Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Matthew 第13章

Matthew 13:3. He spake many things unto them in parables— The word παραβολη, which we translate parable, signifies a comparison or simile; a transferring of the ideas or properties which are in one subject generally familiar and well known, to another less known and understood, in order to heighten and enliven that other the more to the mind. It is a putting of one thing for another, that the matter intended to be taught may not immediately appear from the bare letter, and the case put;but when the key is given may strike more fully and strongly on the mind; for a parable is exactly what we call "putting a case;" when one thing is said and supposed, with a design to teach, illustrate, and enforce, some other. Such are our Saviour's parables; so that, to understand them, we must look beyond the letter; in such as he has not himself interpreted, we shall find the key either from his general application, or from the connection wherein the parable stands with his miracles or his discourses. And while, carefully attending hereto, we explain the other circumstances agreeably to the subject in hand, and the analogy of faith, there is no doubt but we shall obtain all the profit which was intended to be conveyed to us by this most pleasing, beautiful, and persuasive method of instruction. That parables were very familiar, and much in use among the Eastern nations, and particularly those of Palestine, we learn from the concurrent evidence of all writers on the subject; and, for the most part, as Sir Isaac Newton (on Daniel, p. 148.) observes, "Both Christ, and his forerunner John, as well as the old prophets, were wont in their parabolical discourses to allude to things present, and such as immediately offered themselves." See the note on ch. Matthew 5:1; Matthew 5:14. These are some of the reasons why our Saviour spoke in parables: 1st, As a judicial punishment upon those who were hardened against, and ill disposed to the truth; and sometimes as a more lively method to convince and confute them, even from their own mouths: 2nd, As a means to awaken the attention and whet the inquiry of those who were well disposed, and to lead them to a serious examination and diligent searching after the truth, as a method the most natural, beautiful, and instructive, to teach, from common and familiar objects, the most divine and important lessons, and to imprint them on the memory. 3rdly, As a veil to the mysteries of his kingdom, and a method less offensive to convey some very ungrateful and unpalatable truths, such particularly as the rejection of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, &c. 4thly, Asa lesson of man's natural blindness and ignorance in spiritual matters, unless Christ, by his grace, opens the understanding and enlightens the mind. And all this, 5thly, to fulfil the prophesies concerning him in this respect, as well as to comply with the customs and manners of the nation with whom this method of instruction was familiar.

In this chapter our Lord delivers seven parables, directing the four former, as being of general concern, to all the people; the three latter to his disciples. He began with the parable of the sower, who cast his seed on different soils, which, according to their natures, brought forth either plentifully, or sparingly, or not at all. By this similitude he represented the different kinds of hearers, with the different effects which the doctrines of religion have upon them, according to their different dispositions. In some, these doctrines are suppressed altogether; in others, they produce the fruits of righteousness, more or less, according to the goodness of their hearts, through divine grace. A parable of this kind was highly seasonable, now that the multitude shewed such an itching desire to hear Christ's sermons, while perhaps they neglected the end for which they ought to have heard them. This parable too was exquisitely proper for an introduction to all the rest, as our Lord answers in it a very obvious and very important question: "The same sower Christ, and the same preachers sent by him, always sow the same seed; why has it not always the same effect?" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. See Bengelius.

return to '

Matthew 13:4. And when he sowed, &c. the fowls— And as he sowed, &c. the birds. It is observable, that our Lord points out the great hindrances of our bearing fruit, in the same order as they occur. The first danger is, that the birds will devour the seed; if it escape this, there is yet another danger, namely, lest it be scorched and wither away; it is not long after this that the thorns spring up and choke the good seed. A vast majority of those who hear the word of God receive the seed as by the way-side; of those who do not lose it by the birds, yet many receive it as on stony ground: many of those who receive it in a better soil, yet suffer the thorns to grow up and choke it; so that few comparatively even of those endure to the end, and bear fruit to perfection: and yet in all these cases it is not the will of God which hinders, but their own voluntary perverseness. See Mr. Wesley's notes on the New Testament.

return to '

Matthew 13:5. Stony places— Rocky ground. The phrase, stony places, does not express the sense. There may be many loose stones, from which the place would properly be denominated stony, where the soil is both rich and deep. What is meant here is evidently continued rock, with a very thin cover of earth.

