Matthew 25:10

ἀπερχομένων, etc. The foolish took the advice and went to buy, and in so doing acted in character; foolish in that as in not having a good supply of oil. They should have gone on without oil, the great matter being to be in time. By reckoning this as a point in their folly we bring the foolish virgins into analogy with the foolish builder in chap. Matthew 7:26. Vide notes there, and also The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 505 f. Of course, on this view the oil has no significance in the spiritual sphere. It plays a great part in the history of interpretation. For Chrys. and Euthy., the lamp = virginity, and the oil = pity, and the moral is: continence without charity worthless; a good lesson. “Nothing,” says the former, “is blinder than virginity without pity; thus the people are used to call the merciless dark (σκοτεινούς),” Hom. lxxviii. ἐκλείσθη ἡ θύρα, the door was shut, because all the guests were supposed to be within; no hint given by the wise virgins that more were coming. This improbable in the natural sphere.