He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Verse 28. An enemy hath done this] It is the interest of Satan to introduce hypocrites and wicked persons into religious societies, in order to discredit the work of God, and to favour his own designs.
Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?] A zeal which is rash and precipitate is as much to be feared as the total lack of strict discipline.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
28. He said unto them, An enemy hathdone thisKind words these from a good Husbandman, honorablyclearing His faithful servants of the wrong done to his field.
The servants said unto him,Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?Compare with thisthe question of James and John (Lu9:54), “Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come downfrom heaven and consume” those Samaritans? In this kind of zealthere is usually a large mixture of carnal heat. (See Jas1:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He said unto them, an enemy has done this,…. This is the answer of the householder to the question of his servants. In the Greek text it is, “an enemy man”; and is so rendered in the several versions; meaning, not that the enemy was a man; for he was the devil, as in Mt 13:39 but it is an Hebraism; such as in Es 7:6, , “the man adversary and enemy” is this wicked Haman; and signifies a certain enemy, and one indeed that is an implacable enemy to man.
The servants said unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? which words express the concern of the ministers of Christ for the true members of the church, comparable to wheat, lest they should receive any damage by the ill examples, and pernicious principles of evil men among them; also their detestation and abhorrence of men of wicked lives and erroneous principles; they cannot bear them which are evil; likewise, they show great regard to the glory of God, and interest of religion, and their readiness to execute any orders Christ should give them; but not willing to proceed of themselves, ask counsel and advice of him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “He said unto them,” (ho de epe autois) “And he replied to them,” the inquiring servants.
2) “An enemy hath done this.” (echthros anthropos touto epoiesen) “A man who is an enemy (to me) has done this;” A false prophet, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a traitor, Mat 7:15; Mat 7:22.
3) “The servants said unto him,” (hoi de douloi auto legousin) “Then the servants said to him,” the angel servants who do His bidding, Heb 1:14.
4) “Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?” (theleis oun apelthontes) “Do you then want us to go and collect them?”, to take out all the tares? to kill or destroy them, right now, from where they have crept in, or been planted, Jud 1:4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
28. Wilt thou we go and gather them up Ought not the wicked to be destroyed from the face of the earth? Why are they permitted to exist?
Does it not almost make atheists of us to see how God permits them to live and prosper? No; for the permission is for them to live to develope; and so God will not eradicate them out of the earth, and good men must not expect to be able to persecute them to destruction.
Eastern farmers maintain that tares are degenerate wheat, affirming that a field is frequently sown with wheat and the seed comes up tares. Dr. Thomson explains this singular fact thus:
“I suppose that several separate causes conspire to bring about the result. First, very wet weather in winter drowns and kills wheat, while it is the most favourable of all weather for tares. In a good season the wheat overgrows and chokes the tares, but in a wet one the reverse is true. The farmers all admit this, but still they ask, Whence the seed of the tares? we sowed ‘good seed.’ To this it may be answered: The tare is a very light grain, easily blown about by the wind; that a thousand little birds are ever carrying and dropping it over the fields; that myriads of ants are dragging it in all directions; that moles, and mice, and goats, and sheep, and nearly every other animal, are aiding in this work of dispersion; that much of the tares shell out in handling the grain in the field; that a large part of them is thrown out by the wind at the threshing-floor, which is always in the open country; that the heavy rains, which often deluge the country in autumn, carry down to the lower levels this outcast zowan (tares) and sow them there; and these are precisely the spots where the transmutation is said to occur. It is my belief that in these and in similar ways the tares are actually sown, without the intervention of an enemy, and their presence is accounted for without having recourse to this incredible doctrine of transmutation.”
Root up also the wheat
It is no doubt true that the tares when first springing up strongly resemble the wheat, so as to be easily mistaken for it; but not after a little growth. Dr. Thomson expresses the real point, when he says: “Very commonly the roots of the two are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them without plucking up both. Both, therefore, must be left to grow together until the time of harvest.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he said to them, “An enemy has done this.” And the servants say to him, “Do you wish us then to go and gather them up?” ’
The householder immediately knew what the answer must be. This had been done by an enemy. So the servants suggested that they go and root out the darnel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Ver. 28. Wilt thou then that we go, &c. ] This was zeal indeed, but rash and unseasonable, and is therefore to be moderated by prudence and patience. Those two sons of thunder had overly quick and hot spirits, Luk 9:55 . Luther confessed before the emperor at Worms, that in his books against private and particular persons he had been more vehement than his religion and profession required. And he that writes the history of the Trent Council tells us, if we may believe him, that in Colloquio Possiaceno, Beza, speaker for the Protestants, entering into the matter of the Eucharist, spake with such heat, that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own party; so that he was commanded to conclude. Zeal should eat us up, but not eat up our discretion, our moderation.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 13:28 . .: an inference from the state of the field fact not otherwise or previously known. , deliberative subjunctive in 1st person with , 2nd person; no used in such case (Burton, M. and T., 171). The servants propose to do what was ordinarily done, and is done still ( vide Stanley, Sinai and Palestine , p. 426, and Furrer, Wanderungen , 293: “men, women and children were in many fields engaged in pulling up the weeds,” in which he includes “den Lolch”).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
He = And he.