return to '

Matthew 13:6. And when the sun was up— This was the reason that, upon the sun's appearing, they were scorched, &c. Prussian editors.

return to '

Matthew 13:8. But other fell into good ground— But another part, falling on good ground, bare fruit; one grain yielding an hundred, another sixty, another thirty. Prussian editors. See Genesis 26:12. The fruitfulness of the seed which was sown on good ground, is not to be understood, says Macknight, of the field's producing a hundred times as much as was sown on it; but it is to be understood of a single grain producing a hundred grains, which, it might easily do where it met with a good soil, and was properly nourished; but there are many accidents by which the produce of a field, so rich as to be capable of nourishing a hundred grains by a single root, is reduced within ordinary bounds. The parable mentions some of them; part of the seed is trodden down by passengers, or destroyed by the birds, part is starved in bad soil among rocks, and part is choked by weeds.

return to '

Matthew 13:17. Verily I say unto you, That, &c.— This is what sets the disciples above all prophets, and renders them greatest in the kingdom of heaven. See ch. Mat 11:11 and comp. Psalms 119:174. Luke, ii 25, 29, 30 Matthew 10:23-24.John 8:56; John 8:56. 1 Peter 1:1-10

return to '

Matthew 13:19. When any one heareth, &c.— From this interpretation of the parable by our Saviour, we learn, that the seed signifies the doctrines of true religion; and the various kinds of ground, the various kinds of hearers: the comparison between God and the sower is frequent among the Jewish writers, and seed is among almost all nations used for doctrine or instruction. The ground by the highway side, which is apt to be beaten by men's treading upon it, is an image of those who have their hearts so hardened with impiety, that though they hear the Gospel preached, it makes no impression at all upon them; because they either hear it inattentively, or, if they attend, quickly forget it. This insensibility and inattention are strongly represented by the beaten ground along the highway, into which the seed never entering, it is bruised by the feet of men, or picked up by birds. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, or gospel, and understandeth, or considereth it not, (for the original word συνιεναι signifies both,) then cometh the wicked one, &c. The devil is said to come and catch the word from this sort of hearers, not because he has power to rob men of their knowledge, or religious impressions, by any immediate act; but because they expose themselves, through carelessness, to the whole force of the temptations which he lays in their way, and particularly to those which arise whether from the commerce of men, (a circumstance observed by St. Luke, who tells us that the seedwas trodden down,) or from their own head-strong lusts, which, like so many hungry fowls, fly to and quickly eat up the word out of their mind. The perturbation occasioned by the passions of this kind of hearers, and by the temptations to which they are exposed, renders them altogether inattentive in hearing; or if they attend, it hardens them against the impression of the word, and effaces the remembrance of it in an instant; insomuch, that the pernicious influence of evil passions and bad company cannot truly be represented by any lower figure, than that the word is taken away by the devil, whose agents such persons and lusts most certainly are. See Macknight. Dr. Campbell reads the last clause, This explaineth what fell by the way-side.

return to '

Matthew 13:22. He also that received seed among the thorns— The ground full of thorns which sprang up with the seed and choked it, represents all those who receive the word into hearts full of worldly cares; which sooner or later destroy whatever convictions or good resolutions are raised by the word. Worldly cares are compared to thorns, not only because of their pernicious efficacy in choking the word, but because it is with great pains and difficulty that they are eradicated. In the parable, the hearers of this denomination are distinguished from those who receive the seed on stony ground, not so much by the effect of the word upon their minds, as by the different nature of each; for in both the seed sprang up, but brought forth no fruit. The stony-ground hearers will not retain the impressions made by the word; they have not root in themselves; no strength of mind; no firmness of resolution, to resist temptations from without. Whereas the thorny-ground hearers have the soil, but then it is filled with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the love of pleasure, which sooner or later stifle the impressions of the word; and by this means, in the issue, they are as unfruitful as the former. But both are distinguished from the way-side hearers by this, that they receivethe word, and yield to its influences in some degree; whereas the others do not receive the word at all, hearing without attention; or, if they do attend, forgetting it immediately. The way-side hearers hold the first place in the parable, because they are by far more numerous than the rest; and the good-ground hearers the last, because they are the fewest in number. The phrase απατη του πλουτου, the deceitfulness of riches, is very elegant, and admirably expresses the various artifices by which people, in the pursuit of riches, excuse themselves from day to day, in putting off the ardent pursuit of genuine religion,—and the astonishing disappointment which often mingles itself with their labours, and even with their success. Comp. Proverbs 11:28. Luke 18:24. 1 Timothy 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 6:17. 2 Timothy 2:4; 2 Timothy 4:10.

