Bibliotheca
Sacra 155 (July-September 1998) 266-79.
Copyright © 1998 by
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES*
Mark L. Bailey
The parable of the tares of the
field is the second parable Je-
sus "put" before
the crowds (Matt. 13:24).1 Like the parable of the
sower, this one conveys
through an analogy truths relative to the
kingdom of heaven. The parable of the tares
appears only in
Matthew
(13:24–30) and is one of three (along with the sower
and
the dragnet) that Jesus interpreted (vv. 36-43). It
continues the
agricultural metaphor of seed and
harvest.
Like the parable of the seed growing
secretly (Mark 4:26-29),
this parable too presents the relative
"inactivity" between the sow-
ing and the harvest. While
Jesus may have used similar im-
ageries on different occasions
and for separate purposes, the dif-
ferences between these two far
outweigh the similarities.2 The
parable in Mark makes no mention of enemy
activity. Matthew's
parable concerns what the servants (disciples)
should not be do-
ing with regard to weeding,
whereas Mark's parable, by focusing
on the miraculous growth of the seed, showed what
was impossible
for the servants to do--produce growth. Matthew's
parable ad-
dresses the simultaneous growth of good and bad
seed. He was
interested in showing the conflict between the
and the
terrupted progress and growth of
the kingdom.3
The parable of the tares of the
field is also the first parable in
a series that utilizes the likeness formula in
reference to the
Mark
L. Bailey is Academic Dean and Professor of Bible Exposition at Ilallas Theo-
logical Seminary,
*This
is article three in the eight-part series "The Kingdom in the Parables of
Matthew
13."
1 Parati<qhmi
means "to put or place something before someone." Matthew used it
here and in 13:31. The fact that this is
"another" (a@llhn) parable (13:24) argues
that
this second parable of the kingdom is of the same
kind as the first, indicating that
the parable of the sower
is also a kingdom parable.
2 Craig L. Blomberg,
Interpreting the Parables (
1990),
263–66; and Donald Hagner, Matthew 1-13, Word Biblical Commentary
(
3 David Hill, The Gospel of Matthew, New Century Bible (
Morgan, and Scott, 1972), 230.
266
The Parable of the Tares
267
kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:24). In this formula
of comparison
the verb "to be like" (o[moio<w) is used, while in the next five parable
introductions the adjective
"like" (o!moioj) is used. The aorist
passive form of the verb (w[moiw<qh) indicates that Jesus
viewed the
kingdom of heaven as having present reality.4
This parable de-
scribes a stage in God's kingdom program that
has already be-
gun--the present form of God's rule, which is
explained as "the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (v. 11).
THE SETTING OF THE
PARABLE
The historical, geographical, and
literary settings of this parable
are the same as that of the sower
except that additional informa-
tion was given in that
parable. The historical context shows that
the
istry.5 As Beasley-Murray says,
"Not without reason Jesus could
characterize these events as a
countermovement to the divine
sovereignty operative in his ministry."6
Geographically the
parable was spoken by the sea, and the
interpretation was deliv-
ered in a house (13:36). In
its literary setting, referring to the
character or conduct of people by the analogy of
seeds and plants
has its precedent in the Old Testament (Isa. 55:10; Jer. 4:3-4;
Hos. 10:1). Rabbinic parables employing the
contrast between
intertwined trees which were left to grow together7
and the separa-
tion of stubble, straw, and
wheat8 demonstrate the common prac-
tice of using farming
analogies. In the parable in Matthew 13 the
emphasis is on the dialogue between the master
and the servants;
in Jesus' interpretation (vv. 36-43) the emphasis
is on the
beginning and the end of the parable.
4 Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew 13: A Study in Redaction Criticism (
VA:
Knox, 1969), 67; and Herman Hendrickx, The Parables of Jesus (
Harper & Row, 1986), 54. The aorist of this verb
is also used in Matthew 18:23 and
222.
5 In Matthew 11:12; 12:28; and Mark 3:27 the
attacks are from both human and
demonic forces. The parable of the tares and its
interpretation likewise present the
attacks as involving both satanic and human
agency (Matt. 13:38-41).
6
George
R. Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the
Eerdmans,
1986), 133.
7 Genesis
Rabbah 61:6 uses this imagery in commenting on
the dilemma of Abra-
ham having to pronounce blessing on the children of
Ishmael and Keturah as well
as Isaac..
