“Then,” says he, “the kingdom of the heavens will become like ten virgins that took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Matthew 25:1-4; 24:45-51.

16. In what sense are the women “virgins,” according to the introduction of the parable?

¹⁶ First of all, we should note that this parable involves a class of people and so is not to be applied in its completeness to the life and death of each individual. Those involved are “virgins” in a particular sense, inasmuch as they represent the “kingdom of the heavens,” because “then,” as Jesus said, “the kingdom of the heavens will become like [what?] ten virgins.” This is the “kingdom” of which Jesus spoke earlier in his prophecy, saying: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”​—Matthew 24:14.

17. (a) Whom do the “virgins,” being ten in number, picture? (b) When did the parable begin to be fulfilled, and why then?

¹⁷ The number “ten” being Scripturally a number signifying perfection as regards earthly things, the “virgins” in being ten in number would picture all Christians who are in line or who profess to be in line for the heavenly kingdom in joint heirship with Jesus Christ. When, therefore, did the prophetic parable begin to have its fulfillment? On Sunday, Sivan 6, the Festival Day of Pentecost, of the year 33 C.E. How so? Because then the virgin class came into existence. This was because the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who were gathered together in an upper room in Jerusalem, were on that day baptized with the holy spirit. They were thereby begotten of God to be his spiritual sons in a position to be ‘heirs of God’ and “joint heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:17) But, in the Bible, heirs are usually the sons; and why is it that, in the parable, all the members of the spirit-begotten congregation of Christ’s disciples are pictured as females, as virgin girls who, on a wedding night, go out to meet the bridegroom? and who is this “bridegroom”?

18. In connection with marriage matters, to whom did John the Baptist compare himself and Jesus, and to whom did John direct his own disciples?

¹⁸ First of all, this “bridegroom” is the resurrected, glorified Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist spoke of him from that standpoint and accordingly compared himself with the “friend of the bridegroom.” In those days the “friend of the bridegroom” generally arranged for the marriage between the bridegroom and the bride. On the night of union of the two engaged persons, more attention was focused on the bridegroom than on the friend of the bridegroom. And so John the Baptist said to his disciples whom he was preparing for Jesus Christ as their figurative “bridegroom”: “I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent forth in advance of that one. He that has the bride is the bridegroom. However, the friend of the bridegroom, when he stands and hears him, has a great deal of joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom. Therefore this joy of mine has been made full. That one must go on increasing, but I must go on decreasing.” (John 3:28-30) Rightly, then, John directed his disciples to Jesus.

19, 20. (a) How does Jesus, in parable and in Revelation, compare himself with a bridegroom? (b) Correspondingly, what is the New Jerusalem called?

¹⁹ On his own part, Jesus compared himself with a bridegroom in another parable that he spoke. This was the parable of the “marriage feast” that a king prepared for his son, and this son stood for the Son of the great King of Eternity, Jehovah God. (Matthew 22:1-14) And in the Revelation, which Jesus Christ received from God and transmitted to the apostle John, Jesus as the Lamb of God is likened to a bridegroom who gets married to the congregation of his disciples, in these words: “Let us rejoice and be overjoyed, and let us give him the glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has arrived and his wife has prepared herself. Yes, it has been granted to her to be arrayed in bright, clean, fine linen, for the fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the holy ones. . . . Write: Happy are those invited to the evening meal of the Lamb’s marriage.” Furthermore, the apostle John tells of an angel who came to him and says:

²⁰ “He spoke with me and said: ‘Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ So he carried me away in the power of the spirit to a great and lofty mountain, and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God and having the glory of God.” ​—Revelation 19:7-9; 21:9-11.

21. In Ephesians 5:23-27, to what does Paul compare the relationship between Jesus Christ and his congregation?

²¹ The apostle Paul compares the relationship between Jesus Christ and his congregation of 144,000 joint heirs to that of a husband and wife. He writes: “A husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, he being a savior of this body. In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it, that he might sanctify it, cleansing it with the bath of water by means of the word, that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”​—Ephesians 5:23-27.

22. Where does the marriage take place, and why does Jesus’ parable make no mention of the bride of the bridegroom?

²² The marriage of the Bridegroom Jesus Christ and his congregational “bride” is, of course, to take place in heaven, where they will be united together with the blessing of Jehovah God, the heavenly Father. However, it is to be noted that in the parable of the ten virgins there is no mention made of the bride. This is done in order to avoid confusion of thought. It is, in fact, because the “bride” is drawn or selected from the “ten virgins” themselves. The selected “virgins” are the “happy” ones who are “invited to the evening meal of the Lamb’s marriage.” (Revelation 19:9) In harmony with this, Jesus’ parable shows the qualified “virgins” as going through the door into the wedding feast chamber. Just how they qualify, the parable goes on to illustrate.