return to '

Matthew 13:23. But he that received seed into the good ground— St. Luke has expressed this rather more fully, Luke 8:15. But that on the good ground are they, who, in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it,—in opposition to the way-side, which never received the seed at all, but bearing it on its surface, offered it to the devouring birds;—and bring forth fruit with patience; in opposition both to the stony and thorny grounds, which nourished the seed that was cast into them only for a while; the former till the sun arose, the latter till the thorns sprang up. The goodness of heart for which this kind of hearers are applauded, consists in their simplicity and sincerity: the seed or word having been duly cultivated by them, they understand what they hear. The honesty of their heart consists in their disposition through grace to believe the truth, though contrary to their prejudices; and to practise it, though opposite to their inclinations: All who hear the word with these qualifications, and join thereto, through the spirit of God, firmness of resolution, and the government of their passions, never fail to bring forth, some an hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty; fruits of righteousness, in proportion to the different degrees of strength in which they possess the graces necessary to constitute them profitable hearers of the word. See Macknight, and Bishop Beveridge's 9th sermon, vol. Mat 10:8 vo.

return to '

Matthew 13:27. So the servants of the householder— The original word 'Οικοδεσποτης, seems to signify in this connection, "the proprietor of the estate:" he is supposed to be the master of the field, and of some lodge or farm-house, in which these servants dwelt.

return to '

Matthew 13:29. But he said, Nay, &c.— These words account for the justice of God in suspending his judgments. To see the full force of the reason in this respect, it is necessary we should understand what sort of sinners are spoken of, for this reason is not always applicable to all cases; many sinners are spared upon other accounts than this which is here given: the sinners intended in this passage are spared merely on account of the righteous, that they may not be involved in the punishment due to the sins of others; but some sinners are spared out of a mercy which regards themselves, in hopes of their amendment. The sinners represented by the tares are such, of whose repentance and amendment there is no hope and our Saviour has told us that these sinners shall certainly be punished at the last; which cannot certainly be said of any but incorrigible sinners: these sinners, therefore being considered as incorrigible, there was no room to justify the delay of punishment from any circumstances arising out of their own case. Even the mercy of God was excluded in this respect; for if the incorrigible sinner be the object of mercy, no sinner need fear punishment. Our Saviour, therefore, gives them up intirely, and justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in sparing them, from other motives. The interests of good and bad men are so united in this world; there is such a connection between them in many respects, that no signal calamity can befal the wicked, but therighteous must have his share in it. This was Abraham's plea when he interceded with the Lord for the men of Sodom. In public calamities it is evident that all must be sufferers without distinction: fire and sword, famine and pestilence, rage indifferently in the borders of the righteous and the sinner, and sweep away one as well as the other. Thus far then the reason of this verse most certainly extends, and shews us the mercy of God in forbearing to appear against sinners in such punishments as would bring upon the best of men the punishments due only to the worst. You see a great wicked man in a prosperous condition, and you think his happytranquillity a perpetual reproach to the providence of God: you would not have God rain fire and brimstone upon the city for the sake of this great offender, since many innocent persons would necessarily suffer in the ruin? No; but you would have God take him suddenly away by some secret and silent method; or you would have him punished in his fortune, and reduced to that misery which his sins deserve. This you think would be very just and reasonable, and highly becoming the wisdom of God. But do you not consider that there is no great man who is not related to others? are all the relations and dependents of this great sinner as wicked as himself? Is there not one good man the better for him? Are his children all abandoned? Or would you turn out a family of innocent children to seek their bread in the streets, rather than let the iniquity of the father go unpunished for a few years! Till you can answer these questions, you must not pretend to arraign the wisdom and goodness of God, in sparing thisoffender. Now these considerations plainly shew the equity and goodness of God in delaying the punishment of the wicked; in both the cases above-mentioned you see that mercy triumphs over justice, and the guilty is preserved for the sake of the innocent, which is such an act of goodness, as no man surely has reason to complain of. Nor will the justice of God suffer in this account, as will plainly appear from the following considerations: the parable is evidently intended as an answer to the common objection against Providence, drawn from the prosperity of sinners, or the impunity of offenders. Ask the man who makes this objection against God's government, why he thinks it unbecoming the wisdom of God to delay the punishment of sinners? He will readily answer, because it is contrary to his justice; and to support his reason,he will farther add, that it is an undoubted maxim of justice, that all sinners deserve punishment. And here I thinkhe must stop; for he cannot enter into particular cases, unless he knew more of man than he does, or can know. In answer to this, our Saviour owns the truth of the general maxim, as far as it relates to the desert of sinners; and thereforeteaches us, that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world: but then he shews, from superior reasons of justice, that the application of the principle in the present case is wrong; for though it be just to punish all sinners, yet to punish them immediately, would destroy the very reason which makes it just to punish them. It is just to punish them, that there may be a difference made between the good and the bad, according to their deserts, that their punishment may be a discouragement to vice, and an encouragement to holiness and virtue. Now our Lord shews in this parable, that the immediate punishment of the wicked would quite destroy those ends of justice; for the righteous and the wicked, like the wheat and the tares, growing together in one field, are so mixed and united in interests in this world, that, as things stand, the wicked cannot be rooted out, but the righteous must suffer with them: consequently, the immediate destruction of the wicked, since it must inevitably fall upon therighteous also, would make no proper distinction between the good and the bad; could be no encouragement to holiness and virtue, for the virtuous would suffer; could be no discouragement to vice, for vice would fare as well as virtue: And therefore it is not only reasonable to delay, in innumerable instances, the punishment of the wicked, but even necessary, to the obtaining of the ends of justice, since they cannot be obtained in their immediate destruction. See Bishop Sherlock's 8th Discourse, parts 1 and 2 vol. 3. See also the Reflections.

