Matthew 13

"R. Jochanan said, The worst fruit which we eat in our youth excelled the best which we now eat in our old age: for in his days the world was changed."

"R. Chaijah Bar Ba said The Arbelite bushel formerly yielded a bushel of flour, a bushel of meal, a bushel of bran, and a bushel of coarse bran, and a bushel of coarser bran yet, and a bushel of the coarsest bran also: but now one bushel scarcely comes from one bushel."

13. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

[They seeing see not.] Here you may observe this people to have been given up to a reprobate mind, and a spirit of deep sleep, now a great while before the death of Christ. Which being observed, the sense of the apostle will more easily appear, Romans 11:8; where these very words are repeated. If you there state aright the rejection of that people, you will understand more clearly the apostle concerning their call, which is there handled. Pharisaism and the sottishness of traditions had, now a good while ago, thrown them into blindness, stupidity, and hardness of heart; and that for some ages before Christ was born: but when the gospel came, the Lord had his gleanings among them, and there were some that believed, and unto whom the participation of the promises was granted: concerning them the apostle speaks in that chapter: see verse 5. At this present time there is a remnant according to election," &c., which we have observed before at chapter 3:7.

25. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

[Tares.] Zunin, in Talmudic language. Wheat and 'Zunin' are not seeds of different kinds. Where the Gloss is this; "Is a kind of wheat, which is changed in the earth, both as to its form, and to its nature." By the best Lexicographers it is rendered zizania, in Latin.

So that that field, in this parable, was sown by the lord with good wheat; by the enemy, with bad and degenerate wheat; but all of it was sown with wheat, one or the other. These words do not so barely mean good and bad men, as good and bad Christians; both distinguished from other men, namely, from heathens, as wheat is distinguished from other seeds: but they are distinguished also among themselves, as good wheat is distinguished from that which is degenerate. So chapter 25, all those ten women, expecting the bridegroom, are virgins; but are distinguished into wise and foolish.

32. Which indeed is the least of all seeds [mustard]: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

[Which, indeed, is the least of all seeds, &c.] Hence it is passed into a common proverb, According to the quantity of a grain of mustard: and According to the quantity of a little drop of mustard, very frequently used by the Rabbins, when they would express the smallest thing, or the most diminutive quantity.

[Is the greatest among herbs.] "There was a stalk of mustard in Sichin, from which sprang out three boughs: of which, one was broke off, and covered the tent of a potter, and produced three cabes of mustard. R. Simeon Ben Chalaphta said, A stalk of mustard was in my field, into which I was wont to climb, as men are wont to climb into a fig-tree."

33. Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

[In three (sata) measures of meal] That is, in an ephah of meal. Exodus 16:36; "Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah." The Chaldee reads, The tenth part of three sata. The LXX reads, The tenth part of three measures. And Ruth 2:17, "It was as an ephah of barley." Where the Targum reads, As it were three sata of barley.

"A seah contains a double hin, six cabes, twenty-four login, a hundred and forty-four eggs."

52. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

[Bringeth forth out of his treasury things new and old.] These words are spoken according to the dialect of the schools, where the question was not seldom started, What wine, what corn, or fruits were to be used in the holy things, and in some rites, new or more old; namely, of the present year, or the years past. But now, a thrifty man, provident of his own affairs, was stored both with the one and the other, prepared for either, which should be required. So it becomes a scribe of the gospel to have all things in readiness, to bring forth according to the condition and nature of the thing, of the place, and of the hearers. "Do ye understand all these things (saith Christ), both the things which I have said, and why I have said them? So a scribe of the gospel ought to bring forth," &c.