow destructive weeds. (Roberts’s Oriental Illustrations, p. 541, cited by Trench on the Parables, p. 68.) (The practice is not unknown even in England at present. Since the publication of the first edition of this commentary, a field belonging to the Editor, at Gaddesby in Leicestershire, was maliciously sown with charlock (sinapis arvensis) over the wheat. An action at law was brought by the tenant, and heavy damages obtained against the offender.)
Mat 13:25 . = during the night. . , his enemy. Weiss (Matt.-Evang., 347) thinks this feature no part of the original parable, but introduced to correspond with the interpretation (Mat 13:39 ), no enemy being needed to account for the appearance of the “tares,” which might grow then as now from seed lying dormant in the ground. Christ’s parables usually comply with the requirements of natural probability, but sometimes they have to depart from them to make the parable answer to the spiritual fact; e.g. , when all the invited are represented as refusing to come to the feast (Luk 14:16-24 ). The appearance of the “tares” might be made a preternatural phenomenon out of regard to the perfect purity of the seed, and the great abundance of bad men in a holy society. A few scattered stalks might spring up in a natural way, but whence so many? , deliberately sowed over the wheat seed as thickly as if no other seed were there. = bastard wheat, darnel, lolium temulentum , common in Palestine (Furrer, Wanderungen , p. 293), perhaps a Semitic word. Another name for the plant in Greek is (Suidas, Lex.).
slept. App-171.
sowed = sowed upon [and therefore among]. Greek. epispeiro = sowed. Occurs only here. All the texts read “sowed over”.
tares. Greek. zizania (Occurs only in this chapter, verses: Mat 13:25, Mat 13:36.) Not “darnel” (the Lolium temulentum of naturalists), but zewan as known to-day in Palestine. While growing it looks like wheat, but when full grown the ears are long and the grains almost black. Each grain of zewan must be removed before grinding wheat, or the bread is bitter and poisonous. Wheat is golden; but tares show their true colour as they ripen.
among = in (Greek. ana,) the midst.
went his way. He had no doubt as to the result. Nor should those have doubt who sow “the good seed” of the Word of God. They should have as much confidence in their sowing as the “enemy” had in his; and go their way, and sow more.
25.] . not, the men belonging to the owner of the field, but men generally: and the expression is used only to designate in the night time, not to charge the servants with any want of watchfulness.
.] superseminavit, sowed over the first seed.
, apparently the darnel, or bastard wheat (lolium album), so often seen in our fields and by our hedgerows; if so, what follows will be explained, that the tares appeared when the wheat came into ear, having been previously not noticeable. It appears to be an Eastern word, expressed in the Talmud by .
Our Lord was speaking of an act of malice practised in the East:-persons of revengeful disposition watch the ground of a neighbour being ploughed, and in the night following sow destructive weeds. (Robertss Oriental Illustrations, p. 541, cited by Trench on the Parables, p. 68.) (The practice is not unknown even in England at present. Since the publication of the first edition of this commentary, a field belonging to the Editor, at Gaddesby in Leicestershire, was maliciously sown with charlock (sinapis arvensis) over the wheat. An action at law was brought by the tenant, and heavy damages obtained against the offender.)
Mat 13:25. , the men) sc. those whose business it was to watch the field. The Lord Himself does not sleep.-, His) it is not said their enemy.-, zizans[625]) This word does not occur in the LXX. nor in the more ancient Greek writers; it is therefore evidently formed from the Hebrew , a flower. Many flowers which are noxious to the husbandman grow among the corn.-, …, throughout, etc.) everywhere among the wheat.-, departed[626]) on which account the zizans[627] remained for some time unnoticed.