return to '

Matthew 13:30. Gather—the tares, and bind them in bundles— The word tares does not seem to express the meaning of the original ζιζανια : for tares, with us, are not noxious weeds, but a serviceable kind of pulse, of great use for cattle, and very easily distinguished in their growth from wheat; whereas the original expresses somewhat (and the scope of the parable demands it) which is of no service at all; fit only to be burned, and which cannot easily be distinguished from the good corn till both are grown up; and to these particulars answer either what are called the deaf ears in wheat, which cannot be discerned till the time of harvest; or rather a weed called darnel, the infelix lolium, which grows up with wheat, and unless gathered out of it before it be reaped, is very prejudicial to the corn. Dr. Johnson, indeed, in his Dictionary, says, that "tares (from teeren, Dutch, to consume) are a weed that grows among corn." The original word, as some very able Grecians tell us, is not found except in the Evangelists, and certain of the fathers; and they give it different derivations.

return to '

Matthew 13:33. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven— The meaning of this parable is commonly thought to be the same as that of the preceding; but there seems to be this difference between them; the parable of the grain of mustard seed represents the smallness of the Gospel in its beginnings, together with its subsequent greatness; whereas the parable of the leaven, which, being hid in a quantity of meal, fermented the whole, expresses in a very lively manner both the nature and strength of the operation of truth upon the mind; for though the doctrines of the Gospel, when first proposed, seemed to be lost in that enormous mass of passions and worldly thoughts with which men's minds were filled; yet did they then, through the Divine Spirit, most eminentlyexert their influence, converting men's thoughts and desires intoa conformity to truth. The precise difference, therefore, between this and the foregoing parable is, that the former represents the extensive propagation of the Gospel from the smallest beginning; but this, the nature of the influence of its doctrines upon the minds of particular persons. Our Saviour mentions here three measures of meal in particular, because this seems to be the quantity they usually kneaded at once. See Genesis 18:6. Macknight, Beausobre and Lenfant.

return to '

Matthew 13:38. The children of the kingdom— This is a Hebraism, signifying the heirs of the kingdom, ch. Mat 8:12 where the unbelieving Jews are named the children of the kingdom, in opposition to the Gentiles, because they were born within the Mosaic covenant. Here the children of the kingdom are the true believers, as the children of the wicked one are the unregenerate and disobedient. See John 8:41; John 8:44.

return to '

