Matthew 13:4-25

The Parable of the Tares. Confined to St Matthew

25. while men slept i. e. during the night. The expression is not introduced into the Lord's explanation of the parable.

sowed tares Travellers mention similar instances of spiteful conduct in the East, and elsewhere, in modern times.

tares Probably the English "darnel;" Latin, lolium; in the earlier stages of its growth this weed very closely resembles wheat, indeed can scarcely be distinguished from it. This resemblance gives an obvious point to the parable. The good and the evil are often undistinguishable in the visible Church. The Day of Judgment will separate. Men have tried in every age to make the separation beforehand, but have failed. For proof of this read the history of the Essenes or the Donatists. The Lollards as the followers of Wyckliffe were called were sometimes by a play on the word loliumidentified by their opponents with the tares of this parable. A friend suggests the reflection: "How strange it was that the very men who applied the word -Lollard" from this parable, acted in direct opposition to the great lesson which it taught, by being persecutors."

The parable of the Tares has a sequence in thought on the parable of the Sower. The latter shews that the kingdom of God will not be co-extensive with the world; all men have not the capacity to receive the word. This indicates that the kingdom of God the true Church is not co-extensive with the visible Church. Some who seem to be subjects of the Kingdom are not really subjects.