An enemy = A man an enemy. Figure of speech Pleonasm (App-6), for emphasis.
hath done = did.
Wilt. Greek. thelo. See App-102.
gather them up? = collect them together?
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Wilt: Luk 9:49-54, 1Co 5:3-7, 2Co 2:6-11, 1Th 5:14, Jud 1:22, Jud 1:23
Reciprocal: Ecc 3:2 – a time to plant Mat 13:39 – enemy Mar 9:39 – Forbid Luk 9:50 – Forbid
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE ENEMY IN THE FIELD
An enemy hath done this.
Mat 13:28
The general view of this parable gives us a scene of confusion, an intermixture of good and bad. The picture shows us a field in which two kinds of seed have been sown, the one by a friendly and the other by a hostile hand. And this confusion, the parable teaches us, is one that cannot be remedied. The mischief is irreparable until the time come, and that time is Gods time, not mans.
I. The field is the Church.It is the Kingdom of Heaven which is itself the field, and if our Lord adds also that the field is the world it is only because His Divine confidence was looking forward to that day when His Church should be universal. It is then inside and not outside the Church that this confusion is to be looked for. It is within the society of the baptized that the tares and the wheat are to be found side by side. And often the tares look so like the wheat that it is only in the fruit, not in the early growth, that the difference can be found out at all. In very early days in the Churchs history Christians began to see in this parable a counsel of warning and one of encouragement.
II. A counsel of warning.It forewarned them against that kind of disappointment which arises from a confusion of ideasthe confusion of failure with imperfection. The results of the Gospel are real even when they are not complete. It is not the less true that Christ is the Saviour because all men will not come to Him. It is no argument against grace that men who seek it not do not receive it. It is no defect of the Gospel that that should come to pass which its Founder foretoldthat amongst the children of the kingdom there should be a plentiful growth of spurious plants, whether they take the form of unbelief or ungodliness or hypocrisy. On the contrary, this has to be expected as a fact which Christ foretold, and dealt with in the light of the Masters teaching. All attempts to narrow down the family of Christians so that it shall contain none but the good have been failures.
III. A counsel of encouragement.Not that this maxim is meant to forbid the proper exercise of discipline. It was not so that our Lords Apostles understood it. It is not so that our own Church interprets it. But it does mean to tell us that discipline has for its object the restoration, not the condemnation of the offender. Has not every man a right to be taken on his own professiona right to pass through life unchallenged as to his claim to be a follower of Christ?
IV. The enemy in the field.There is an enemy in Gods field. Nowhere does the good sower carry his basket but a watchful foe follows in the night. That staggering question often suggests itselfhow can this be? The parable gives us the answer, still leaving it all in deep mystery. An enemy hath done this. But it is chiefly in one broad direction that the parable sets before us the danger of this hostile sowing. It is the danger to the good of the presence with themat their very sideof the evil. The tares look like the wheat; it is often impossible to discriminate between them. But in these words our Lord teaches us decisively to disconnect all evil from the hand of God. Evil, He teaches us, is Gods absence, and we need never be away from God.
The Rev. Lewis Gilbertson.
Illustration
Do what we will to purify a Church, we shall never succeed in obtaining a perfectly pure communion: tares will be found among the wheat; hypocrites and deceivers will creep in; and, worst of all, if we are extreme in our efforts to obtain purity, we do more harm than good: we run the risk of encouraging many a Judas Iscariot, and breaking many a bruised reed. In our zeal to gather up the tares, we are in danger of rooting up the wheat with them: such zeal is not according to knowledge, and has often done much harm. Those who care not what happens to the wheat, provided they can root up the tares, show little of the mind of Christ: and after all, there is deep truth in the charitable saying of Augustine, Those who are tares to-day, may be wheat tomorrow.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
3:28
He explained that an enemy had done it. The natural conclusion with the servants was that he would want them to gather the tares out of the field.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The owner recognized that an enemy was responsible for the weeds, but he instructed his servants to allow the weeds to grow among the wheat until the harvest. Then he would separate them. Evidently there were many weeds. The reapers would gather the weeds first and burn them. Then they would harvest the wheat.
The new truth about the present age that this parable revealed is that good and evil people will co-exist in it (e.g., Judas Iscariot among Jesus’ disciples; cf. Mat 13:47-49). In contrast, the Old Testament prophets said that in the coming messianic kingdom righteousness will prevail and God will judge sin swiftly (cf. Isa 11:1-5; Isa 16:5; Isa 32:1; Isa 54:14; Isa 60:17-18; Jer 33:14-15).
Jesus interpreted this parable to His disciples later (Mat 13:36-43). He previously used the Old Testament figure of harvest to refer to judgment (Mat 9:37-38). In this case the wheat and the weeds must be people who face judgment in the future. [Note: See Mark L. Bailey, "The Parable of the Tares," Bibliotheca Sacra 155:619 (July-September 1998):266-79.]