He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
The design that Christ had in this parable was to show them, that though he laid a good foundation of a church in the world, calling some home to himself; and making them partakers of his effectual grace, laying the foundation of his gospel church in such as took his yoke upon them; yet in process of time, while those that should succeed him in his ministry slept, (not being so diligent and watchful as they ought to be), the devil (who is full of envy and malice to mens souls, and is continually going about seeking whom he may devour) would sow erroneous opinions, and find a party, even in the bosom of his church, who would hearken to him, and through their lusts comply with his temptations, both to errors in doctrine and errors in practice: and it was his will, that there should be in the visible church a mixture of good and bad, such bad ones especially as men could not purge out without a danger of putting out such as were true and sincere; but there would be a time, in the end of the world, when he would come with his fan, and thoroughly purge his floor, and take to heaven all true and sincere souls, but turn all hypocrites into hell. This appears, by our Saviours exposition, to have been our Saviours plain meaning in this parable. Hence he tells us, that by the sower here he meant himself,
the Son of man. By
the field he meant
the world. By
the good seed he meant
the children of the kingdom; such as had a true change wrought in their hearts, were truly regenerated and converted. By
the tares he meant the children of the wicked one, that is, of the devil; such as did the works of the devil, Joh 8:44. That
the enemy that sowed these tares was the devil, who by his suggestions, presenting objects, &c., makes himself the father of all wicked men. Our Saviour here saith nothing to that part of the parable, where the tares are said to be sown
while men slept; that was plain and intelligible enough. The devil hath a power to seduce, persuade, and allure, none to force. If particular persons kept their watch, as they might, the devil could not by his temptation force them. If magistrates and ministers kept their watches according to Gods prescription, there could not be so much open wickedness in the world as there is. Neither doth our Saviour give us any particular explication of that part of the parable, which is Mat 13:28,29, where the servants say to their master,
Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up. And
he said unto them, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Our Saviour by this teacheth us, that every passage in a parable is not to be fitted by something in the explication. It was not the point that he designed in this parable to instruct them in, how far church officers might or ought to act in purging the church; but only,
1. That in the visible church they must expect it mixture, till the day of judgment.
2. That in that day he would make a perfect separation.
So as those that would from this passage in the parable conclude, that all erroneous and loose persons ought to be tolerated in the church till the day of judgment, forget the common rule in divinity, that parabolical divinity is not argumentative. We can argue from nothing in a parable but from the main scope and tendency of it. However, it is bold arguing from a passage in a parable, expounded by our Saviour himself, when he hath omitted the explication of that passage; nor can any thing be concluded, but that such must not be rooted out as have such a resemblance of wheat from the outward appearance, that they cannot be rooted out without a hazard of a mistake, and a rooting up of the wheat with them. But our Saviour reserves the point of the ministerial duty in purging the church to another more proper time; he here saith, nothing of that, but of his own design to purge it at
the harvest, which he interprets,
the end of the world, that is, the day of judgment. By
the reapers he tells us that he meaneth
the angels.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
He answered and said unto them,…. Being very ready to answer their request, and willing to communicate spiritual knowledge to them; thereby showing great condescension, and humility in himself, and great affection to them:
he that soweth the good seed, is the son of man; he that is signified by the man that sowed good seed in his field, is “the son of man”; by whom he means himself, the seed of the woman; and the son of David; who being anointed with the Holy Ghost without measure, went about Judea and Galilee, preaching the everlasting Gospel, to the conversion of sinners, thereby making them good seed; though this may be understood of him, as including his apostles and ministers, whom he makes use of as instruments for the good of souls, by preaching the Gospel.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “He answered and said unto them,” (ho de apokrithes eipen),”Then he responded to them,” to satisfy their thirst for knowledge, and desire to obey Him, Joh 7:17; Eph 5:17.
2) “He that soweth the good seed, is the Son of man,” (ho speiron estin to kalon sperma estin ho huios tou anthropou) “The one sowing the good or ideal seed-word is the Son of man,” the Redeemer of mankind; Which produces “good seed,” tailed “children or heirs of the kingdom,” the kingdom of heaven, Mat 13:11; Mat 13:38.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
37. He that soweth the good seed He had formerly said that the kingdom of heaven resembles a man sowing. The mode of expression is unusual, but plainly means, that the same thing happens with the preaching of the Gospel as usually takes place in the sowing of fields; the tares grow, up along with the wheat One peculiarity, however, is pointed out by him, when he says that the sowing of tares in the field was effected by the trick of an enemy. This is intended to inform us that, when many wicked men are mingled with believers, this is no accidental or natural occurrence, as if they were the same seed, but that we must learn to charge the blame of this evil on the devil. Not that, by condemning him, men are acquitted of guilt; but, in the first place, that no blame whatever may be laid on God on account of this fault which arose from the agency of another; and, secondly, that we may not be surprised to find tares frequently growing in the Lord’s field, since Satan is always on the watch to do mischief. Again, when Christ says, not that the ministers of the word sow, but that he alone sows, this is not without meaning; for though this cannot be supposed to be restricted to his person, yet as he makes use of our exertions, and employs us as his instruments, for cultivating his field, so that He alone acts by us and in us, he justly claims for himself what is, in some respects, common to his ministers. Let us, therefore, remember, that the Gospel is preached, not only by Christ’s command, but by his authority. and direction; in short, that we are only his hand, and that He alone is the Author of the work.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(37) He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.Primarily, we must remember that the parable refers to the kingdom of heaveni.e., to that new order of things which the Christ came to establish, and which is conveniently described as the Church which owns Him as its Lord. It offers, accordingly, an explanation of the presence of evil in that Church, and only by inference and analogy does it bear upon the wider problem of the origin of the evil in the world at large. That analogy, however, is not likely to mislead us. If the Son of Man has been the Light that lighteth every man (Joh. 1:9), then He had been a sower of the good seed in the wider region of the world from the beginning, and then also all who followed after righteousness had been children of the kingdom.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SOLUTION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT, Mat 13:37-43.
37. He that soweth the Son of man The sower is the redeemer the field is not the Church, but the world; the good seed are the Christians; the tares are the wicked, their sower is Satan. At the end of the world the angels shall gather out the harvest of wicked men to cast them into the blaze of retribution.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he answered and said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man.” ’
Jesus first lesson is that the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. This is a designation that He has clearly applied to Himself (Mat 8:20; Mat 9:6; Mat 10:23, Mat 11:19; Mat 12:8; Mat 12:32; Mat 12:40). It depicts Him as having special authority on earth to forgive sins (Mat 9:6) and as Lord of the Sabbath (Mat 12:8), and yet as walking in lowliness and humility (Mat 8:20; Mat 11:19). And now it is being connected directly with the Son of Man in Dan 7:13-14 (Mat 13:41). Thus the good seed (good in contrast to the pseudo-seed) is those who have responded to the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Mat 4:23) as present among men, and as represented in Him. As in Dan 7:13, the Son of Man is the representative of His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 13:37-38 . In explaining this parable Jesus contents Himself, as far as Mat 13:39 , with short positive statements, in order merely to prepare the way for the principal matter with which He has to deal (Mat 13:40 ), and thereafter to set it forth with fuller detail. There is consequently no ground for treating this explanation as if it had not belonged to the collection of our Lord’s sayings (Ewald, Weiss, Holtzmann), for regarding it as an interpolation on the part of the evangelist, in advocating which view Weiss lays stress upon a want of harmony between the negative points in the parable and the positive character of the exposition; while Hilgenfeld questions the correctness of this exposition, because he thinks that, as the progress that takes place between the sowing and the harvest corresponds with and is applicable to the whole history of the world, therefore the sower cannot have been Christ, but God and Him only, an objection which has been already disposed of by the first parable in the series.
The good seed represents the sons of the kingdom , the (future) subjects , citizens of the Messianic kingdom (comp. note on Mat 8:12 ), who are established as such by the Messiah in their spiritual nature, which is adapted thereto ( , Mat 13:37 ). It is not “ fruges ex bono semine enatae ” (Fritzsche) that are intended by , but see Mat 13:24-25 .
] whose ethical nature is derived from the devil (see Mat 13:39 ). Comp. Joh 8:41 ; Joh 8:44 ; 1Jn 3:8 ; 1Jn 3:10 . Not specially: the heretics (the Fathers and several of the older expositors).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Ver. 37. Is the Son of man ] i.e. Signifies the Son of man: as circumcision is the covenant; that is, the sign of the covenant. And as Christ saith of the sacramental bread, “This is my body,” which Luther interprets synecdochically, for in, or under, this is my body. Calvin, after Tertullian and Augustine, interpret it metaphorically, for this is the sign or the figure of my body. Hence the Jesuits presently cry out, the Spirit of God disagreeth not with itself. But these interpretations do utterly disagree, therefore they are not of the Spirit. But let them first agree among themselves, before they quarrel our disagreements; for their own doctors are exceedingly divided even about this very point of the Eucharist, and know not what their holy mother holdeth. Bellarmine teacheth, that the substance of the bread is not turned into the substance of Christ’s body productive, as one thing is made of another, but that the bread goes away, and Christ’s body comes into the room of it adductive, as one thing succeeds into the place of another, the first being voided. And this, saith he, is the opinion of the Church of Rome, himself being reader of Controversies at Rome. But Suarez, reader at Salamanca, in Spain, confutes Bellarmine’s opinion, terming it translocation, not transubstantiation, and saith it is not the Church’s opinion.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 13:37 . : identified here with the Son of man (not so in interpretation of Sower ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
the Son of man. See App-98. Compare Mat 8:20. Here the Lord is explaining the parable.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
He: Mat 13:24, Mat 13:27
is: Mat 13:41, Mat 10:40, Mat 16:13-16, Luk 10:16, Joh 13:20, Joh 20:21, Act 1:8, Rom 15:18, 1Co 3:5-7, Heb 1:1, Heb 2:3
Reciprocal: Isa 28:28 – Bread Mar 4:14 – sower Luk 8:5 – sower
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:37
The sower is the Son of man or Jesus the Christ.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 13:37. The Son of man. Christ Himself. Our Lord uses the present tense, but this does not forbid an application to later events, in which Christ is represented by those who preach Him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
13:37 {6} He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
(6) He expounds the first parable of the good and evil seed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus identified Himself as both the sower and the director of the harvest. He took these Old Testament figures for God and applied them to Himself. [Note: See Philip B. Payne, "Jesus’ Implicit Claim to Deity in His Parables," Trinity Journal 2NS:1 (Spring 1981):3-23.] The field is the world where the sowing takes place, but the wheat and the tares represent true and only professing believers.
"This brief statement presupposes a mission beyond Israel (cf. Mat 10:16-18; Mat 28:18-20) and confirms that the narrower command of Mat 10:5-6 is related exclusively to the mission of the Twelve during the period of Jesus’ earthly ministry." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 325.]
Notice particularly that the field is not the church. The identification of the field as the church was common in the writings of some early church fathers and in those of some Reformers, and it is quite popular with many modern critical, evangelical, and even dispensational scholars. I think it is incorrect since the kingdom predicted in the Old Testament is distinctly different from the church. This parable does not teach that there will be a mixture of good and evil in the church, true believers and only professing believers. The terms "world," "church," and "kingdom" are all distinct in the New Testament.
The good seed represents the sons of the kingdom, namely, those destined for the kingdom, not those presently in the kingdom. The messianic kingdom has not yet begun. Compare Mat 8:12, where the sons of the kingdom are Jewish unbelievers, namely, Jews who should have been destined for the kingdom but were unbelievers in Jesus. The weeds are sons of the evil one, namely, Satan (cf. Joh 8:44; 1Jn 5:19).
"Not all unbelievers are called children of the devil; only those who have willfully rejected the light are so designated (cp. Mat 13:38; Joh 8:38-44)." [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 1015.]
The devil is the enemy, the harvest is the end of the age (Mat 9:37; cf. Jer 51:33; Hos 6:11; Joe 3:13), and the harvesters are angels (Mat 24:30-31; Mat 25:31; cf. Mat 18:10; Luk 15:7; Heb 1:14; 1Pe 1:12). Obviously several elements in this parable have significance. However note that many others do not (e.g., the conversation between the man and his servants, the servants’ sleep, the order of the sowing, etc.).
"This condition of the kingdom was never revealed in the Old Testament, which spoke of a kingdom of righteousness in which evil would be overcome." [Note: Barbieri, p. 50.]
The end of the age refers to the present age that will culminate in Jesus’ second coming and a judgment of living unbelievers (cf. Mat 13:40; Mat 13:49; Mat 24:3).