the field is the world; as for the fine seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; but the weeds are the sons of the wicked one,

SOWING “FINE SEED”

9. What is the “field,” and why has Jesus sown “fine seed” in it?

⁹ It is with a view to gathering out of the world the required number of such “holy ones,” or “sons of the kingdom,” that Jesus, the “householder” of the parable, sows “fine seed in his field.” This “field” is explained as being “the world [Greek, koʹsmos],” the world of mankind. From the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry onward, mankind became a “field under cultivation,” a religious field of opportunity for sowing and cultivating the “fine seed,” or “sons of the kingdom.” (1 Cor. 3:9) Jesus zealously prepared the Jewish part of the “field” during the three and a half years of his earthly ministry. (Matt. 9:35-38) Then, from Pentecost 33 C.E. onward, he planted “fine seed,” first among Jews, and finally in the entire world, or “field.”​—Acts 1:8.

10. What progress did the sowing work make among the Jews and the proselytes?

¹⁰ Explaining the “fine seed,” Jesus said: “These are the sons of the kingdom.” The first of these spirit-begotten, anointed “sons of the kingdom” were Jesus’ faithful apostles and the hundred or so other disciples, both men and women, who received the gift of the holy spirit at Pentecost 33 C.E. in Jerusalem. (Acts 1:13-15; 2:1-4)

14. What information is given about the type of weed referred to in Jesus’ parable?

¹⁴ Jesus stated: “The weeds are the sons of the wicked one.” (Matt. 13:38) In his book Natural History of the Bible, H. B. Tristram comments on the type of weeds referred to in this parable. He writes: “The Tares (zizania) are the same as the Arabic zawân, from which the Greek name is derived, the Lolium temulentum, or Bearded Darnel. . . . It is a kind of ryegrass, and is the only species of the grass family the seeds of which are poisonous. The derivation of zawân is from zân, ‘vomiting,’ the effect of eating darnel being to produce violent nausea, convulsions, and diarrheœa, which frequently ends in death. The plant, having a broader leaf than most wild grasses, is entirely like wheat until the ear appears.”

15. (a) Are the “weeds” degenerate “wheat”? (b) Therefore, of what is the “Son of man” blameless?

¹⁵ It should be noted that the “weeds” are not, as some Jewish Talmudistsa and others once believed, a degenerate form of wheat. Wheat seed never transforms itself into weeds. This would be contrary to Jehovah’s immutable law: “Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds.” (Gen. 1:11, 12) This scientific fact exonerates the “Son of man,” Christ Jesus, the “sower of the fine seed,” from any responsibility for what happened in “his field.” The “fine seed” he sowed would never have become a crop of weeds. It could only produce “wheat,” or true “sons of the kingdom.” What later developed in his “field” was the direct result of his enemy’s deliberate and malicious oversowing of “weeds,” or “sons of the wicked one.”

16. Of what historical interest is the parable of the “wheat” and the “weeds”?

¹⁶ Thus, Jesus’ illustration of the “wheat” and the “weeds” does much to explain the history of Christianity throughout the centuries. Historical facts show that after the death of the apostles Satan introduced among the congregations of true Christians many “weeds,” “oppressive wolves” and “antichrists,” just as Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and Jude had foretold. (Acts 20:29; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 John 2:18; Jude 4)