34. He added another Parable, and said: "The kingdom of heaven is like to a man, who sowed good seed in his field. But, when men slept, the Enemy came and sowed Tares among the wheat, and departed. When therefore, the wheat sprang forth and produced fruit, the Tares appeared in like manner. And his servants drew near and said to him : Our Lord, Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? Whence are there Tares in it ? But he said to them, The man (who is) the Enemy hath done this. They say to him: Is it thy will therefore, that we go (and) gather them ? But he

said to them, No; lest, while ye gather the Tares, ye also root up the wheat with them. Let them both grow until the harvest. And at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the Tares, and bind them in bundles for burning; but gather ye the wheat into the granaries¹²⁹" (lit. treasuries). This same Parable too, He explained to His Disciples in the house, when they drew near to Him and said, "Explain to us the Parable of the Tares of the field. And He answered them, and said: The sower of the good seed is the Son of man; and the field is the world. (As to) the good seed, these are the children of the kingdom; and the Tares, those are the children of the wicked one; and the Enemy, who sowed them, is the Accuser. And the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the Angels. Even therefore, as the Tares are gathered up, and fall into the fire; so shall it be at the end of this world. The Son of man shall send His Angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all offences, and those that do evil, and shall cast them into the Gehenna¹³⁰ of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then shall the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Our Saviour shewed therefore, by His explanation of the Parable, these things (viz.), who the sower that went out to sow the seed was, and what the seed was which He cast forth, in the expressions: "The sower of the good seed is the Son of man ; and the field is the world." For He usually called Himself the "Son of man," on account of His going about among men¹³¹. He therefore went forth from

within¹³², and came out. Where then was He within, but above the world ? where (indeed) He existed; and in the end of the world¹³³ He came forth, and came down to us, who were without (out of) the kingdom of heaven. And with Him He brought the heavenly seed, which He sowed in the souls of men as in distinguished lands. For the Parable placed before us teaches respecting the field, as of what sort it is, into which He cast the seed; -- which says, "The field is the world;" and it shews of this field, that it belongs to none but Himself; -- to Him who came forth from the inner part of His kingdom, to those who were "without" (out of it), when saying, "the servants drew near and said to Him, "Our Lord, didst not thou sow good seed in THY field?" He therefore taught plainly, that even this field is His own : and this He interpreted and shewed, was the world. In the former Parable therefore, He shewed His foreknowledge as to what the distinctions of those would be, who should receive the seed into their souls; but in this, which is placed before us, the perverse doctrines and errors of the ungodly Hereticks: when not one of them had yet so established himself among men! Nevertheless, it was not unknown to Him that this should come to pass. For, as false scriptures were scattered as seed in succeeding times throughout the whole earth, with enouncements assimilated to those of His doctrine, by an opposing nature, not unlike the Tares (sown) among His pure words and life-giving doctrines¹³⁴; -- and there are myriads even to this time, some of whom make their boast of Manes, some of Marcion, and some of others, of those (I say) who put forth ungodly heterodoxy, and "Tares" (as it were), assimilated to the doctrine of our Saviour; making use of His name, and holding false books of the Gospels: -- but he who was the Father of these things;

  -- he who first sowed them in the souls of those who received him, was the Accuser himself: so He (our Saviour) well evinced, by the Divine power, the foreknowledge of what should come to pass; and these things He previously testified, which have been thus fulfilled in fact; and accordingly their fulfilment was, as His words (had foreshewn). As He therefore truly shewed forth these things, and as we see in the facts themselves, the fulfilment of these predictions of our Saviour; so ought we also to think, that the rest shall come to pass. And these are, "the harvest,"" "the end," and "the angels the reapers:" also that the Tares shall be gathered, and shall fall into the fire: -- the extreme good things too of those, who shall have preserved and multiplied the living, pure, and life-giving seed ; of whom it is said, "Then shall the righteous shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father."

On those who should falsely name themselves the Christ. From the Gospel of Matthew¹³⁵.