Matthew 13:23 Kommentar

In this chapter, we have, I. The favour which Christ did to his countrymen in preaching the kingdom of heaven to them (Mat 13:1-2). He preached to them in parables, and here gives the reason why he chose that way of instructing (Mat 13:10-17). And the evangelist gives another reason (Mat 13:34, Mat 13:35). There are eight parables recorded in this chapter, which are designed to represent the kingdom of heaven, the method of planting the gospel kingdom in the world, and of its growth and success. The great truths and laws of that kingdom are in other scriptures laid down plainly, and without parables: but some circumstances of its beginning and progress are here laid open in parables. 1. Here is one parable to show what are the great hindrances of people's profiting by the word of the gospel, and in how many it comes short of its end, through their own folly, and that is the parable of the four sorts of ground, delivered (Mat 13:3-9). and expounded (Mat 13:18-23). 2. Here are two parables intended to show that there would be a mixture of good and bad in the gospel church, which would continue till the great separation between them in the judgment day: the parable of the tares put forth (Mat 13:24-30), and expounded at the request of the disciples (Mat 13:36-43); and that of the net cast into the sea (Mat 13:47-50). 3. Here are two parables intended to show that the gospel church should be very small at first, but that in process of time it should become a considerable body: that of the grain of mustard-seed (Mat 13:31, Mat 13:32), and that of the leaven (Mat 13:33). 4. Here are two parables intended to show that those who expect salvation by the gospel must be willing to venture all, and quit all, in the prospect of it, and that they shall be no losers by the bargain; that of the treasure hid in the field (Mat 13:44), and that of the pearl of great price (Mat 13:45, Mat 13:46). 5. Here is one parable intended for direction to the disciples, to make use of the instructions he had given them for the benefit of others; and that is the parable of the good householder (Mat 13:51, Mat 13:52). II. The contempt which his countrymen put upon him on account of the meanness of his parentage (Mat 13:53-58).

The same day Jesus went out of the house,.... Where he had been preaching, and working miracles: where this house was, is not certain; it seems to have been in one of the cities of Galilee, probably Capernaum, since that was by the sea coast: the reason of his going out of the house was, either to converse with his mother and brethren, as they desired; or to withdraw himself from company, and take some refreshment by the sea side; or because it would not hold the people, and therefore he quitted it for a more convenient place. The time he went out of it, was the same day he had cast the devil out of the man blind and dumb, and had delivered himself so freely concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, who had blasphemously ascribed that miracle to the assistance of Satan; and the same day his mother and brethren came to see him, and speak to him. And sat by the sea side; either as weary, and for his refreshment, or in order to preach to the people; for, Mark says, "he began again to teach by the sea side", Mar 4:1. This was the sea of Galilee, sometimes called the sea of Tiberias.

