Thomas 57: Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a person who has [good]
seed. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The
person did not let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, 'No,
otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with
them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be conspicuous, and will be
pulled up and burned."
This saying has several parallels:
24 He presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 "But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the
wheat, and went away.
26 "But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident
also.
27 "And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow
good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
28 "And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' And the slaves said to him,
'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'
29 "But he said, 'No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root
up the wheat with them.
30 'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the
harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn." (Mat 13:24-30 NAS)
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is
like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
lodge in the branches thereof.
33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto
leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole
was leavened. (Mat 13:31-33 KJV)
Actually this is a Triad. First we have the evil man sowing weeds, then a man
plants a mustard seed, and finally a woman hides leaven in flour. Three
analogous actions leading to analogous results. The little weeds grow into big
weeds, the mustard seed grows into a mustard tree, the leaven makes the flour
rise.
To properly examine these verses we need to also study all of the parallels.
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is
like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
lodge in the branches thereof. (Mat 13:31-32 KJV)
31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is
less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and
shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the
shadow of it. (Mar 4:31-32 KJV)
19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his
garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in
the branches of it. (Luk 13:19 KJV)
GOT 20. The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what Heaven's kingdom is like."
He said to them, "It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when
it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for
birds of the sky."
Looking at the mustard seed collection, they all seem in close agreement, except
perhaps for Mark, which has the plant actively shooting out branches for the
birds to shelter beneath. The imagery of those branches shooting out, like
spikes, hold that on the tip of your tongue.
And always with the birds lodging in the branches, great symbolism, except for
the fact that birds don't shelter in mustard plants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Mustard_Seed
But let's think about how a mustard plant is used. It is used to produce
mustard. And if you are going to eat a tasteless bird (tastes like chicken)
smothering it in mustard is a good way to add flavor. Think of the image of the
branches shooting out, to capture the spicy feeling of mustard on the tongue. It
is the mightiest of the garden herbs, in flavor.
33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto
leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole
was leavened. (Mat 13:33 KJV)
21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till
the whole was leavened. (Luk 13:21 KJV)
GOT 96. Jesus [said], "The Father's kingdom is like [a] woman. She took a little
leaven, [hid] it in dough, and made it into large loaves of bread. Anyone here
with two ears had better listen!"
When we look at the parallels for the woman putting leaven within the flour
there is no major difference among versions, except for Thomas, which stresses
that this dough is to be made into loaves of baked bread.
Now let's see what happens next in Matthew:
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his
disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the
field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of
man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but
the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world;
and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be
in the end of this world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his
kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
(Mat 13:36-43 KJV)
So, what is going to happen is the tares, or weeds, are going to get burned in
the furnace.
Now, let us think back to the mustard seed. Since it is used for cooking, it is
also likely to be put in an oven. And what of the yeast that the woman hid
within the flour? It too is destined for a encounter with the flame. In both
cases, these items, the mustard seed, and the leaven, are used with the express
understanding that they will meet the heat of an oven.
We have a series of three elements, the weeds, followed by the mustard seed,
followed by leaven. The weeds are explicitly on their way to the furnace, while
the mustard seed and leaven in the flour are implicitly heading towards an oven.
In the case of the mustard seed and the leaven, neither the man nor the woman
can be said to be evil. They are simply taking the necessary steps to bring
about the desired result.
According to Leviticus, it was against the law to sow two sorts of seeds in a
field at the same time.
19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a
diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a
garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee. (Lev 19:19 KJV)
My reading of this suggests that the owner of the field sowed the bad weeds
intentionally among the good seed. The owner's intention the entire time was to
have both the wheat and the weeds grow until they could be harvested separately.
You may notice that there is an entire epic apocalyptic end of times diorama
which I am ignoring. That imagery is designed to eclipse the pattern encoded
within the text.
My understanding is that the owner lied to the servant about the weeds, rather
than tell the slave that he had broken the law. Of course, my reading assumes
not just that the owner is lying to the servant, but also that the narrator
(Jesus) is lying to us (the disciples), though only on the surface level of the
text.
In my next post I'll show how GOT 21 fits into all of this.
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