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| Exposition of the Parable.
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2. Exposition of the Parable.
“After these things He answered and said to
them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of
man.”5164
Though we
have already, in previous sections, according to our ability discussed
these matters, none the less shall we now say what is in harmony with
them, even if there is reasonable ground for another explanation.
And consider now, if in addition to what we have already recounted, you
can otherwise take the good seed to be the children of the kingdom,
because whatsoever good things are sown in the human soul, these are
the offspring of the kingdom of God and have been sown by God the Word
who was in the beginning with God,5165
so that
wholesome words about anything are children of the kingdom. But
while men are asleep who do not act according to the command of Jesus,
“Watch and pray that ye enter not into
temptation,”5166
the devil on the
watch sows what are called tares—that is, evil
opinions—over and among what are called by some natural
conceptions, even the good seeds which are from the Word. And
according to this the whole world might be called a field, and not the
Church of God only, for in the whole world the Son of man sowed the
good seed, but the wicked one tares,—that is, evil
words,—which, springing from wickedness, are children of the evil
one. And at the end of things, which is called “the
consummation of the age,”5167
| 5167 Matt. xiii. 39. Or, reading ὅς
καλεῖται for
ὁ, and at the end of things, there will
of necessity be a harvest, which is called the consummation of the
age. | there will of
necessity be a harvest, in order that the angels of God who have been
appointed for this work may gather up the bad opinions that have grown
upon the soul, and overturning them may give them over to fire which is
said to burn, that they may be consumed. And so the angels and
servants of the Word will gather from all the kingdom of Christ all
things that cause a stumbling-block
to souls and reasonings that create iniquity, which they will scatter
and cast into the burning furnace of fire. Then those who become
conscious that they have received the seeds of the evil one in
themselves, because of their having been asleep, shall wail and, as it
were, be angry against themselves; for this is the “gnashing of
teeth.”5168
Wherefore,
also, in the Psalms it is said, “They gnashed upon me with their
teeth.”5169
Then above
all “shall the righteous shine,” no longer differently as
at the first, but all “as one sun in the kingdom of their
Father.”5170
Then, as if
to indicate that there was indeed a hidden meaning, perhaps, in all
that is concerned with the explanation of the parable, perhaps most of
all in the saying, “Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in
the kingdom of their Father,” the Saviour adds, “He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear,”5171
thereby teaching those who think that in the exposition, the parable
has been set forth with such perfect clearness that it can be
understood by the vulgar,5172
| 5172 Or, in little
details. | that even the
things connected with the interpretation of the parable stand in need
of explanation.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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