8 Genesis
Rabbah 83:5 contains a fable about stubble,
straw, and wheat personi-
fied as arguing. The struggle
was not resolved until the stubble was burned, the
straw scattered, and the wheat gathered into a stack
over which there was great re-
joicing (Harvey K. McArthur and
Robert M. Johnston, They Also Taught in
Para-
bles [
268
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA
/ July–September 1998
THE
NEED OR PROBLEM PROMPTING THE PARABLE
Some
say Jesus' purpose in telling this parable was to denounce
the exclusiveness of various Jewish sects.9
The problem with this
is that there is no specific mention of such sects
in Matthew 13.
Blomberg
rightly criticizes those who see this parable pictur-
ing the mixture of evil and
good within the church, "To conclude
that a ‘mixed church’ was inevitable, however, and
to use this
parable as a justification for doing nothing to
attempt to purify the
church (as with
manded by the imagery of the
narrative."10
Since the parable is interpreted
only for the disciples, it seems
that the primary application was for them. Jesus may
have told
the parable to help curb their hostile feelings in
view of opposition
to Jesus by the religious establishment.11
The disciples and others
may have been wondering, "If the kingdom has
arrived, why has
it not triumphed more overtly and visibly? If
Jesus is its herald,
why is response to Him not uniformly
positive?"12 As Wenham
states, "Matthew's parable spells out what sort
of action they were
looking for, namely, the weeding out of evil and
evildoers."13 Je-
sus' disciples needed to be
made aware of the presence of opposi-
tion to Him.14
They wondered, why has "such a large segment of
the chosen nation . . not
responded to the Word in obedience and
faith?"15 As Bonnard
said, "If Jesus is the Coming Messiah, how
can his coming coincide with such an onslaught of
evil?"16 Or, "If
Jesus
is the Son of God, why is there such resistance to him?"17
THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE AND DETAILS
This parable has six major sections:
the introduction (v. 24a), the
sowing (v. 24b), the countersowing
(v. 25), the result (v. 26), a first
9 Eduard Schweizer, The Good
News according to Matthew, trans. David Green
(Richmond,
VA: Knox, 1975), 304; and Archibald M. Hunter, Interpreting the
bles (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1960), 46.
10 Blomberg, Interpreting
the Parables, 200.
11 Similar attitudes were demonstrated in other
settings. For example the disci-
ples wanted to call down
fire from heaven on the rejecting Samaritans (Luke 9:54).
12 Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, New American
Commentary (
man, 1992), 218-49.
13 David Wenham, The Parables of Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity,
1989),
58.
14 Hendrickx, The Parables of Jesus, 60.
15 Kingsbury, Matthew 13, 72.
16 Pierre Bonnard, L'evangile selon saint Matthieu (Neuchatel: Delachaux et
Niestle,
1963), 199.
17 Frederick Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word, 1990), 498.
The Parable of the Tares
269
exchange between the servants and the owner (vv.
27-28a), and a
second exchange (vv. 28b-30). The first half of the
parable is nar-
rative (vv. 24-26) and the
second is dialogue (vv. 27-30). The
first exchange in the dialogue shows that only the
tactics of the en-
emy can explain the
presence of the weeds. The second exchange
shows that the ultimate solution to the problem will
not come until
the harvest. The narrative moves the reader through
the chronol-
ogy of the harvest by
focusing on the roles played by various sow-
ers, servants, and
harvesters.
Blomberg
divides the parable into three stages by which he be-
lieves he offers a solution to
the debate over the emphasis in the
parable. "Dividing the message into ‘thirds’
ends the needless
debate over whether the emphasis of the parable lies
in the period
of the simultaneous growth of the wheat and the
weeds or in the fi-
nal harvest, and it refutes
the notion that the interpretation of the
parable must be inauthentic because its emphasis
does not match
that of the parable. Beginning, middle and end—the
obstacles to
God’s
kingdom, the inauguration of that kingdom and its final
summation are all in view. A climactic stress may
fall on the
last of these but not to the exclusion of the other
two."18
Gundry points up the contrasts in
the narrative between the
man and the enemy, the sowing and the countersowing, the good
seeds and the bad seeds, the coming and going of the
enemy, the
coming and going of the servants, the plan of the
servants and
that of the master, and the gathering in barns and
the bundling
for fire.19 Jesus' interpretation of the
parable countered the false
impressions that both the crowds and the disciples
must have had
concerning their role in solving the conflict
created by opposition
to the kingdom. His interpretation of this parable
of the tares of
the field20 included His explanation of
seven details in the para-
ble (vv. 37-39) and a
discussion of the judgment at the end of the
age (vv. 40-43).
