Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/The Diatessaron of Tatian/The Diatessaron/Section XVII

by Tatian

Section XVII.

[1] ^[1]And he set forth to them another parable, and said, The kingdom of heaven is [2] like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ^[2]but when men slept, his enemy came [3] and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.  ^[3]And when the blade sprang up [4] and brought forth fruit, there were noticed the tares also.  ^[4]And the servants of the master of the house came, and said unto him, Our lord, didst thou not sow good [5] [Arabic, p. 66] seed in thy field? whence are there tares in it?  ^[5]He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.  His servants said unto him, Wilt thou that we go [6] and separate it?  ^[6]He said unto them, Perhaps,^[7] when ye separate the tares, ye would [7] root up with them wheat also.  ^[8]Leave them to grow both together until the harvest:  and in the time of the harvest I will say unto the reapers, Separate the tares first, and bind them in bundles to be burned with fire; and gather the wheat into my barns.

[8, 9] ^[9]And he set forth to them another parable, and said, ^[10]To what is the kingdom of [10] God like? and to what shall I liken it? and in what parable shall I set it forth?  ^[11]It [11] is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and planted in his field:  ^[12]and of the number of the things that are sown in the earth it is smaller than all of the things [12] which are sown, which are upon the earth; ^[13]but when it is grown, it is greater than all the herbs, and produceth large branches, so that the birds of heaven make their nests in its branches.

[13, 14] ^[14]And he set forth to them another parable:  ^[15]To what shall I liken the kingdom of [15] God?  ^[16]It is like the leaven which a woman took, and kneaded into three measures of flour, until the whole of it was leavened.

[16] ^[17]And Jesus spake all that to the multitudes by way of parables, according as they [17] were able to hear.  ^[18]And without parables spake he not unto them; that the saying of the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled:

I will open my mouth in parables;

And I will utter secrets which were before the foundations^[19] of the world.

[18] ^[20]But he explained to his disciples privately everything.

[19] ^[21]Then Jesus left^[22] the multitudes, and came to the house.  And his disciples came unto him, and said unto him, Explain unto us that parable about the tares [20] [Arabic, p. 67] and the field.  ^[23]He answered and said unto them, He that sowed good seed is [21] the Son of man; ^[24]and the field is the world; and the good seed are the children of the [22] kingdom; ^[25]and the tares are the children of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them^[26] is Satan; and the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.  [23] ^[27]And as the tares are separated and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of [24] this world.  ^[28]The Son of man shall send his angels, and separate from his kingdom [25] all things that injure, ^[29]and all the doers of iniquity, and they shall cast them into the [26] furnace of fire:  and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  ^[30]Then the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Whosoever hath ears that hear, let him hear.

[27] ^[31]And again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hid in a field:  that which a man found and hid; and, for his pleasure in it, went and sold all that he had, and bought that field.

[28] ^[32]And again the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a merchant seeking excellent [29] pearls; ^[33]and when he found one pearl of great price, he went and sold everything that he had, and bought it.

[30] ^[34]And again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast^[35] into the sea, and [31] gathered of every kind:  ^[36]and when it was filled, they drew it up on to the shore of the sea, and sat down to select; and the good of them they threw into the vessels, [32] and the bad they threw outside.  ^[37]Thus shall it be in the end of the world:  the angels [33] shall go forth, ^[38]and separate the wicked from among the good, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire:  there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[34] ^[39]Jesus said unto them, Have ye understood all these things?  They said unto [35] [Arabic, p. 68] him, Yea, our Lord.  ^[40]He said unto them, Therefore every scribe that becometh a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder, who bringeth out of his treasures the new and the old.