But while men slept,.... Good men, ministers, and churches; whose case this sometimes is to be asleep in a spiritual sense: and which sleepiness lies in a non-exercise of grace; in a sluggishness to and in duty; in a contentment in external exercises of religion; in lukewarmness about the cause of Christ; in an unconcernedness about sins of omission and commission; and in a willingness to continue in such a state; and which arises from a body of sin and death; from worldly cares; weariness in spiritual duties; a cessation from spiritual exercises; an absenting from spiritual company; oftentimes from outward ease, peace, and plenty, sometimes from a long expectation of the bridegroom's coming, and the delay of it; and from its being a night season, a time of darkness and security: such a case with the church, and good men, is very dangerous, as it exposes to every sin and snare; renders them liable to lose the presence of Christ, their liveliness and comfort; and tends to poverty and leanness of soul: such are in danger of being surprised with the midnight cry; and the churches are likely to be filled with hypocrites and heretics: his enemy came; by whom is meant the devil, Mat 13:39 who is an enemy to Christ personally, and showed himself to be so in his infancy, by stirring up Herod to seek his life: and, when grown up, by instigating the Jews to contrive his death; which they attempted by various methods, and which, at last, he compassed by Judas, and the Scribes and Pharisees; and also to Christ mystical, to the church, and all true believers; whose adversary he is, going about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: the same came into the field, the world, and church in it; and sowed tares among the wheat; by "the wheat", is meant the same with the "good seed", the children of God, true believers in Christ; who are comparable to wheat, for the choiceness of it, that being the choicest grain, so they are the chosen of God, and precious, and the excellent in the earth: and because it dies before it rises and springs up; so the saints do, and will do, both in a spiritual and corporal sense; and because of the purity and whiteness of it, so they are pure and white, being sanctioned by the Spirit, washed in the blood of Christ, and justified by his righteousness; and because of its substance, fulness, weight, and permanence, so they are filled from Christ's fulness, and with the fulness of God, and fruits of righteousness, and remain, and cannot be driven as the chaff is, but continue to live, because Christ their head lives; and because of its gradual increase, so they increase in spiritual light, grace, and experience; and because of the chaff that adheres to it, so sin and corruption cleave to the saints in this life; and lastly, because it needs both the flail and the fan, so believers need chastisements, afflictions, and corrections: by "the tares" sown among them, are meant "the children of the wicked one"; Satan, the enemy and adversary, as in Mat 13:38 who are to be understood, not of profane sinners; though these are the children of the devil; but of professors of religion, men either of bad principles, or of bad lives and conversations; whom Satan, by some means or another, gets into churches, and they become members thereof: at first they look like wheat, like true believers, have a show of religion, a form of godliness, an appearance of grace, but are destitute of it; and prove tares, unfruitful, unprofitable, and of no account, yea hurtful, and whose end is to be burned. And went his way; somewhere else, to do more mischief; and having done all he could at present here, undiscovered, not taken notice of by ministers and churches; they being all asleep, and having lost, in a great measure, the spirit of discerning. The word we render "tares", and the Ethiopic version "thistles", probably means the same the Jewish doctors call Zunin (s); and which, they say, is a sort of wheat, and not of a different kind from it; that when it is sown it looks like wheat, and is sown for it, but is changed in the earth, both as to its nature and form, and brings forth this kind. In the generation in which the flood was, they say (t), they sowed wheat, and the earth brought forth what we render "tares", and bids fair to be what is here meant; and fitly expresses false professors, nominal Christians, men of degenerate principles and practices: for not what we call tares, or vetches, can be meant, which may be removed from the wheat without danger, but rather this degenerate wheat; or that wheat which is blasted, and which may be observed sometimes to grow upon the same root, and therefore cannot be taken away, without rooting up the wheat also. (s) Misn. Kilaim, c. 1. sect. 1. & Trumot, c. 2. sect, 6. & Maimon. in ib. T. Hieros. Kilaim, fol. 26. 4. Maimon. Hilch. Kilaim, c. 3. sect. 3. (t) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 28. fol. 23. 4.

Daniel, knowing that the intelligent are the light of the world and that the multitudes of the righteous differ in glory, seems to have said this, “And the intelligent shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and from among the multitudes of the righteous as the stars for ever and ever.” And in the passage, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star differs from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead,” the apostle says the same thing as Daniel, taking this thought from his prophecy.

Then of virtue also He brings forward different forms. For being full of love to man, He marked out not one only way, nor did He say, "unless one bring forth an hundred, he is an outcast;" but he that brings forth sixty is saved also, and not he only, but also the producer of thirty. And this He said, making out salvation to be easy. And thou then, art thou unable to practise virginity? Be chaste in marriage. Art thou unable to strip thyself of thy possessions? Give of thy substance. Canst thou not bear that burden? Share thy goods with Christ. Art thou unwilling to yield Him up all? Give Him but the half, but the third part. He is thy brother, and joint-heir, make Him joint-heir with thee here too. Whatsoever thou givest Him, thou wilt give to thyself.

Having therefore spoken of the ways of destruction, afterwards He mentions the good ground, not suffering them to despair, but giving a hope of repentance, and indicating that it is possible to change from the things before mentioned into this. And yet if both the land be good, and the Sower one, and the seed the same, wherefore did one bear a hundred, one sixty, one thirty? Here again the difference is from the nature of the ground, for even where the ground is good, great even therein is the difference. Seest thou, that not the husbandman is to be blamed, nor the seed, but the land that receives it? not for its nature, but for its disposition. And herein too, great is His mercy to man, that He doth not require one measure of virtue, but while He receives the first, and casts not out the second, He gives also a place to the third.

“And the one sown upon good ground is he who hears the word, understands it and bears fruit.” Even as on bad ground there were three diverse situations (by the path, upon rocky ground and among thorns), so too on good ground the diversity is of three types: fruit of one hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold. Both in one and the other there is a change that takes place in the will, not in the nature itself. In both the unbelievers and believers it is the heart that receives the seed. “The wicked one comes,” he says, “and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” In the second and third cases, he says, “That is he who hears the word.” In the explanation of the good ground, he is the one who hears the word. First we must listen, then understand; after understanding, we must bear the fruits of good teaching and yield fruit either one hundredfold, sixtyfold or thirtyfold.