THE SOWING SCENE OF THE PARABLE (13:24—25)
The
opening scene has two sowers, two seeds, and two
sowings.
"He
presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in
his
field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came
and sowed
tares also among the wheat, and went away’"
(Matt. 13:24-25).
Two kinds of sowing are described in
this opening scene of
18 Blomberg, Interpreting
the Parables, 198-99.
19 Robert Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on His Literary and Theological Art
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1982), 262.
20 This title is specified in 13:36.
270
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September
1998
the parable. An owner of the field sowed good seed
in a field he
owned. He is referred to as a man (a@nqrwpoj) and later in verse 27
as a householder (oi]kodespo<toj21), whom his servants addressed
as "Sir" (ku<rie).
Presumably the sowing of wheat seed, as custom-
arily carried out, took place
in the course of a normal workday.
An
enemy of the owner22 came during the night and sowed the
same field with weed seed and then left.
The sowing by an enemy is
specifically identified as an un-
wanted sowing.23 Darnel (ziza<nia) is a weed (Lolium temulen-
tum) that grows exclusively
in the
related to wheat, but a poisonous fungus grows
within its grain.
Wheat
and darnel are all but indistinguishable until the wheat is
ready for harvest.24 The two grow with an
intertwined root system
so that to uproot the weeds would destroy some of
the wheat.25 The
enemy clearly intended to ruin the crop of the owner
of the house.
THE
SOWING SCENE IN THE INTERPRETATION (13:36a-39)
The record of Jesus' interpretation
includes the request of the dis-
ciples (v. 36); the
explanation,26 with seven identifications in
parallel form (vv. 37-39); the main analogy of
the parable with
reference to the end of the age (v. 40); judgment
on the wicked (vv.
41-42)
and the destiny of the righteous (v. 43a); and a final exhor-
tation (v. 43b). Though not
every element of the parable is inter-
preted, an unusual amount of
detail is given.
"Then He left the multitudes,
and went into the house. And
His
disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of
the tares of the field.' And He answered and said, ‘The
one who
sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field
is the world;
and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the
kingdom; and
the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the
enemy who sowed
them is the devil'" (vv. 36-39a).
As the Son of Man, Jesus identified
Himself as the one who
21 Of the twelve occurrences of this noun in the
New Testament, seven are in
Matthew.
The emphasis in the parable reinforces the authority theme in Matthew,
especially in light of the "household" He
will establish in contrast to that of the re-
ligious establishment.
22 The phrase "his enemy" (au]tou? o[
e]xqro>j) is emphatic.
23 The verb e]pispei<rw, "to sow over or
upon," is used only here in the New Testa-
ment.
24 Michael Zohary, Plants of the Bible (
1982),
161; and Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, trans. S. H. Hooke,
2d ed.
(New York: Scribner & Sons, 1954), 224.
25 "The roots of the darnel are stronger
and deeper than those of wheat, so that the
removal of one would often result in the
uprooting of the other" (Hagner, Matthew
1-13, 384).
26 The verb diasa<fhson
("to explain") is used only here and in 18:31.
The Parable of the Tares
271
sows27 and who will judge (vv.
37, 41; cf. 9:2-6; 10:23). He called
the kingdom "His kingdom" (13:41). The
field is the world, and
the harvest (the judgment) will take place at the
end of the age.
The
good seed (kalo<n
spe<rma) is identified as the
"sons of the
kingdom,"28 whereas the first
parable refers to "the word of the
kingdom" (vv. 19, 38). "The sons of
the kingdom" (oi[ ui[oi> th?j
basilei<aj) in this context are
those who are associated with Jesus
and who, as His righteous ones, will participate in
the future
kingdom of the Father (v. 38). Conversely
"the sons of the evil
one" (oi[
ui[oi> tou? ponhrou?) are those associated with
Satan, the
evil one (cf. John 8:44; 1 John 3:10). Jesus had
referred to the "evil
one" earlier in Matthew (5:37; 6:13) and
particularly in the para-
ble of the sower (13:19). The enemy is the devil (o[ dia<boloj,
v. 39).
Jesus
had previously said the kingdom was under violent attack
(11:12),
and on many occasions He had already confronted
demonic opposition. By the "Spirit of
God" He cast out demons
(12:28),
thus showing that His strength is superior to that of the
"strong man" who had control of his house (cf. Mark
3:27).