[36, 37] ^[41]And when Jesus had finished all these parables, he removed thence, and came to his city; ^[42]and he taught them in their synagogues, so that they were perplexed.  [38] ^[43]And when the sabbath came, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue; and many of [39] those that heard marvelled, and said, Whence came these things to this man?  And many envied him and gave no heed to him, but said, What is this wisdom that is given to this man, that there should happen at his hands such as these mighty works?^[44]  [40] ^[45]Is not this a carpenter, son of a carpenter? and is not his mother called Mary? and [41] his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?  ^[46]And his sisters, all of them, [42] lo, are they not all with us?  ^[47]Whence hath this man all these things?  And they were in doubt concerning him.  ^[48]And Jesus knew their opinion, and said unto them, Will ye haply^[49] say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal first thyself:  and all that [43] we have heard that thou didst in Capernaum, do here also in thine own city?  ^[50]And he said, Verily I say unto you, A prophet is not received in his own city, nor among [44] his brethren:  ^[51]for a prophet is not despised, save in his own city, and among his own [45] kin, and in his own house.  ^[52]Verily I say unto you, In the days of Elijah the prophet, there were many widows among the children of Israel, when the heaven held back [46] three years and six months, ^[53]and there was a great famine in all the land; and Elijah [Arabic, p. 69] was not sent to one of them, save to Zarephath of Sidon, to a woman that was [47] a widow.  ^[54]And many lepers were among the children of Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet; but not one of them was cleansed, save Naaman the Nabathæan.^[55]  [48] ^[56]And he was not able to do there many mighty works,^[57] because of their unbelief; [49] except that he laid his hand upon a few of the sick, and healed them.  ^[58]And he marvelled [50] at their lack of faith.  ^[59]And when those who were in the synagogue heard, [51] they were all filled with wrath; and they rose up, ^[60]and brought him forth outside the city, and brought him to the brow of the hill upon which their city was built, that [52] they might cast him from its summit:  ^[61]but he passed through among them and went away.

[53] ^[62]And he went about in the villages which were around Nazareth, and taught in their synagogues.

Footnotes

1. Matt. xiii. 24.
2. Matt. xiii. 25.
3. Matt. xiii. 26.
4. Matt. xiii. 27.
5. Matt. xiii. 28.
6. Matt. xiii. 29.
7. See above, § 4, 24, note.
8. Matt. xiii. 30.
9. Matt. xiii. 31a.
10. Luke xiii. 18b.
11. Mark iv. 30b; Luke xiii. 19a.
12. Matt. xiii. 31c; Mark iv. 31b.
13. Matt. xiii. 32b; Mark iv. 32b.
14. Mark iv. 33; or rather Matt. xiii. 33a.
15. Luke xiii. 20b.
16. Matt. xiii. 33b.
17. Matt. xiii. 34a; Mark iv. 33b.
18. Matt. xiii. 34b; Matt. xiii. 35.
19. The word (if not a corruption of that used in the Brit. Mus. text of Ibn-at-Tayyib’s Commentary, and in § 43, 46 where, however, according to Ciasca’s foot-note, it was not the word first written by the scribe) is Syriac.  Perhaps it means the ends of the earth (see P. Smith, Thes. Syr.).  Still a third word is used in § 47, 42.
20. Mark iv. 34b.
21. Matt. xiii. 36.
22. cf. § 11, 32, note.
23. Matt. xiii. 37.
24. Matt. xiii. 38.
25. Matt. xiii. 39.
26. Singular.
27. Matt. xiii. 40.
28. Matt. xiii. 41.
29. Matt. xiii. 42.
30. Matt. xiii. 43.
31. Matt. xiii. 44.
32. Matt. xiii. 45.
33. Matt. xiii. 46.
34. Matt. xiii. 47.
35. cf. note to § 10, 8.
36. Matt. xiii. 48.
37. Matt. xiii. 49.
38. Matt. xiii. 50.
39. Matt. xiii. 51.
40. Matt. xiii. 52.
41. Matt. xiii. 53.
42. Matt. xiii. 54.
43. Mark vi. 2.
44. Lit. powers.
45. Matt. xiii. 55.
46. Matt. xiii. 56.
47. Matt. xiii. 57.
48. Luke iv. 23.
49. cf. above, § 4, 24, note.
50. Luke iv. 24.
51. Mark vi. 4b.
52. Luke iv. 25.
53. Luke iv. 26.
54. Luke iv. 27.
55. Of the Syriac versions Cur. and Sin. are wanting.  Pesh. has Aramæan.
56. Mark vi. 5.
57. Lit. powers.
58. Mark vi. 6a.
59. Luke iv. 28.
60. Luke iv. 29.
61. Luke iv. 30.
62. Mark vi. 6b.