[625] E. V. Tares.-Apparently the darnel or bastard wheat (lolium album), so often seen in our fields and by our hedgerows; if so, what follows will be explained, that the tares appeared when the wheat came into ear, having been previously not noticeable. It appears to be an Eastern word, expressed in the Talmud by . Our Lord was speaking of an act of malice practised in the East; persons of revengeful disposition watch the ground of a neighbour being ploughed, and in the night following sow destructive weeds. (Roberts Oriental Illustrations, p. 541, cited by Trench on the Parables, p. 68.) (The practice is not unknown even in England at present. Since the publication of the first edition of this Commentary, a field at Gaddesby, in Leicestershire, was maliciously sown with charlock [sinapis arvensis] over the wheat. An action at law was brought, and heavy damages obtained against the offender.) Jerome in loc. says:-Inter triticum et zizania quod nos appellamus lolium, quamdiu herba est, et nondum culmus venit ad spicam, grandis similitudo est, et in discernendo nulla aut perdifficilis distantia. Jerome, it must be remembered, resided in Palestine.-ALFORD in loc. Wordsworth says, that it was a degenerate wheat, and which may also be reclaimed into wheat. See also footnote 5.-(I. B.)
[626] He went his way, in order that he might not be observed.-V. g.
[627] DR KITTO, in his Illustrated Commentary, says, The Darnel, called Zuwan by the Arabs and Turks, and Zizanion by the Spaniards, is described by Dr Russell and Forskal as well known to the people of Aleppo, as often growing abundantly in their corn-fields. If its seeds remain mixed with the meal, it is found to occasion dizziness and other injurious effects upon those who eat of the bread: the reapers in that neighbourhood, however, do not separate the plant, but, after the threshing, reject the seeds by means of a van or sieve. We are also informed that, in other parts of Syria, the plant is drawn up by hand, in time of harvest, along with the wheat, and is then gathered out, and bound up in separate bundles.-(I. B.)
men: Mat 25:5, Isa 56:9, Isa 56:10, Act 20:30, Act 20:31, Gal 2:4, 2Ti 4:3-5, Heb 12:15, 2Pe 2:1, Rev 2:20
enemy: Mat 13:39, 2Co 11:13-15, 1Pe 5:8, Rev 12:9, Rev 13:14
tares: Mat 13:38
Reciprocal: 1Ki 3:20 – midnight Neh 13:6 – But 1Th 5:6 – let us not
3:25
While men slept means the time when mankind was usually asleep, and that would be the most likely time for an enemy to get in his evil work. Tares is from ZIZANION, and Thayer’s description of it is, “A kind of darnel, bastard wheat, resembling wheat except that the grains are black,” and Robinson says of it, “At first having a close resemblance to them” [good grain]. A common idea is that the tares were growing in such a way that the roots of them and the wheat were entwined so that a man could not pull up the one without uprooting the other. This is a mistake, and instead, it is the resemblance that is considered and which will be considered also below.
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
[Tares.] Zunin; in Talmudic language. Wheat and ‘Zunin’ are not seeds of different kinds. Where the Gloss is this; “Is a kind of wheat, which is changed in the earth, both as to its form, and to its nature.” By the best Lexicographers it is rendered zizania; in Latin.
So that that field, in this parable, was sown by the lord with good wheat; by the enemy, with bad and degenerate wheat; but all of it was sown with wheat, one or the other. These words do not so barely mean good and bad men, as good and bad Christians; both distinguished from other men, namely, from heathens, as wheat is distinguished from other seeds: but they are distinguished also among themselves, as good wheat is distinguished from that which is degenerate. So Matthew_25, all those ten women, expecting the bridegroom, are virgins; but are distinguished into wise and foolish.
Mat 13:25. But while men slept, i.e., at night, the opportune time for such an act of malice. No censure of the servants is expressed; though their natural weakness may be implied.
His enemy came and sowed tares also amidst the wheat. Tares, darnel or bastard wheat, looking like wheat, but with a fruit which is injurious in its effects. An act of malice not unexampled.
Went away. The hostile sowing required no further care; in the beginnings of evil Satan conceals himself.
The farmer’s enemy maliciously sowed weeds that looked like the wheat. This weed was evidently bearded darnel (Lat. lolium temulentum), a plant that looks very much like wheat when the plants are young. The roots would intertwine with those of the wheat, but when the two plants reached maturity it would be clear which was which. The enemy thoroughly distributed the darnel seed among the young wheat. As the plants grew, it became apparent to the field owner’s servants what the enemy had done.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)