THE
GROWTH SCENE OF THE PARABLE (13:26-29)
The growth scene consists of the
discovery of the two crops fol-
lowed by two rounds of questions and answers between
the ser-
vants and the owner.
"But when the wheat sprang up and bore
grain, then the tares became evident also. And the
slaves of the
landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not
sow good seed
in your field? How then does it have tares?' And
he said to them,
‘An
enemy has done this!' And the slaves said to him, ‘Do you
want us, then, to go and gather them up?' But he
said, ‘No; lest
while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up
the wheat
with them' " (vv. 26-29).
Sometime in the growth phase both
wheat and weeds appeared
in the same field. This was when the blades of
grain (xo<rtoj)
grew and produced their fruit (karpo>n e]poi<hsen).
This is the first
time the "weeds" (ziza<nia) appeared.29
In the first conversation
27 The use of the present participle may reflect
the fact that the planting by Jesus
is continuing throughout the present age until the
harvest. Beasley-Murray says
the sowing reflects an initiation of the saving
sovereignty of God in the words and
deeds of Jesus (Jesus
and the Kingdom of God, 133). While no doubt there is a sote-
riological import to the message
of the kingdom, there is more (in relation to the
earthly kingdom promised to
28 In Matthew 8:12 "the sons of the
kingdom" refer to the Jews who were expected
to participate in the kingdom but who are shown
there to be excluded. Here in 13:38
the phrase appears in a positive context to
describe a new set of "sons of the king-
dom"—those who have
rightly responded to the message and become a part of the
family who will inherit the kingdom because they have
done the will of God (12:50).
29 Adolf Julicher maintains that the weeds manifest themselves
before the wheat
272
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September 1998
round, two questions relate to the appearance of the
weeds. The
first question is designed to confirm the quality of
the seed sown
by the owner; the second question asks the reason
for the appear-
ance of the weeds. The first
establishes the fact of the problem and
its source, while the second deals with whose
responsibility it is to
solve the problem. The servants' first question is
introduced by
ou]xi, indicating they
expected a positive answer to their question
about the quality of the seed sown by him.
Separating the good and the bad is
to be left to the householder
and his servants and is to be delayed until the
harvest. Kiste-
maker insightfully comments on the wisdom of this
delayed sep-
aration. "While these two
are growing and maturing, the farmer
is unable to take steps to remedy the situation. This
inability does
not stem from ignorance. On the contrary, the
farmer, fully in
control of the situation waits it out. He knows
what to do. He
knows where the weeds came from and how they were
sown in his
field—by night, while everyone was sleeping."30
In the second round in the dialogue
the servants asked
whether they should uproot the weeds. The
master's answer, an
emphatic negative, points up the danger of
uprooting before the
harvest. The verb for "root up" (e]krizw<shte) is used elsewhere in
contexts that speak of a person's destruction by
the judgment of
God (15:13; Jude 12). The servants were to
allow both wheat and
weeds to grow until the harvest.
THE
HARVEST SCENE OF THE PARABLE (13:30)
In
the parable the householder told his servants, "Allow both to
grow together until the harvest; and in the time of
the harvest I
will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares
and bind them in
bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat
into my barn’" (v.
30).
At harvest time the owner would supervise the reapers,
who
would bind the weeds for burning and gather the wheat
into his
barn. Mounce comments on
the cultural background of the im-
agery. "Quite often
after the grain had been cut with a sickle and
the grain removed, the remaining weeds and shorter
stalks
would be burned off. In
weeds would be cut and bundled together to be used as
fuel. Grain
was normally stored underground in large pottery
jars or put in
pits lined with brick."31
because of a shorter maturation period (Die Gleirhnisreden [
senschaftliche,
1963], 2:548).
30 Simon
J. Kistemaker, The Parables of Jesus
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 40.
31
Robert Mounce, Matthew
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 131; and Daniel
Harrington,
The Gospel of Matthew (Collegeville, MN:
Liturgical, 1991), 205.
The Parable of the Tares
273
THE
HARVEST SCENE IN THE INTERPRETATION (13:39b-43)
In
these verses Jesus' interpretation shifted to the scene of final
judgment, the central point of the analogy.