23. The fact that the members of Christ’s congregation are likened to “virgins” puts what requirements upon them?

²³ The members of Christ’s bridal congregation are likened to “virgins” for more than the reason that they are betrothed to a virgin Bridegroom. They are “virgins” in a further spiritual sense. Just as a virgin girl is clean, chaste, untouched sexually, so these faithful members of the Christian congregation must be pure and clean by separateness from this world, not having any connections with the religious and political organizations of this world. They do not join in any union of Church and State. They maintain their spiritual virginity by not involving themselves with the affairs of this world. (2 Timothy 2:3, 4) This is what is meant when it is said concerning the 144,000 who are seen standing with the Lamb of God on the spiritual Mount Zion: “These are the ones that did not defile themselves with women [like the religious harlot, Babylon the Great, and her daughters]; in fact, they are virgins. These are the ones that keep following the Lamb no matter where he goes.”​—Revelation 14:4; 17:3-5.

24. What does James 1:26, 27 say about the required cleanness of those likened to virgins?

²⁴ As regards the required cleanness, the disciple James says: “If any man seems to himself to be a formal worshiper and yet does not bridle his tongue, but goes on deceiving his own heart, this man’s form of worship is futile. The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.”​—James 1:26, 27.

GOING OUT TO MEET THE “BRIDEGROOM”

25. How did Christ’s congregation, at Pentecost of 33 C.E., start out with the religion pure and undefiled from God’s standpoint, and what evidence did they have of this?

²⁵ On the Festival Day of Pentecost of the year 33 C.E., when the holy spirit descended as a baptism upon the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ as they waited in Jerusalem, the Christian congregation started out with the “form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father.” They were spiritually a virgin class, separated from the religious organization that had rejected Jesus Christ and brought about his impalement by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. (Acts 2:1-42) They started out with the teachings of the Messiah Jesus and the teachings of his twelve apostles, and kept themselves from that “crooked generation” that was steeped in unscriptural religious traditions handed down from misguided forefathers. (Acts 2:40; Galatians 1:13-17; Matthew 15:1-9) The baptism of the holy spirit along with the gift of tongues was an evidence that they had the true religion, and they knew it. Now they must remain “virgin” in it.

26, 27. (a) In a spiritual way, to whom did the Christian congregation become betrothed on Pentecost of 33 C.E.? (b) How did Paul, like a “friend of the bridegroom,” speak to Christians in 2 Corinthians 11:2-5?

²⁶ It was on that day (Sivan 6, 33 C.E.) that the Christian congregation became espoused, betrothed, promised in marriage to the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. All those who thereafter became additions to that original congregation of 120 disciples at Jerusalem became part of that betrothed class and were obliged to keep themselves “virgin.” To this fact the apostle Paul refers, when he warns the Christians at Corinth against breaking their engagement to Jesus Christ and getting married to a false Christ. Somewhat like a “friend of the bridegroom,” Paul says:

²⁷ “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised you in marriage to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ. For, as it is, if someone comes and preaches a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you receive a spirit other than what you received, or good news other than what you accepted, you easily put up with him. For I consider that I have not in a single thing proved inferior to your superfine apostles.”​—2 Corinthians 11:2-5.

28. How were the disciples told, both by Jesus and by angels, that he would come like a Jewish bridegroom to take them home?

²⁸ Their marriage to the virgin Bridegroom in heaven was to be in the indefinite future, some time distant from that espousal day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. Fifty-two days before that, on the night of his betrayal by the unfaithful apostle Judas Iscariot, Jesus had said to his faithful apostles: “In the house of my Father there are many abodes. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going my way to prepare a place for you. Also, if I go my way and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you home to myself, that where I am you also may be. And where I am going you know the way.” (John 14:2-4) Forty-two days after that, when he was ascending from the Mount of Olives and into the sky before the eyes of a number of his disciples, two angels appeared to them and said: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was received up from you into the sky will come thus in the same manner as you have beheld him going into the sky.” (Acts 1:9-11) Hence, the disciples knew that, like a Jewish bridegroom on the wedding night, the departed Jesus would come to take them to his heavenly Father’s home, even as Jesus had previously assured them.​—John 14:1-3.

29. (a) When did the “virgin” class start out to meet the Bridegroom? (b) What question now arose, and what is indicated in the fact that both kinds of virgins were equal in number?

²⁹ With that prospect of the wedding occasion, the espoused-virgin class set out to meet the Bridegroom, to welcome him and to rejoice with him. They had to keep on the watch, for they knew “neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13)