(Verse 23) But he who was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit: one hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold. As for the bad soil, there were three types: along the path, rocky places, and thorny areas. Likewise, on good soil, there is a threefold diversity: a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold fruits. And in both the bad and the good soil, the substance does not change, but the will does: both the hearts of unbelievers and believers are the ones that receive the seed. He came, he says, the evil one, and snatches away what is sown in his heart; and second and third, here is, he says, the one who hears the word. In the explanation of the good land also, this is the one who hears the word. Therefore, first we must hear, then understand, and after understanding, produce the fruits of teachings, and produce either a hundredfold, or sixtyfold, or thirtyfold, of which we have spoken more fully in the book against Jovinian, and now we briefly summarize: A hundredfold for virgins, sixtyfold for widows and the continent, thirtyfold for chaste marriage. For honorable are marriage and a pure bed (Heb. XXXI, 3, 4). Some of our people refer the hundredth fruit to the martyrs: if this is so, the holy union of marriage is excluded from the good fruit.

And it is to be noted, that as in the bad ground there were three degrees of difference, to wit, that by the way side, the stony and the thorny ground; so in the good soil there is a three-fold difference, the hundred-fold, the sixty-fold, and the thirty-fold. And in this as in that, not the substance but the will is changed, and the hearts as well of the unbelieving as the believing receive seed; as in the first case He said, Then cometh the wicked one, and carrieth off that which is sown in the heart; and in the second and third case of the bad soil He said, This is he that heareth the word. So also in the exposition of the good soil, This is he that heareth the word. Therefore we ought first to hear, then to understand, and after understanding to bring forth the fruits of teaching, either an hundred-fold, or sixty, or thirty.

(vid. Cyp. Tr. iv. 12.) Or, The hundred-fold fruit is to be ascribed to virgins, the sixty-fold to widows and continent persons, the thirty-fold to chaste wedlock.

(Ep. 48. 2.) For the joining together of the hands, as it were in the soft embrace of a kiss, represents husband and wife. The sixty-fold refers to widows, who as being set in narrow circumstances and affliction are denoted by the depression of the finger; for by how much greater is the difficulty of abstaining from the allurements of pleasure once known, so much greater is the reward. The hundredth number passes from the left to the right, and by its turning round with the same fingers, not on the same hand, it expresses the crown of virginitya.

(De Gen. ad lit. viii. 4.) It is certain that the Lord spoke the things which the Evangelist has recorded; but what the Lord spake was a parable, in which it is never required that the things contained should have actually taken place. (De Civ. Dei, xxi. 27.) Some think that this is to be understood as though the saints according to the degree of their merits delivered some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred persons; and this they usually suppose will happen on the day of judgment, not after the judgment. But when this opinion was observed to encourage men in promising themselves impunity, because that by this means all might attain to deliverance, it was answered, that men ought the rather to live well, that each might be found among those who were to intercede for the liberation of others, lest these should be found to be I so few that they should soon have exhausted the number allotted to them, and thus there would remain many unrescued from torment, among whom might be found all such as in most vain rashness had promised themselves to reap the fruits of others. (Quaest. Ev. i. 9.) Otherwise; There is fruit an hundred-fold of the martyrs because of their satiety of life or contempt of death; a sixty-fold fruit of virgins, because they rest not warring against the use of the flesh; for retirement is allowed to those of sixty years' age after service in war or in public business; and there is a thirty-fold fruit of the wedded, because theirs is the age of warfare, and their struggle is the more arduous that they should not be vanquished by their lusts. Or otherwise; We must struggle with our love of temporal goods that reason may be master; it should either be so overcome and subject to us, that when it begins to rise it may be easily repressed, or so extinguished that it never arises in us at all. Whence it comes to pass, that death itself is despised for truth's sake, by some with brave endurance, by others with content, and by others with gladness—which three degrees are the three degrees of fruits of the earth—thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and an hundred-fold. And in one of these degrees must one be found at the time of his death, if any desires to depart well out of this life.

And it should be known, that in these three sorts of bad soil are comprehended all who can hear the word of God, and yet have not strength to bring it forth unto salvation. The Gentiles are excepted, who were not worthy even to hear it. It follows, That which is sown on the good ground. The good ground is the faithful conscience of the elect, or the spirit of the saints which receives the word of God with joy and desire and devotion of heart, and manfully retains it amid prosperous and adverse circumstances, and brings it forth in fruit; as it follows, And brings forth fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold. The thirty-fold then is borne of him who teaches faith in the Holy Trinity; the sixty-fold of him who enforces the perfection of good works; (for in the number six this world was completed with all its equipments;) (Gen. 2:1) while he bears the hundred-fold who promises eternal life. For the number one hundred passes from the left hand to the right; and by the left hand the present life is denoted, by the right hand the life to come. Otherwise, the seed of the word of God brings forth fruit thirty-fold when it begets good thoughts, sixty-fold when good speech, and an hundred-fold when it brings to the fruit of good works.

