Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
13:24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field;
13:25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.
13:26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
13:27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’
13:28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
13:29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.
13:30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
13:36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
13:37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;
13:38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,
13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
13:40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,
13:42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
St Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-47
24 Ἄλλην παραβολὴν παρέθηκεν αὐτοῖς λέγων· ὡμοιώθη ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ σπείραντι καλὸν σπέρμα ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ αὐτοῦ·
25 ἐν δὲ τῷ καθεύδειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἦλθεν αὐτοῦ ὁ ἐχθρὸς καὶ ἔσπειρε ζιζάνια ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ σίτου καὶ ἀπῆλθεν.
26 Ὅτε δὲ ἐβλάστησεν ὁ χόρτος καὶ καρπὸν ἐποίησε, τότε ἐφάνη καὶ τὰ ζιζάνια.
27 Προσελθόντες δὲ οἱ δοῦλοι τοῦ οἰκοδεσπότου εἶπον αὐτῷ· κύριε, οὐχὶ καλὸν σπέρμα ἔσπειρας ἐν τῷ σῷ ἀγρῷ; πόθεν οὖν ἔχει ζιζάνια;
28 Ὁ δὲ ἔφη αὐτοῖς· ἐχθρὸς ἄνθρωπος τοῦτο ἐποίησεν. Οἱ δὲ δοῦλοι εἶπον αὐτῷ· θέλεις οὖν ἀπελθόντες συλλέξωμεν αὐτά;
29 Ὁ δὲ ἔφη· οὔ, μήποτε συλλέγοντες τὰ ζιζάνια ἐκριζώσητε ἅμα αὐτοῖς τὸν σῖτον·
30 ἄφετε συναυξάνεσθαι ἀμφότερα μέχρι τοῦ θερισμοῦ, καὶ ἐν καιρῷ τοῦ θερισμοῦ ἐρῶ τοῖς θερισταῖς· συλλέξατε πρῶτον τὰ ζιζάνια καὶ δήσατε αὐτὰ εἰς δέσμας πρὸς τὸ κατακαῦσαι αὐτά, τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην μου.
36 Τότε ἀφεὶς τοὺς ὄχλους ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ. Καὶ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοντες· φράσον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν τῶν ζιζανίων τοῦ ἀγροῦ.
37 Ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· ὁ σπείρων τὸ καλὸν σπέρμα ἐστὶν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου·
38 ὁ δὲ ἀγρός ἐστιν ὁ κόσμος· τὸ δὲ καλὸν σπέρμα, οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ υἱοὶ τῆς βασιλείας· τὰ δὲ ζιζάνιά εἰσιν οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ πονηροῦ·
39 ὁ δὲ ἐχθρὸς ὁ σπείρας αὐτά ἐστιν ὁ διάβολος· ὁ δὲ θερισμὸς συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνός ἐστιν· οἱ δὲ θερισταὶ ἄγγελοί εἰσιν.
40 Ὥσπερ οὖν συλλέγεται τὰ ζιζάνια καὶ πυρὶ καίεται, οὕτως ἔσται ἐν τῇ συντελείᾳ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου.
41 Ἀποστελεῖ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ, καὶ συλλέξουσιν ἐκ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα καὶ τοὺς ποιοῦντας τὴν ἀνομίαν,
42 καὶ βαλοῦσιν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν κάμινον τοῦ πυρός· ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων.
43 Τότε οἱ δίκαιοι ἐκλάμψουσιν ὡς ὁ ἥλιος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν. Ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω.
Comments
Jesus ‘sets forth’ (cf. παρέθηκεν ) i.e. delivers another agrarian parable, to which he afterwards gives the key. His ‘substitutive’ method of allegorical interpretation fortuitously matches that used by ancient Stoics, who elucidated one-to-one correspondences between characters and elements in a narrative and abstract concepts or other ideas, e.g., Hera stands for air, Poseidon for earth. (On the ancient method see D.A. Russell & D. Konstan, Heraclitus: Homeric Problems, Atlanta, GA, 2005, p. xxii.)
[24 ] παραβολὴν: see my comments from last week on Mt. 13:3.
σπείραντι καλὸν σπέρμα: σπέρμα (‘seed’) is a cognate acc. On σπείρω see last week’s commentson Mt.13:4.
[25] ἦλθεν αὐτοῦ ὁ ἐχθρὸς καὶ ἔσπειρε ζιζάνια ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ σίτου καὶ ἀπῆλθεν: ὁ ἐχθρὸς = the enemy. The definite article ὁ has a possessive force which is emphatically pre-announced by the possessive pronoun αὐτοῦ (‘his personal enemy’). ἐχθρὸς, adj., ‘hated, hateful’ (already in Homer); the substantive = ‘enemy’, not necessarily military (with pass. & act. senses overlapping). See LSJ s.v.
ζιζάνια, pl. < ζιζάνιον; in the NT only the pl. occurs. Prob. Semitic in origin, the pl. means ‘darnels’, the weed that grows in wheat (LSJ). It resembles ‘wheat during the early stages of its growth’ (Ex. Dict. NT s.v., p. 103). Reduplication (here ζι-ζα) is common in Semitic, and has nothing to do with onomatopoeia.
Note the balancing contrasts, ἦλθεν… καὶ ἀπῆλθεν, ‘he came… and went away’ (<ἀπ + έρχομαι), here used absol. as in English.
[26] ὁ χόρτος: ‘green stalks’, a collective noun, it seems, and a koine usage. Cf. Ex. Dict. NT s.v., p. 471.
[30] συναυξάνεσθαι ἀμφότερα: συν+ αυξάνομαι, pass., a cmpd, means ‘grow together with’, as in cl. Gr.(see LSJ). ἀμφότερα = ‘both’.
τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην μου: συνάγω, another συν- cmpd, like συναυξάνομαι immed. above, means (already in cl. Gr.) ‘gather together’, ‘unite’, and can be used of persons or objects, a flexibility that suits allegory. Cf. Engl. synagogue.
[36] φράσον ἡμῖν τὴν παραβολὴν τῶν ζιζανίων τοῦ ἀγροῦ: φράσον, aor. imper., 2nd pers. sg. < φράζω, ‘tell, declare’, and in special contexts already in cl. Gr. = ‘explain, interpret’. Jesus’ disciples here sound quite like Neoptolemos in Soph. Philoctetes 559, φράσον δ᾽ ἅπερ, γ᾽ ἔλεξας, ‘But explain just what you said.’
τὴν παραβολὴν τῶν ζιζανίων τοῦ ἀγροῦ: the definite article τὴν has a demonstratve force, i.e. ‘this parable (which you just told)’.
[38] τοῦ πονηροῦ: πονηρός (< πόνος, ‘work, toil’ (in Homer & cl. Gr.)) means ‘useless, worthless, roguish’; in koine (e.g., Ge. 39.9) it can mean ‘evil’ (a case of semantic shift). Here the word is a substantive = ‘the evil one’.
[39] συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνός ἐστιν: συντέλεια is a Matthean term, used in an apocalyptic sense, and means ‘completion, end’ (cf. τέλος, ‘end, purpose, fulfilment’); combined with the genitive τοῦ αἰῶνος = ‘the end of time’.
[42] ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων: ὁ κλαυθμὸς, a koine word (already in Aristotle) = ‘weeping’. ὁ βρυγμὸς (< βρύκω, βρύχω), ‘I gnash, grind (my teeth)’. The two disyllable words create an assonance.
[43] Ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω: see last week’s comments on Mt. 13: 9.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 