Matthew 13:39. The end of the world— Of the age, literally, a Hebraism, frequently used in the New Testament. Comp. the next verse, and Hebrews 1:2. What follows is an allusion to Joel 3:13. See also Revelation 14:15.

return to '

Matthew 13:41. The Son of man shall send forth, &c.— The reader must observe how high an idea our Saviour here gives his disciples of himself, when he speaks of the angels as his attendants who were at the last day to wait on him, and at his order to assemble the whole world before him: they shall gather out of his kingdom all that offend, παντα τα σκανδαλα, all things which are an offence to others, by laying stumbling-blocks in their way Και τους, &c. "Even all the transgressors of the law; for so the word και should be rendered in this and many other places of the New Testament."

return to '

Matthew 13:42. A furnace— The furnace.

return to '

Matthew 13:43. Then shall the righteous shine forth, &c.— In this beautiful expression, our blessed Saviour seems to allude to Daniel 12:3. They that be wise shall shine, &c. They shall shine like the sun in the firmament for brightness and beauty, and shall find no diminution of their splendour by age. A noble image this to represent the glory and happiness of righteous men with God their Father. The exclamation at the end of the verse intimates that truths of greater importance and solemnity cannot be uttered, than those which respect the final misery of the wicked, and the inconceivable happiness of the righteous; and that allwho have the faculty of reason ought therefore to regard them with becoming attention. See Macknight and Calmet.

return to '

Matthew 13:54. Into his own country— Nazareth is so called, because it was the town in which Jesus was brought up, and to distinguish it from Capernaum, where he commonly resided. This wisdom signifies this learning. They were amazed to find in our Lord such extraordinary learning, without having ever been taught by their doctors. These mighty works, in the Greek is δυναμεις, virtues. The word denotes both miracles, and the power of performing them.

return to '

Matthew 13:55. Is not this the carpenter's son?— In St. Mark, Mar 6:3 it is, Is not this the carpenter? 'Ο τεκτων ; Accordingly Justin Martyr tells us, and the ancient Christians were all of the same opinion, that Jesus was employed in this occupation. Their canons required that all parents should teach their children some trade; and probablythe poverty of the family engaged Christ, while he was at home with Joseph, to work at his. What an additional proof this, of the humiliation of the blessed Redeemer for our sakes! By comparing ch. Matthew 27:56., Mark 15:40., John 19:25., with this passage, it appears, that the four persons mentioned here were the sons of Mary, sister to the virgin Mary, and the wife of Cleophas or Alpheus, which is the same name. See ch. Matthew 10:3 Matthew 12:46. By James is meant James the Lesser, whom St. Paul calls our Lord's brother, Galatians 1:19. Joses or Joseph (for it is the same name) is the only son of Mary, the wife of Alpheus, who never was an Apostle. Simon is he who is called the Canaanite or Zealot, to distinguish him from Simon Peter. And Judas or Jude is the author of the Epistle which goes under that name, wherein he styles himself the brother of James.

return to '

Matthew 13:56. Whence then, &c.— This, like many other things which have since been objected against the Gospel of Christ, is as much the language of stupidity as of infidelity; for the meanness of Christ's education was a demonstration, that his teaching in so excellent a manner must have been the effect of some extraordinary and divine influence on his mind.

return to '

Matthew 13:57. And they were offended in him— The Nazarenes, not being able to reconcile the miracles, and wisdom of our Lord with the meanness of his birth, were full of doubts and uncertainties; they could not tell what to say or think of him, suspecting perhaps that he was a sorcerer. The word unbelief, used in the next verse, serves to explain all this. And we learn from Luk 4:22 that, notwithstanding their unbelief, they could not forbear praising and admiring him. Dr. Doddridge renders the next clause, "A prophet is no where less esteemed than in his own country, and among his relations, even in his own family;" which is plainly the sense of the words, though ours is a literal translation: for a prophet may be, and oftenis, affronted at a distance from home, as our Saviour himself found by frequent experience. (See John 4:44.Luke 4:24; Luke 4:24.) The expression is proverbial, signifying that those who possess extraordinary endowments are no where in less request than among their relations and acquaintance. The reason is, superior work never fails to be envied; and envy, ever industrious in its search, commonly finds some way or other to turn the knowledge it has of persons to their disadvantage.

return to '