SEV Biblia, Chapter 13:25
mas durmiendo los hombres, vino su enemigo, y sembr cizaa entre el trigo, y se fue.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 13:25
Verse 25. But while men slept] When the professors were lukewarm, and the pastors indolent, his enemy came and sowed tares, zizania degenerate, or bastard wheat. The righteous and the wicked are often mingled in the visible Church. Every Christian society, how pure soever its principles may be, has its bastard wheat-those who bear a resemblance to the good, but whose hearts are not right with God. He who sows this bastard wheat among God's people is here styled God's enemy; and he may be considered also as a sower of them who permits them to be sown and to spring up through his negligence. Wo to the indolent pastors, who permit the souls under their care to be corrupted by error and sin! This word does not, I believe, occur in any of the Greek classics, nor in Dioscorides; but it may be seen in the Geoponica, or Greek writers Deuteronomy Revelation Rustica: see the edition by Niclas, vol. i. lib. ii. c. 43, where to zizanion is said to be the same which the Greeks call aira; and Florentinus, the author, says, to zizanion, to legomenon aira, fqeirei vov siton, artoiv de mignumenh, skotoi touv esqiontav.
"Zizanion, which is called aira, darnel, injures the wheat; and, mixed in the bread, causes dimness of the eyes to those who eat of it." And the author might have added vertigo also. But this does not seem to be the grain to which our Lord alludes.
The word zizania, zizania, which is here translated tares, and which should rather be translated bastard or degenerate wheat, is a Chaldee word; and its meaning must be sought in the rabbinical writers. In a treatise in the Mishna called Kelayim, which treats expressly on different kinds of seeds, the word ynwz zunim, or ynwz zunin, is used for bastard or degenerated wheat; that which was wholly a right seed in the beginning, but afterwards became degenerate-the ear not being so large, nor the grains in such quantity, as formerly, nor the corn so good in quality. In Psalm cxliv. 13, the words z la zm mizzan al zen, are translated all manner of store; but they properly signify, from species to species: might not the Chaldee word ynwz zunin, and the Greek word zizania, zizania, come from the psalmist's znz zanzan, which might have signified a mixture of grain of any kind, and be here used to point out the mixing bastard or degenerate wheat among good seed wheat? The Persic translator renders it telkh daneh, bitter grain; but it seems to signify merely degenerate wheat. This interpretation throws much light on the scope and design of the whole passage. Christ seems to refer, first, to the origin of evil. God sowed good seed in his field; made man in his own image and likeness: but the enemy, the devil, (chap. xiii. 30,) corrupted this good seed, and caused it to degenerate.
Secondly, he seems to refer to the state of the Jewish people: God had sowed them, at first, wholly a right seed, but now they were become utterly degenerate, and about to be plucked up and destroyed by the Roman armies, which were the angels or messengers of God's justice, whom he had commissioned to sweep these rebellious people from the face of the land. Thirdly, he seems to refer also to the state in which the world shall be found, when he comes to judge it. The righteous and the wicked shall be permitted to grow together, till God comes to make a full and final separation.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 25. But while men slept , etc.] 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 bridegrooms 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, ( Matthew 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 Christs 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 ( Matthew 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 zizania , we render tares, and the Ethiopic version thistles, probably means the same the Jewish doctors call ynwz , Zunin f791 ; 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 f792 , they sowed wheat, and the earth brought forth ynwz , zizania , 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.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 24-30 - , 36-43 This parable represents the present and future state of the gospel church; Christ's care of it, the devil's enmity against it, the mixture there is in it of good and bad in this world, and the separation between them in the other world. So prone is fallen man to sin, that if the enemy sow the tares, he may go his way, they wil spring up, and do hurt; whereas, when good seed is sown, it must be tended, watered, and fenced. The servants complained to their master Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? No doubt he did whatever is amiss in the church, we are sure it is not from Christ Though gross transgressors, and such as openly oppose the gospel, ough to be separated from the society of the faithful, yet no human skil can make an exact separation. Those who oppose must not be cut off, but instructed, and that with meekness. And though good and bad ar together in this world, yet at the great day they shall be parted; the the righteous and the wicked shall be plainly known; here sometimes it is hard to distinguish between them. Let us, knowing the terrors of the Lord, not do iniquity. At death, believers shall shine forth to themselves; at the great day they shall shine forth before all the world. They shall shine by reflection, with light borrowed from the Fountain of light. Their sanctification will be made perfect, and their justification published. May we be found of that happy number.
Greek Textus Receptus
εν 1722 PREP δε 1161 CONJ τω 3588 T-DSM καθευδειν 2518 5721 V-PAN τους 3588 T-APM ανθρωπους 444 N-APM ηλθεν 2064 5627 V-2AAI-3S αυτου 846 P-GSM ο 3588 T-NSM εχθρος 2190 A-NSM και 2532 CONJ εσπειρεν 4687 5656 V-AAI-3S ζιζανια 2215 N-APN ανα 303 PREP μεσον 3319 A-ASN του 3588 T-GSM σιτου 4621 N-GSM και 2532 CONJ απηλθεν 565 5627 V-2AAI-3S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
25. Sowed (epespeiren). The preposition ejpi, upon, indicates sowing over what was previously sown. Rev., "sowed also."
Robertson's NT Word Studies
13:25 {While men slept} (en twi katheudein tous anthr"pous). Same use of the articular present infinitive with en and the accusative as in #13:4. {Sowed tares also} (epespeiren ta zizania). Literally "sowed upon,"resowed" (Moffatt). The enemy deliberately sowed "the darnel" (zizania is not "tares," but "darnel," a bastard wheat) over (epi) the wheat, "in the midst of the wheat." this bearded darnel, _lolium temulentum_, is common in Palestine and resembles wheat except that the grains are black. In its earlier stages it is indistinguishable from the wheat stalks so that it has to remain till near the harvest. Modern farmers are gaining more skill in weeding it out.
