Matthew 13:25

ἐν τῳ καθεύδειν = during the night. α. ὁ ἐχθρὸς, his enemy. Weiss (Matt.-Evang., 347) thinks this feature no part of the original parable, but introduced to correspond with the interpretation (Matthew 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 (Luke 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? ἐπέσπειρεν, deliberately sowed over the wheat seed as thickly as if no other seed were there. ζιζάνια = bastard wheat, darnel, lolium temulentum, common in Palestine (Furrer, Wanderungen, p. 293), perhaps a Semitic word. Another name for the plant in Greek is αἷρα (Suidas, Lex.).