But the good earth brings forth fruit through patience, because clearly our good works are nothing if we do not also bear with equanimity the evils of our neighbors. For the higher anyone has advanced, the more he finds in this world what he must bear more harshly, because when our mind's love for the present age diminishes, the adversity of that same age increases. Hence it is that we see many both doing good and yet laboring under the heavy burden of tribulations. For they now flee earthly desires, and yet are wearied by harsher afflictions. But according to the word of the Lord they bring forth fruit through patience, because when they humbly accept afflictions, after the afflictions they are sublimely received into rest. Thus the grape is crushed by treading and is liquefied into the flavor of wine. Thus the olive, pressed by crushing, leaves behind its bitter residue and grows rich into the liquid of oil. Thus by the threshing of the floor the grains are separated from the chaff and arrive purified at the granary. Therefore whoever desires to fully conquer vices, let him strive to humbly endure the afflictions of his purification, so that he may come before the Judge all the more pure afterward, the more the fire of tribulation now purges away his rust. In that portico which serves as a passageway for those going to the church of blessed Clement, there was a certain man named Servulus, whom many of you knew along with me—poor in possessions, rich in merits—whom a long illness had weakened. For from his earliest age until the end of his life he lay paralyzed. What shall I say, that he could not stand? He was never able to rise in his bed even to sit, never able to bring his hand to his mouth, never able to turn himself to his other side. His mother with his brother was present to serve him, and whatever he was able to receive from alms, he distributed to the poor through their hands. He knew no letters at all, but he had purchased for himself books of Sacred Scripture, and receiving any religious persons in hospitality, he had them read before him without ceasing. And so it came about that, according to his own measure, he learned Sacred Scripture fully, though, as I said, he was entirely ignorant of letters. He strove always to give thanks in his pain, to devote himself to hymns and praises to God day and night. But when the time had come that his great patience ought to be rewarded, the pain of his limbs returned to his vital organs. And when he recognized that he was now near death, he urged the traveling men received in hospitality to rise and sing psalms with him in expectation of his departure. And while he himself, dying, was singing psalms with them, he suddenly silenced the voices of those singing, with the terror of a great cry, saying: "Be silent! Do you not hear how great are the praises resounding in heaven?" And while he was directing the ear of his heart toward those same praises which he heard within, that holy soul was released from the flesh. But as it departed, such a fragrance of scent was spread there that all who were present were filled with inestimable sweetness, so that through this they clearly recognized that praises in heaven had received it. A monk of ours was present at this event, who still lives, and with great weeping he is accustomed to attest that until his body was handed over for burial, the fragrance of that scent did not depart from their nostrils. Behold with what end he departed from this life who in this life calmly endured afflictions. According to the Lord's word, therefore, the good earth brought forth fruit through patience, which, having been plowed by the plowshare of discipline, arrived at the harvest of reward. But I ask you, dearest brothers, consider what argument of excuse we shall have in that strict judgment—we who, sluggish from good work, have received both resources and hands—if a beggar without hands fulfilled the Lord's commands. May the Lord not then display against us the apostles who by preaching drew crowds of the faithful with him to the kingdom, may he not bring forth against us the martyrs who by shedding their blood arrived at the heavenly homeland. What shall we say then, when we see this Servulus of whom we have spoken, whose arms a long illness held bound, yet did not bind them from good work? Do these things with yourselves, brothers, so urge yourselves to zeal for good work, that when you now set good men before you for imitation, you may then be able to be their companions.

The forms of virtue vary, and those who progress in virtue vary. Do you see the order in the parable? We must first hear and understand it so that we may not be like those who are by the way side. Then we must hold steadfastly to what we have heard, and, finally, we must not be lovers of money. For what benefit is it to me to hear and retain the word, only to be choked by the love of money?

But he who was sown upon good ground etc. Having expounded the threefold disposition toward evil, he adds the disposition toward good, which he distinguishes by three effects, because first he hears, then further, and understands, and then he bears fruit and yields, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. Let it be expounded as above. It should be known, however, that Augustine, in Book II, chapter 23 of the City of God, sets down the exposition of certain persons who wished to interpret it thus: that on the day when the Lord will come to judgment, many saints will pray for many; and according as they are better, more will be given to them. Hence to some thirty will be given, to some sixty, and to some a hundred. But this is against the faith, because mortal sins will not be forgiven, since they cannot be forgiven without charity; for mortal sins are contrary to charity, but venial sins are not; therefore, etc.

JESUS TEACHES BY PARABLES. ( = Mark 4:1-34; Luk 8:4-18; Luk 13:18-20). (Mat. 13:1-52) The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside.