The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew13:24–30

The Parable of the Weeds

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Matthew 13:24–30 — The Parable of the Weeds. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

24

Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

parethēken autois Allēn parabolēn legōn hē basileia tōn ouranōn Hōmoiōthē anthrōpō speiranti kalon sperma en autou tō agrō

Word by word18 · parsed
παρέθηκενparethēken[Jesus] put beforeG3908
√ παρατίθημι — to place alongside, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἌλληνAllēnanotherG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
παραβολὴνparabolēnparableG3850
√ παραβολή — a similitude ("parable"), iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
parabolē: a similitude, a parable G3850, a word used 48 times in the NT. Not an illustration hung on a doctrine but a thing thrown alongside, a comparison set next to the kingdom so that the kingdom may be measured by it. Pulpit observes that the introduction itself is transitional: in v. 3 Jesus began with no formula at all, here he announces a likeness, and from v. 31 onward he can simply say the kingdom is like.
λέγωνlegōnG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἡhēTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, rule, a kingdom G932, frequent (154 verses), and the interpretive crux of the parable. Gill is careful: this is not “the ultimate glory of the saints in heaven, or the state of happiness in the other world; for there will be no tares there,” but the Gospel dispensation and the visible church state on earth. Pulpit reads it as “the principles of its establishment and full development.” The parable therefore describes an interim, not a final state.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ὩμοιώθηHōmoiōthēis likeG3666
√ ὁμοιόω — to assimilate, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
homoioō: to assimilate, to liken G3666, here aorist indicative passive, 3rd singular. The passive plus the aorist is the grammatical hinge of the whole parable: the comparison rests on something already done, not on something the speaker is now inventing. Maclaren draws the christological inference that the Lord veils His claim by the third person while the tenses betray that the sowing is His own accomplished work.
ἀνθρώπῳanthrōpōa manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Singular
σπείραντιspeirantiwho sowedG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveDative Masculine Singular
speirō: to scatter, to sow G4687, 42 verses. The same verb returns in v. 25 compounded (epespeiren) for the enemy's counter-sowing and again in v. 27 on the servants' lips. One verb, three agents: the man, the enemy, and the question. The parable is built as a contest of sowings.
καλὸνkalongoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
kalos: good, fair, worthy G2570. Not merely useful (agathos) but sound, fit to be seen, the quality that will be answered in v. 30 by grain fit for the barn. Pulpit insists the good seed is not doctrine as such but persons: “the sons of the kingdom” (v. 38).
σπέρμαspermaseedG4690
√ σπέρμα — something sown, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
sperma: something sown, seed G4690. Gill and Pulpit both take the interpretation of v. 38 as decisive: the seed is the children of the kingdom, which means the parable identifies the sown word with the people it produces. Maclaren states the mechanism plainly: men become children of the kingdom by taking the Gospel in, and it “in truth becomes themselves.”
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἀγρῷagrōfieldG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounDative Masculine Singular
agros: a field G68, 34 verses, the word that will be explained in v. 38 as the world, not the church. Pulpit guards the distinction: not exactly the church, but “the world so far as it is the sphere of the Church's missionary activity.” Every conclusion about discipline drawn from this parable must pass through that gloss first.
25

But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de en tō tous anthrōpous katheudein autou ho echthros ēlthen kai epespeiren zizania ana meson tou sitou kai apēlthen

Word by word19 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἐνenwhileG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtō. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
τοὺςtousvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀνθρώπουςanthrōpouseveryoneG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounAccusative Masculine Plural
καθεύδεινkatheudeinwas asleepG2518
√ καθεύδω — to lie down to rest, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
katheudō: to lie down to rest, to sleep G2518, present infinitive, 20 verses. The same verb stands in Mark 4:27, where a man sleeps and rises while the seed grows of itself. Here the sleep is the cover for sabotage rather than the space for growth, and the two parables read as deliberate counterparts. Gill turns the sleep into a long diagnosis of church lethargy; Pulpit warns that the explanation in v. 39 never mentions it.
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἐχθρὸςechthrosenemyG2190
√ ἐχθρός — hateful (passively, odious, or actively, hostile)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
echthros: hateful, hostile, an enemy G2190, 32 verses. Named as the devil in v. 39. Maclaren refuses to allegorise it away: “Honest exposition cannot eliminate the teaching of a personal antagonist of Christ, nor of his continuous agency in the corruption of mankind.” The article and possessive (ho echthros autou) make him the Sower's own enemy, an opponent defined by relation to the man whose field this is.
ἦλθενēlthencameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπέσπειρενepespeirensowedG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
speirō (epi-): to sow over, to oversow G4687 compounded. The compound is the theological content of the verse: evil in this parable is not original to the field and not a second field, but an overlay on ground already sown with good. Benson: “God formed our first parents upright, and sowed nothing but good in his whole creation.”
ζιζάνιαzizaniaweedsG2215
√ ζιζάνιον — darnel or false grainNounAccusative Neuter Plural
zizanion: darnel, false grain G2215, and a genuinely rare word, only 8 verses in the NT, every one of them in this parable and its explanation. Benson, with Campbell, and Pulpit, with Tristram, agree on the identification: Lolium temulentum, bearded darnel, which is indistinguishable from wheat until the ear forms and whose seed is poisonous, producing nausea and giddiness. The parable's whole logic depends on that botanical fact: not a weed that looks different and is harmless, but one that looks identical and is toxic.
ἀνὰanaamongG303
√ ἀνά — properly, upPreposition
μέσονmeson. . .G3319
√ μέσος — middle (as an adjective or (neuter) noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σίτουsitouwheatG4621
√ σῖτος — grain, especially wheatNounGenitive Masculine Singular
sitos: grain, especially wheat G4621, 15 verses. The word that will govern the last clause of v. 30 and that ties this parable to John the Baptist's threshing floor (Matthew 3:12) and to Paul's bare grain (1 Corinthians 15:37).
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπῆλθενapēlthenslipped awayG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aperchomai: to go off, to depart G565. Barnes reads the departure as the enemy's confidence: “He knew the soil; he knew how the seed would take root and grow. He had only to sow the seed and let it alone.”
26

When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hote ho chortos eblastēsen kai epoiēsen karpon tote ta zizania kai ephanē

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὅτεhoteWhenG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
χόρτοςchortoswheatG5528
√ χόρτος — a "court" or "garden", iNounNominative Masculine Singular
chortos: a court or garden, hence grass, the green blade G5528, 13 verses. Shared with Mark 4:28, where the earth brings forth “first the blade, then the ear.” The word marks the one stage of growth at which false grain and true are visually identical, which is the entire problem the servants will raise in v. 27 and the reason the owner will refuse them in v. 29.
ἐβλάστησενeblastēsensproutedG985
√ βλαστάνω — to germinateVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
blastanō: to germinate, to sprout G985, and very rare: the Verifier finds it in only 4 verses in the whole NT, two of which it names here, Mark 4:27 (the seed growing secretly while the man sleeps) and James 5:18 (the earth producing its fruit after Elijah's prayer). A rare verb reserved for the one thing no farmer causes: the silent turning of buried seed into visible life. Its presence at both Mark 4:27 and this verse is part of why Pulpit weighs so carefully whether the two parables are related.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐποίησενepoiēsenboreG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καρπὸνkarpongrainG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
karpos: fruit as plucked G2590, 56 verses. Barnes draws the moral exactly here: “So true piety and false hopes are not known by professions, by ‘blades,’ and leaves, and flowers, but by the fruit.” The same verb and noun pairing recurs at Matthew 7:16 and Luke 6:44, where fruit is likewise the only admissible test.
τότεtotethenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
ζιζάνιαzizaniaweedsG2215
√ ζιζάνιον — darnel or false grainNounNominative Neuter Plural
καὶkaialsoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐφάνηephanēappearedG5316
√ φαίνω — to lighten (shine), iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
phainō: to lighten, to shine, to be made to appear G5316, aorist passive. The passive is doing quiet work: exposure is not an achievement of the church's vigilance nor a confession by the false, but something time and ripening do. JFB notes that the two growths run parallel, “as antagonistic principles are seen to do,” and it is the very parallel that finally betrays the difference.
27

The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hoi tou oikodespotou douloi Proselthontes autō eipon Kyrie ouchi espeiras kalon sperma en sō tō agrō pothen oun echei zizania

Word by word21 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoiTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
τοῦtouvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
οἰκοδεσπότουoikodespotouowner’sG3617
√ οἰκοδεσπότης — the head of a familyNounGenitive Masculine Singular
oikodespotēs: the head of a family, master of the house G3617. The title sets the terms of the exchange that follows: the slaves may ask, but the disposal of the field is not theirs. Gill: Christ bears many relations in this house, of a son, a priest, a master, a governor.
δοῦλοιdouloiservantsG1401
√ δοῦλος — a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntaryNounNominative Masculine Plural
ΠροσελθόντεςProselthontescameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
proserchomai: to approach, to come to G4334, aorist participle. The formal verb of approach to a superior. Gill reads the whole scene as prayer: the servants observed the tares, feared for the wheat, “came to him, and spread the case before him.”
αὐτῷautōto himG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
εἶπονeipon[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ΚύριεKyrieSirG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, lord, sir G2962, vocative. The word sits on a hinge: in the story it is a farmhand's respectful “sir”; in the interpretation it is the church's address to its Lord. Gill takes it in the second sense, as reverence spoken in sincerity, and the Greek permits both without deciding between them.
οὐχὶouchivvvG3780
√ οὐχί — not indeedIntPrtcl
ἔσπειραςespeirasdidn’t you sowG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
καλὸνkalongoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
σπέρμαspermaseedG4690
√ σπέρμα — something sown, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
σῷsōyourG4674
√ σός — thinePersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἀγρῷagrōfieldG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounDative Masculine Singular
πόθενpothenWhereG4159
√ πόθεν — from which (as interrogative) or what (as relative) place, state, source or causeAdverb
οὖνounthenG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ἔχειecheididG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ζιζάνιαzizania[the] weeds {come from}G2215
√ ζιζάνιον — darnel or false grainNounAccusative Neuter Plural
zizanion: darnel, false grain G2215, accusative and anarthrous here: not “the weeds” but simply darnel, an unexpected kind of thing in the field. The servants name the crop before they name a cause, and the absence of the article is part of their bewilderment.
28

‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Echthros anthrōpos epoiēsen touto de Ho ephē autois de Hoi douloi legousin autō oun Theleis apelthontes syllexōmen auta

Word by word18 · parsed
ἘχθρὸςEchthrosAn enemyG2190
√ ἐχθρός — hateful (passively, odious, or actively, hostile)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
echthros: hostile, an enemy G2190, in apposition with anthrōpos. Two independent commentators, Gill in the 1740s and Pulpit in the 1880s, hear Esther behind the phrase; neither claims a quotation, and neither can, since Esther is Hebrew and this is Greek. What they record is a Semitic idiom preserved in Greek dress.
ἄνθρωποςanthrōpos. . .G444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐποίησενepoiēsendidG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τοῦτοtoutothisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἔφηephēhe repliedG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phēmi: to make known one's thought, to say G5346, imperfect. JFB hears the tone: “Kind words these from a good Husbandman, honorably clearing His faithful servants of the wrong done to his field.” Before any question of discipline is raised, the master has exonerated his own staff.
αὐτοῖςautoisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
δὲde[So]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
δοῦλοιdouloi[the] servantsG1401
√ δοῦλος — a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntaryNounNominative Masculine Plural
λέγουσινlegousinaskedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οὖνounG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ΘέλειςTheleisDo you wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
thelō: to determine, to will as an active option G2309. Strong's defines it as determination from subjective impulse, and the servants' question is therefore not a request for permission only but an offer of their own will to his. JFB sets it beside James and John at Luke 9:54, asking to call down fire on the Samaritans, and concludes that “in this kind of zeal there is usually a large mixture of carnal heat.”
ἀπελθόντεςapelthontesus to go [and]G565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
συλλέξωμενsyllexōmenpull them upG4816
√ συλλέγω — to collectVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
syllegō: to collect, to gather up G4816, rare at 8 verses. It is the verb of gathering figs from thorns at Matthew 7:16 and Luke 6:44, and the verb the master himself will use at v. 30 for the harvesters' first task. The servants want the right action at the wrong time: not the wrong verb, but the wrong hour.
αὐτάauta. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
29

‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ou mē de Ho phēsin pote syllegontes ta zizania ekrizōsēte ton siton hama autois

Word by word14 · parsed
ΟὔOuNoG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative G3756. A single syllable carries the theology of the passage. JFB paraphrases the whole refusal: “It will be done in due time, but not now, nor is it your business.” The prohibition is of timing and agency, not of judgment.
μή‿mē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
δέdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
φησινphēsinhe saidG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ποτεpoteifG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
συλλέγοντεςsyllegontesyou pullG4816
√ συλλέγω — to collectVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
syllegō: to collect, to gather up G4816, here a present participle: “while collecting.” The master quotes the servants' own verb back to them before overruling it, and the danger he names attaches to the action in progress, not to its intention.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ζιζάνιαzizaniaweeds [now]G2215
√ ζιζάνιον — darnel or false grainNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐκριζώσητεekrizōsēteyou might uprootG1610
√ ἐκριζόω — to uprootVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
ekrizoō: to uproot G1610. The rare and violent verb of the verse. Ellicott explains the agronomy that makes it apt: while both crops are green, men may mistake the two, or tear up the one in rooting out the other; at harvest, when the stalks are dry and the aspect differs, the separation is easy. The refusal is not indifference to the darnel but respect for the wheat.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σῖτονsitonwheatG4621
√ σῖτος — grain, especially wheatNounAccusative Masculine Singular
sitos: grain, especially wheat G4621. Note that sitos replaces the chortos of v. 26: only now that fruit has distinguished the crops does the text call the good plants wheat. The vocabulary tracks the ripening.
ἅμαhamawithG260
√ ἅμα — properly, at the "same" time, but freely used as a preposition or adverb denoting close associationPreposition
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
30

Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

aphete amphotera synauxanesthai heōs tou therismou kai en kairō tou therismou erō tois theristais prōton Syllexate ta zizania kai dēsate auta eis desmas pros to katakausai auta de synagagete ton siton eis mou tēn apothēkēn

Word by word35 · parsed
ἄφετεapheteLetG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
aphiēmi: to send away, to let alone, to permit G863, aorist imperative plural. The same verb elsewhere means to forgive. Here it is not forgiveness of the darnel but the withholding of the hand, and it is commanded, not merely allowed. Geneva draws the pastoral consequence: the faithful must “arm themselves with patience and steadfastness.”
ἀμφότεραamphoterabothG297
√ ἀμφότερος — (in plural) bothAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
συναυξάνεσθαιsynauxanesthaigrow togetherG4885
√ συναυξάνω — to increase (grow up) togetherVerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
synauxanō: to increase, to grow up together G4885, a word found only here in the NT. The whole ethic of the interim hangs on this single occurrence: the kingdom's present form is a mixed growth, and Maclaren titles his exposition of the passage accordingly, mingled in growth and separated in maturity.
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
θερισμοῦtherismouharvestG2326
√ θερισμός — reaping, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
therismos: reaping, harvest G2326, explained in v. 39 as the end of the age. Gill unfolds the aptness at length: the time is fixed though unknown, it falls in the heat, it is a season of hurried labour, and it ends in joy or in sorrow according to what grew. The harvest is the horizon that makes present patience bearable rather than resigned.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνenAt that timeG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
καιρῷkairō. . .G2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounDative Masculine Singular
kairos: an occasion, a due season G2540. The word that distinguishes the appointed moment from mere duration. The servants asked to act now; the master answers with a kairos that is his to name, and the future indicative erō (“I will say”) makes the command at that season his own speech, not their initiative.
τοῦtou. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
θερισμοῦtherismou. . .G2326
√ θερισμός — reaping, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐρῶerōI will tellG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
τοῖςtoistheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
θερισταῖςtheristaisharvestersG2327
√ θεριστής — a harvesterNounDative Masculine Plural
theristēs: a harvester, a reaper G2327, a rare agent noun. Pulpit is exact about who these are: not all the master's servants, but those to whom such work belongs, the angels of v. 39. The men who asked to weed are not the men who will reap, and that reassignment is the answer to their question.
πρῶτονprōtonFirstG4412
√ πρῶτον — firstly (in time, place, order, or importance)AdverbSuperlative
ΣυλλέξατεSyllexatecollectG4816
√ συλλέγω — to collectVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ζιζάνιαzizaniaweedsG2215
√ ζιζάνιον — darnel or false grainNounAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δήσατεdēsatetieG1210
√ δέω — to bind (in various applications, literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
αὐτὰautathemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
δέσμαςdesmasbundlesG1197
√ δέσμη — a bundleNounAccusative Feminine Plural
desmē: a bundle G1197, from deō, to bind, and used only here in the NT. The darnel is not merely destroyed but sorted, tied and handled with the same deliberateness as the wheat. JFB observes the order carefully: the tares are bound and burned before the wheat is housed, and he finds the same sequence kept in the explanation at vv. 41 and 43.
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
κατακαῦσαιkatakausaibe burnedG2618
√ κατακαίω — to burn down (to the ground), iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
katakaiō: to burn down, to burn utterly G2618. The intensive compound, and the point at which the parable's patience ends. Nothing in the refusal of v. 29 softens this; Gill's reading of the harvest as joy to the saints and sorrow to the wicked keeps both halves of the sentence together.
αὐτάautaG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
δὲdethenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
συναγάγετεsynagagetegatherG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
synagō: to lead together, to gather G4863. Pulpit distinguishes the two gathering verbs: syllegein (v. 28, v. 30) regards the operation, synagein rather the destination. The wheat is not merely collected; it is brought home.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
σῖτονsiton[the] wheatG4621
√ σῖτος — grain, especially wheatNounAccusative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
μουmoumyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἀποθήκηνapothēkēnbarnG596
√ ἀποθήκη — a repository, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
apothēkē: a repository, a storehouse, a barn G596, rare at 6 verses. The decisive possessive is mou: my barn. The same rare noun stands on John the Baptist's lips at Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17, where the wheat goes into the garner and the chaff into unquenchable fire, and Pulpit cross-references Matthew 3:12 at exactly this word.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The sowing already accomplished, and the sowing laid over it — 13:24-25

Maclaren fixes the grammar before the story: the peculiar turn of the opening sentence shows that the aim is to teach the conduct of the king, and the tenses of both verbs prove that the likening rests on an act already done. Ὡμοιώθη is aorist passive, σπείραντι an aorist participle; the field was sown before the parable opened its mouth. Pulpit adds the smaller grammatical observation that παρέθηκεν is the ordinary verb for setting food before a guest, and that this is the last of the parables to need an introductory formula at all. Gill insists that the kingdom here cannot be heaven itself, since “there will be no tares there,” but the visible Gospel church state on earth; Pulpit, following the Lord's own gloss in v. 38, holds the field to be the world so far as it is the sphere of the church's mission. The two readings are not identical, and the brief preserves both without harmonising them.

Then the counter-sowing. The verb changes: not espeiren but ἐπέσπειρεν, which Pulpit renders “sowed over or in.” Evil in this parable opens no rival field. It is an overlay on ground already good, sown ana meson, up the middle of the wheat. Benson, quoting Campbell, and Pulpit, quoting Tristram, agree that ζιζάνια is bearded darnel, Lolium temulentum, indistinguishable from wheat until the ear forms and poisonous when ground with it; Ellicott adds that the seeds are “not merely useless as food, but were positively noxious,” and that such sabotage was a recognised form of Eastern revenge. Maclaren refuses to make the enemy a figure of speech: honest exposition, he says, cannot eliminate a personal antagonist of Christ. Gill and Benson both hang a doctrine of sleeping watchmen on en tō katheudein; Pulpit dissents, noting drily that the sleep is absent from the Lord's own explanation and may be no more than the necessary framework of the story. We record the disagreement rather than settle it.

ii. Fruit exposes what leaf concealed, and zeal asks the wrong hour — 13:26-28

The vocabulary of v. 26 is precise and the English cannot keep it: what sprouts is χόρτος, the green blade, not sitos, wheat. The text withholds the name “wheat” until v. 29, after the crops have become distinguishable. ἐβλάστησεν is a rare verb (four NT verses; Mark 4:27 and James 5:18 hold two of the others), and ἐφάνη is aorist passive: the darnel does not appear, it is made to appear, exposed by the very ripening that proved the wheat. JFB catches the shape of it, the growth in both cases running parallel “as antagonistic principles are seen to do”; Barnes draws the test, that true piety and false hopes are known not by blades and leaves and flowers but by fruit. Pulpit contributes the observation that is easiest to miss: unlike the thorns of vv. 7 and 22, the darnel is never said to injure the wheat. The peril in this parable is not what the weed does to the crop but what the weeder would.

The servants' question is framed with οὐχὶ, the negative that expects the answer yes, and Henry supplies that answer: “No doubt he did; whatever is amiss in the church, we are sure it is not from Christ.” JFB reads the surprise as the perennial dismay of faithful people at the discovery of false brethren. Gill notes that the servants ascribe field, seed and sowing entirely to their master and claim nothing for themselves. Pulpit, who admits that the Lord's explanation never identifies these servants, asks the uncomfortable historical question whether it is a mere coincidence that the clergy have always been the most eager advocates of rooting up the tares; that is his judgment on church history, not an exegetical finding, and we keep it labelled as such. The master's reply is two nouns in apposition, Ἐχθρὸς ἄνθρωπος, “an enemy man.” Gill calls it a Hebraism and points to Esther 7:6; Pulpit, independently, finds so many coincidences with the Greek of Esther 7:4-6 that “it would almost seem” the evangelist remembered the passage. Then the servants offer: συλλέξωμεν, let us collect them. Pulpit: in their zeal they “forget the difficulty connected with pulling them up.” JFB sets their question beside James and John asking for fire on the Samaritans and names the ingredient, a large mixture of carnal heat.

iii. The refusal, and the season that is not ours to name — 13:29-30

The master answers with the absolute Οὔ and the particle of apprehension, mēpote, lest ever. And he changes their verb: they said collect, he says ἐκριζώσητε, tear out by the root, hama autois, in the same motion. Ellicott explains the agronomy that makes the refusal reasonable rather than sentimental, that while both are green men may mistake the two or tear up one in rooting out the other, while at harvest the dry stalks make separation easy; Barnes, citing Thomson's field observation, reports that the roots are often so intertwined that neither comes up alone. JFB paraphrases the whole answer in a line: it will be done in due time, but not now, nor is it your business. Gill, an English dissenter, takes the verse to forbid magistrates putting men to death for heretical opinions, while Barnes, guarding the other flank, insists the church is still bound by 1 Corinthians 5 to cut off gross and manifest offenders, the prohibition touching only those merely suspected. Both are kept here, because together they mark the actual width of the road.

Then ἄφετε, a command to release, and συναυξάνεσθαι, a verb found nowhere else in the New Testament: increase up together. The permission is bounded by heōs tou therismou and by a καιρός, a due season, which the master alone names, and by a future indicative that is his own speech, erō, I will say. Pulpit identifies the reapers as those to whom such work belongs, the angels of v. 39, which is the real answer to the servants: not never, but not you. Pulpit also distinguishes the two verbs of gathering, syllegein regarding the operation and synagein the destination. JFB notes the order, that the bundles burn before the wheat is housed, and finds the same sequence at vv. 41 and 43. Gill will not let the forbearance be mistaken for favour: it is granted out of no love for the darnel but is “entirely a tender regard to the wheat.” Geneva drew the practical conclusion two centuries earlier, that the church will never be free of offences in doctrine or manners until the day appointed for restoring all things, and that the faithful must therefore arm themselves with patience and steadfastness. The Pulpit Commentary records that the earliest surviving exposition of this parable, on Archbishop Benson's authority, is Cyprian's appeal to the Novatianists not to leave the church.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. The parable is usually read as a lesson about the mixed church, and it is that; but the grammar keeps pushing the subject back to the owner. Every decisive verb belongs to him: he set the parable before them, the likening was done by his completed sowing, he exonerates his servants, he refuses them, he alone fixes the season, and he says my barn. The servants' question is not wicked. It is right in its diagnosis, right in its loyalty, and wrong only in supposing that the hand which can tell the difference is the hand that noticed it. Note what the text withholds: at the moment they ask, the crops are still chortos, green blade, and the good grain is not yet called wheat. They are asking to make a final separation with penultimate evidence.

The refusal therefore is not tolerance, and Gill is right to say the forbearance is a tender regard for the wheat and not for the darnel. It is a statement about competence and hour. Two things are conceded in the same breath: that the field really is compromised, and that the compromise will really end. What is denied is only that we are the reapers. That is a harder word than either indifference or purge, because it leaves the church to live for an indefinite stretch alongside what it can see and cannot cure, holding to Barnes's boundary that open scandal is still the church's business, and to Gill's, that suspicion is not. If this reading errs, it likely errs by making the parable more about patience than about judgment; the burning of the bundles in v. 30 is a real fire, and no reading is honest that lets the katakausai go soft.

Not never, but not you, and not yet: the refusal in verse 29 is about the reaper's hand and the appointed hour, not about the weed. (This line is the tool's own fallible summary, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The Lord's own reading of his own parable verbal / quotation: confirmed

The parable is one of the very few that Scripture itself decodes, and the decoding stands a few verses later in the same chapter: the sower is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the sons of the kingdom, the darnel the sons of the evil one, the enemy the devil, the harvest the end of the age, the reapers the angels (Matthew 13:36-43). JFB puts the gratitude plainly, that these parables “are, with like charming simplicity and clearness, expounded to us by the Great Preacher Himself.” The Verifier confirms the verbal tie in both directions: the rare noun ζιζάνιον (G2215) occurs in only 8 verses in the whole New Testament, and every one of them belongs to this parable or its explanation. Maclaren, Gill and Pulpit alike treat vv. 37-39 as binding on the exposition; Pulpit in particular uses v. 38 to keep the field from being narrowed to the church.

Matthew 13:36 · Matthew 13:38 · Matthew 13:39 · Matthew 13:40

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes across Matthew 13:36-40, above all G2215 ζιζάνιον (rare, in 8 vv, all within this parable and its explanation), plus G68 ἀγρός (34 vv), G4687 σπείρω (42 vv), G2190 ἐχθρός (32 vv), G2570 καλός (90 vv), G932 βασιλεία (154 vv), G4816 συλλέγω (8 vv). Greek to Greek within one chapter; the later passage is the speaker's own interpretation of the earlier.

The barn and the fire: the Baptist's threshing floor verbal / quotation: confirmed

The last clause of v. 30 lands on a noun the reader has met before. ἀποθήκη (G596, “barn, storehouse”) is rare, appearing in only 6 verses, and the Verifier finds it, together with σῖτος (G4621, wheat), in John the Baptist's preaching of the coming One who gathers the wheat into the storehouse and burns what is left (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17). Pulpit cross-references Matthew 3:12 at precisely this word. The same two nouns, the same two destinations, the same agent. What the parable adds to the Baptist is the interval: John set barn and fire side by side with nothing between them, while this parable inserts a whole season of mingled growth before the sorting begins. JFB notes the sequence within v. 30 itself, that the bundles are burned before the wheat is housed, and finds the same order kept at vv. 41 and 43.

Matthew 3:12 · Luke 3:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G596 ἀποθήκη (rare, in 6 vv) and G4621 σῖτος (in 15 vv) with both Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17. Greek to Greek; the rarity of ἀποθήκη carries the link. Not a quotation but a shared and uncommon vocabulary of harvest, storehouse and fire.

Its twin in Mark: the seed that grows while the man sleeps verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark has no parable of the darnel, but he has one that shares its furniture: a man scatters seed, sleeps and rises night and day (καθεύδω, G2518), the seed sprouts (βλαστάνω, G985, a verb in only 4 New Testament verses) and grows he knows not how, the earth yielding first the blade (χόρτος) then the ear, and when the fruit is ripe he puts in the sickle (Mark 4:26-29). Pulpit weighs the relation honestly: so many words and phrases in the two parables are identical that the possibility of one being derived from the other “must be acknowledged,” yet the definiteness of aim in each, slowness and certainty of growth in Mark, mingled growth and deferred separation in Matthew, “points rather to their being originally two distinct parables.” The sleep functions oppositely in the two: in Mark it is the space in which God works unseen, in Matthew the cover under which the enemy works unseen.

Mark 4:27 · Mark 4:28

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G985 βλαστάνω (rare, in 4 vv) and G2518 καθεύδω (in 20 vv) with Mark 4:27; G4621 σῖτος (15 vv) and G5528 χόρτος (13 vv) with Mark 4:28. Greek to Greek, same synoptic tradition. The rarity of βλαστάνω carries the verbal weight; Pulpit expressly declines to call either parable a derivation of the other.

Gathered by their fruit: the same rare verb on the other side of the test structural / thematic: confirmed

συλλέγω (G4816, “to collect”) is rare, only 8 verses in the New Testament, and it is the verb the servants use in v. 28, the verb the master turns back on them in v. 29, and the verb he gives the harvesters in v. 30. The Verifier finds its other principal home in the Sermon on the Mount and its Lukan parallel, Matthew 7:16 and Luke 6:44, where the same verb governs the gathering of fruit from thorns and thistles and where fruit (καρπός, G2590) is named as the test of what a tree is. The two passages hold opposite ends of one problem. There, fruit (καρπός, G2590) is given as the reliable test of what a tree is. Here, fruit is precisely what exposes the darnel in v. 26, and yet exposure still does not authorise the servants' hands. Barnes reaches for the same criterion at v. 26: not blades and leaves and flowers but fruit. We tier this structurally rather than verbally: the shared verb is real and uncommon, but neither passage cites the other.

Matthew 7:16 · Luke 6:44

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4816 συλλέγω (rare, in 8 vv) and G2590 καρπός (in 56 vv) with both Matthew 7:16 and Luke 6:44. Greek to Greek. Deliberately under-tiered: the vocabulary overlap is genuine, but the link is a shared motif of fruit as the test of kind, with no quotation in either direction.

Bare grain sown, and what is raised structural / thematic: confirmed

Paul argues the resurrection with the same two words this parable uses for the good crop: the Verifier finds both σπείρω (G4687, to sow) and σῖτος (G4621, wheat) in 1 Corinthians 15:37, where what is sown is a bare grain and not the body that is to be. Gill, expounding why the saints are “comparable to wheat,” gives among his reasons that wheat “dies before it rises and springs up; so the saints do, and will do, both in a spiritual and corporal sense.” That is Gill's own figural reading of the grain, not a claim that Paul is citing Matthew, and the connection between the two passages here is the shared agricultural vocabulary plus a shared logic: the sown thing is not yet what it will be, and the interval between sowing and appearing is where all the confusion lives.

1 Corinthians 15:37

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4687 σπείρω (in 42 vv) and G4621 σῖτος (in 15 vv) with 1 Corinthians 15:37. Greek to Greek, both common words, so no verbal claim is made; the link is the shared figure of sown grain whose final form is not yet visible.

An enemy man: a Hebrew idiom in Greek dress flagged: verify source

The master's reply in v. 28 is Ἐχθρὸς ἄνθρωπος, two nouns in apposition, awkward in Greek and ordinary in Hebrew. Gill identifies the construction as a Hebraism and cites Esther 7:6, “the man adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman,” taking it to signify a certain enemy, one who “is an implacable enemy to man.” Pulpit arrives at the same text from another direction, listing the coincidences between this verse with v. 39 and the Septuagint of Esther 7:4-6, and concluding that “it would almost seem as though the evangelist remembered that passage.” Note the hedge; it is Pulpit's own. We flag this link rather than confirm it. No shared Strong's number can be adduced, since Esther is Hebrew and Matthew Greek, and while Pulpit compares the Greek of the Septuagint, the Verifier indexes the Hebrew text of Esther, so the proposed link rests on the commentators' judgment about an idiom and a remembered scene, not on a computed verbal basis. It is a real observation made twice independently, and it is still a conjecture.

Esther 7:6

basis: No computed basis available: cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers cannot apply and no verbal tier is possible. The link is asserted by Gill (Hebraism, Esther 7:6) and by Pulpit (coincidences with the LXX of Esther 7:4-6), and Pulpit himself hedges it as something that would almost seem so. Provenance of the allusion is the commentators' inference; verify against the LXX text before relying on it.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The sower who does not name himself ancient/widely-held

⚙ The parable speaks of “a man” in the third person, and then v. 37 says: he that sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Gill takes the title as the deliberate one, used of Messiah in both Testaments, denoting the truth and the infirmity of his human nature, and reads the sowing as Christ's own preaching through Judea and Galilee and afterwards through the apostles. Maclaren sees the veil and what shows through it: the Lord conceals His claim by the third person, yet the tenses betray that the likening rests on His own accomplished sowing, so that “the hearing ear cannot fail to catch the implication throughout that He Himself is the sower and the Lord of the harvest.” Maclaren draws the further consequence from “his field”: Christ claims the whole world as His, before ever it is filled with the kingdom. Pulpit records the same identification flatly from v. 37. This is the ancient and near universal reading, and it is the text's own.

Matthew 13:37 · Matthew 13:38

My barn: the Judge who is also the owner ancient/widely-held

⚙ The last word of the parable is a possessive, eis tēn apothēkēn mou, into my barn. The same rare noun stands in the Baptist's preaching of the One whose fan is in his hand (Matthew 3:12), and JFB reads v. 30 through exactly that lens: “Christ, as the Judge, will separate the two classes,” as in Matthew 25:32, adding that the order of burning before housing is kept both here and in the explanation at vv. 41 and 43. Gill expounds the harvest as the end of the world, joy to the saints who then enter into the joy of their Lord and sorrow to the wicked. What holds the two halves together is that the storehouse is the Sower's own: the one who sowed the seed, absorbed the sabotage, and refused the premature purge is the one who finally gathers. The patience of vv. 29-30 is not the patience of a man who cannot act but of the man who owns the field and has set the hour.

Matthew 3:12 · Matthew 25:32 · Matthew 13:41

The householder who clears his servants before he corrects them novel

⚙ Before a word is said about the darnel, the master has answered the question that was really being asked. The servants' ouchi in v. 27 expects the answer yes, and Henry supplies it: whatever is amiss in the church, we are sure it is not from Christ. JFB hears the tone of the reply as “Kind words these from a good Husbandman, honorably clearing His faithful servants of the wrong done to his field.” The sequence is worth naming: exoneration first, then refusal, then a promise. It is a small structural observation, and the christological weight we hang on it, that the Lord's correction of zeal is framed on both sides by his vindication of his own work and his pledge to finish it, goes beyond what any one commentator in this brief states in those terms. We mark it as our own extension rather than as received exegesis.

Matthew 13:27 · Matthew 13:28 · Matthew 13:30

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; all parse data, glosses, lexeme frequencies and thread bases in this unit come from that apparatus and from the Verifier, not from the machine layer. Where the machine layer speaks it is marked ⚙ and is fallible.

What is uncertain here, honestly stated. (1) The identification of ζιζάνιον as bearded darnel, Lolium temulentum, is not a lexical certainty but a botanical argument, advanced by Benson from Campbell and by Pulpit from Tristram (1889), and corroborated by Ellicott and by Barnes from Thomson's field observations in Palestine. Nineteenth century natural history is the source; the exegetical point (a weed indistinguishable from wheat until fruiting, and poisonous) is common to all four and is what the parable requires. (2) The referent of “while men slept” is disputed within the brief itself: Benson and Gill build doctrine on it, Pulpit notes it is absent from the Lord's own explanation and may be mere scenery. We have preserved the disagreement rather than resolving it. (3) The identity of the servants is not given in vv. 36-43; Gill reads them as ministers of the Gospel and Pulpit admits the explanation is silent, inferring them from their role. (4) The Esther 7 link is flagged, not confirmed: it is cross-Testament, cannot be tested by shared Strong's numbers, and Pulpit states it as a near impression rather than a finding. (5) Matthew Poole's entries for every verse of this unit read only “See Poole on Matthew 13:33,” so Poole contributes nothing quotable here and is absent from the voices; that is a limitation of the source text, not an editorial judgment about him. (6) The Talmudic parallel Pulpit cites from Wetstein (R. Joshua ben Korcha, Baba Metzia 83b) is reported here as Pulpit reports it and has not been independently checked against the tractate. (7) The application of this parable to church discipline has been contested since antiquity; the Pulpit Commentary notes, on Archbishop Benson's authority, that its first extant exposition is Cyprian's appeal to the Novatianists, and the readings of Gill and of Barnes preserved above mark the two edges of the road rather than a settled middle.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)