Matthew 13:7

αἱ ἄκανθαι. Virgil mentions among the ‘plagues’ of the wheat,

‘Ut mala culmos

Esset robigo segnisque horreret in arvis

Carduus.’

Georg. I. 150–153.

7. σαγήνη. A drag-net or seine (the English word comes from the Greek through sagena of the Vulgate). One end of the seine is held on the shore, the other is hauled off by a boat and then returned to the land. In this way a large number of fishes of all kinds is enclosed. Seine-fishing is still practised on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall.

The teaching of this parable partly coincides with that of the parable of the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30). In both are exhibited the mixture of good and evil in the visible Church, and the final separation of them. But here the thought is specially directed to the ingathering of the Church. The ministers of Christ will of necessity draw converts of diverse character, good and evil, and actuated by different motives. From the parable of the tares we learn not to reject any from within the Church, in the hope of expelling the element of evil. It is a parable of the settled Church. This is a missionary parable. It teaches that as a matter of history or of fact, no barrier or external test will serve to exclude the unworthy convert.