Monday, November 07, 2005

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

As I point out in this article about Christ's explanation of this parable, Christ is actually describing using these weeds as fuel for the fires that make bread. If Christ didn't see the value in the weeds as fuel, he wouldn't gather them first and bind into bundles. He would gather the wheat and burn the weeds left in the fields. Remember, the weeds and wheat hear on not people, but what they produce. Christ's use of symbols make a clear distinction between the mental realm, which includes our thoughts, what we raise, and our resulting wealth, and the physical realm, our actions and our bodies. He is talking about uprooting bad thoughts and the thought that they produce. If we look at this verse more closely, Christ seems to go even further suggesting that the weed and wheat are intentionally raised together, but that in the end, the weeds are collected, constrained, and destroyed.

My Versions: Raise both [weeds and wheat] with each other until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, First get the weeds together, and bind them in bundles to burn completely: but gather the wheat into my barn.

The word translated as "grow together" is sunauxanô, which means literally "to make grow with." This term is used to describe situations where you intentionally raise two things together to get the result that you want.

Though you cannot tell from the English, two different words are used for collecting the weeds and gathering the wheat. The term used for gathering the weeds is sullegô , which literally means "speak with," but which in use means "to collect," "to bring together," "to get together," and even "to compose." The term used for gathering wheat is sunagô, which literally means "to take with," and is used to mean "to gather together," "to draw together," and "to unite."

"To burn" is from katakaiô, which literally means "burn through out" and is generally used to mean "to burn completely" or "burn out."