THE PARABLE OF THE TARES
and Its Interpretation
Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43
George Lyons

Setting

The apparent historical setting of the parable of the Tares in Matthew is very nearly identical to that of the Seed Growing Secretly in a Mark. The Tares is obviously one of the many parables omitted in Mark (Mk 4:33-34). For his purposes, Matthew selected this parable to fill the place occupied by Mark's Seed Growing Secretly – there is no reason to presume that he constructed it himself. Linguistic similarities exist between the two parables since both deal with agricultural life and culminate in harvest. The central emphases, however, are different. The Parable of the Tares more adequately fit Matthew's objective to develop "an apology against 'unbelieving Israel'" (Kingsbury 64-65).

The parable of the Seed Growing Secretly served to encourage those who impatiently followed him; the Tares to warn those who impatiently opposed him. On the same day He spoke this parable (Mt 13:1), Jesus had faced the bitter opposition of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 12:24, 38; Mk 3:22). They ascribed his exorcisms to the power of Beelzebul (Mt 12:24). By means of parables Jesus (Mk 3:23) pointed out the absurdity of such a division in Satan's Kingdom (12:25-27), before assuring them that if his exorcisms were, on the other hand, the work of God's Spirit, "then the Kingdom of God has come upon you" (12:28). "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with (sunavgwn) me scatters (skorpivzei)" (12:30. Didache 9:4 employs the metaphor of gathering for the bringing of the Church into God's Kingdom.).

The attitude they take toward Jesus will be decisive for their treatment in the age to come (12:31-32). He then calls for a clear distinction between good and evil (12:33). On the day of judgment, evil people are to be condemned for their evil, while good people will be justified (12:34-36). Jesus' indictment against sign seeking calls forth a further prediction of judgment based on his audience's response to him (12:38-42). Those who are rightly related to him, do the will of God (12:46-50). The parable of the Sower calls his friends and foes alike to self examination (13:1-9): "He who has ears, let him hear" must mean: "'This is more than just a pleasant story. Go and work it out for yourselves'" (Hunter 12; on the intervening interpretation see the exegetical notes on the parable of the Seed Growing Secretly's "Setting."). Jesus next deals more specifically with those who gather with him (Mk 4:26-29) and those "who scatter against him" (Mt 13:24-30).

Exegetical Analysis

The introductory dative, wJmoiwvqh, has the Aramaic equivalent l^e. The Kingdom is not compared to a man, but either to the experience of "a man who sowed good seed" (Bruce 199) or to the resulting situation — the harvest (Jeremias 78, 101).

Kalovn spevrma (v. 24) — "good seed," designates seed that is "organically healthy," "useful,"pure" (Grundmann 536). Good seed should produce a harvest relatively free of weeds.

Zizavnia (vv 25-30) — "weeds," probably refers to the bearded darnel, which resembles wheat in its earlier stages of growth, but clearly reveals its true character only at harvest time (Terry 197).

jEcqroV" (vv 25 & 28) — is used for personal enemies (literally "haters"). In the LXX (the Greek Old Testament), ejcqroV" refers to "the foes of Israel" (Foerster 813). Had Matthew artificially constructed the allegory, rather than remaining true to his source, we would have expected ponhrov" instead of ejcqroV", as in Jesus' explanation (13:38). But as Jesus observed in Mt 10:36, "A man's foes (ejcqroV") will be those of his own household" (following Mic 7:5-6).

The expression suntevleia aijw'no" (v. 39), — "the end of the age / world," is peculiar to Matthew (cf. 28:19, 20) among the Synoptics. The expression coincides well with the popular understanding of the harvest as the initiation of the New Age (Jeremias 118-120). Similar expressions occur in pseudepigraphic apocalypses (e.g., Test. Levi 10:2; 2 Baruch 13:3; 27:15; Enoch 1:3-9; 2 Esdras [4 Ezra] 7:36). The abstract noun taV skavndala, "causes of sin," is used here for the concrete: "those who create stumbling blocks for others" (Bruce 202). The one who scandalizes is "potentially capable of causing another's spiritual ruination" (Kingsbury 102). The cursed are those who not only sin themselves; they cause others to do so.

Matthew 13:43 is quoted from Daniel 12:3, where ejklavmyousin, "they will shine," is "an expressive word suggestive of the sun emerging from behind a cloud. The mixture of good and evil men in this world hides the characters of both" until the judgment (Bruce 203).

Statement of Teaching

Those who reject Jesus' / Matthew's allegorical interpretation of the parable treat it as a "warning against weeding" (Hunter 46; cf. Jeremias 227). But even this approach treats the parable as an allegory. The field is the Church. The wheat refers to true believers. The weeds are sinners in the Church. The command to "let both grow together until harvest" is a prohibition against excommunication and the central point in Matthew's story. Nevertheless, "this important principle of Church politics did not . . . suggest itself to the writer who was responsible for verses 36-43" (M'Neile 197).

Jesus insisted that in his ministry the kingdom of God had come (Mt 12:28). Many of his followers had heard the message of John: "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 3:2). John had warned those who claimed to be children of Abraham, yet did not bear the befitting fruit, that the Kingdom for them meant impending judgment, not good news. It would entail their separation from the righteous, and their final destruction (Mt 3:7-12).

Jesus, in this parable repeats John's warning, but with the added note that "God has fixed the moment of separation. . . . But that moment has not yet arrived. The last opportunity for repentance has not yet run out (Lk 13:6-9)" (Jeremias 226). The Kingdom is present, but not absolute — here, but not fully here. The main point of the parable is that the reign of God becomes absolute only at the time of harvest. In the meantime, discordant elements are present within God's Kingdom. This alludes to the Kingdom as entailing "two heilsgeschichtliche epochs: the period of the earthly activity of Jesus as preacher, and the coming time when he will return as Judge" (Tödt as cited in Kingsbury 98-99). Jesus' point by point application of the truth harmonizes well with this teaching. Following this is a "brief description of the consummation when the reign of God will be total" (Mickelsen 224-225).

Applications

Has Matthew transformed this parable "whose original purpose was to impress upon the impatient the need of patience" (Jeremias 85) into something else? This is a undoubtedly a subsidiary purpose of the present parable. Nothing in the parable equates the Kingdom of heaven and "the Christian Church, containing both bad and good men" (M'Neile 202). The Fatherly rule of God extends to all humankind — the entire world (Mt 13:38). Jeremias is correct in describing the present form of the parable as "a warning against false security" (885). But is it not more than a warning? Jesus exhorts all who will hear (Mt 13:9, 43) "to be sons of the Kingdom who do the will of God. . . ." Jesus' high priestly prayer identifies his followers as "not of the world," before the petition: "keep them from the evil one" (Jn 17:14-15; KJV). "The coming End of the Age [is] exerting a pressure that works itself out in the practical life of the Christian . . . [that they may] enter into the eternal bliss of the Kingdom. . ." (Kingsbury 109). "Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought we to be in lives of holiness and godliness" (2 Pet 3:11; see 3:2-13).