"And the enemy who
sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end
of the age; and
the reapers are angels. Therefore just as the tares
are gathered up
and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of
the age. The Son of
Man
will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His
kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who
commit lawless-
ness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire;
in that place
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then
the righteous
will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. He who
has ears, let him hear" (vv. 39b-43). At the
end of the age (sun-
telei<%
tou? ai]w?noj)32 angels
will be instruments of judgment33
sent by Jesus, who alone is qualified to serve as
the Judge.34 The
harvest is a metaphor in the Old Testament for
final judgment
(Jer. 51:33; Hos. 6:11; Joel 3:13). The kingdom is called "His
kingdom,"35 since He is planting
the seed of the kingdom, and
since the harvest will be accomplished under His
direction.
The judgment will separate the
wicked from the righteous.
The
tares are those who will be judged and gathered (sulle<getai,
Matt.
13:40) out of the kingdom of the Son of Man. Based on this
verb in the Septuagint in Zephaniah 1:3, Hill says
the verb means
to gather together for judgment.36 This
is strengthened by the
Hebrew
of Zephaniah 1:3, where the obscure phraseology, "the
stumbling blocks [tOlwek;ma] along with the
wicked" (NKJV), is used
as a reference to those in
judgment. This
Old Testament imagery may have been the basis
for Jesus' metaphor in Matthew.
That evil is associated with this
phase of the kingdom is no
more a problem than the presence of rebellion at the
end of the
millennium (Rev. 20:8-10).37 The present
phase of the kingdom
of heaven will one day conclude with judgment by
the Son of Man,
a judgment that will determine who will enter the
next phase of
32 Matthew used this phrase five times (13:39-40,
49; 24:3; 28:20); the only other
New
Testament occurrence is in Hebrews 9:26, where "age" occurs in the
plural.
33 Also in Matthew 16:27; 24:31; and 25:31 the a@ggeloi are agents of
eschatological
judgment. In 13:41; 16:27; and 24:31 they are
called "His angels" to highlight Jesus'
claim to authority as the eschatological Judge.
34 A similar imagery and vocabulary of judgment
is used in Matthew 24:30-31.
35 Other references to "His kingdom"
are in Matthew 16:28; 20:21; Luke 22:29-30;
John
18:36; and Colossians 1:13.
36 Hill, The Gospel of Matthew,
235-37.
37 For discussion on this shift from the world
to the kingdom at this stage in the
parable, see M. de Goedt,
"L'explication de la parabole
de l'ivraie (Matt 13:36-43),"
Revue biblique 66 (January 1959): 32—54.
274
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July–September
1998
the kingdom, referred to as the kingdom of the
Father. The spe-
cific objects of this
judgment of evil are "all stumbling blocks"
(pa<nta
ta> ska<ndala)
and "those who commit lawlessness" (tou>j
poiou?ntaj th>n
a]nomi<an, v. 41). In Matthew "lawlessness" is
an
appropriate word to describe Jews who had disobeyed
the Mosaic
Covenant
(7:23; 23:28; 24:12; cf. 1 John 3:4).38 By
their sin they
had violated the Law.
What did Jesus mean when He said the
wicked will be
ered out of His kingdom (sulle<cousin e]k th?j basilei<aj au]tou?)?
Some
say the kingdom means the church and that evil will be re-
moved from the church. However, it is preferable to
say that the
world will become the kingdom of the Son of Man when
it is freed
from the power of the the
evil one (Dan. 7:14; Rev. 11:15).39 The
phrase,
sulle<cousin
e]k th?j basilei<aj au]tou?, would then mean
that the unrighteous will not be permitted to enter
the kingdom.40
Two
observations support, this conclusion. First, the field is never
called the church, and nowhere in Matthew are the
kingdom and
the church identified.41 Second, the
world is that sphere in which
the Son of Man will establish His kingdom through
the planting
of its message and its messengers.
When the wicked are judged, there
will be weeping
(klauqmo>j) and gnashing of teeth (bpugmo>j tw?n o]do<ntwn)42 in the
fiery furnace (Matt. 13:42). This imagery of the
furnace of fire is
drawn from Daniel 3:6, 11, 15, 20 and Malachi 4:1-2.
This same
statement is made later in Matthew 13:50.
Of the destiny of the righteous
Jesus said, "The righteous will
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father" (v. 43). As
Morris
observes, "Here the righteous are those accepted as righ-
teous on the last great day;
the term points to their acceptability,
38 "Lawlessness" (a]nomi<an) occurs in the Gospels
only in Matthew.
39 Robert
Stein, An Introduction to the Parables (
1981), 145.