July 30, 2025 • 20 mins
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Matthew 13: 47-53 - 'The fishermen collect the good fish and throw away those that are no use.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 1034 (in 'Hell') - Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"
- 1117 (in 'The Sacraments of the Church') - As she has done for the canon of Sacred Scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, the Church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her "into all truth," has gradually recognized this treasure received from Christ and, as the faithful steward of God's mysteries, has determined its "dispensation." Thus the Church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Hi everyone. Welcome back to Logical Bible
study. Once again, we're continuing to
look at the Gospel of Matthew, and our goal here is to do a
proper exegesis on the text. What is the text saying on the
literal level? What does it mean in its
original context? And I know so many of you have
benefited from studying the Scriptures in this way.
And that's the goal, to help people get closer to God and to
(00:33):
build the Kingdom of God. So we're going to look at
Matthew, chapter 13, verses 47 to 53.
Here's the text Jesus said to the crowds.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that
brings in a hall of all kinds when it is full.
The fishermen hall at a shore. Then sitting down, they collect
(00:56):
the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no
use. This is how it will be at the
end of time. The angels will appear and
separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the
blazing furnace, where they willbe weeping and grinding of
teeth. Have you understood all this?
They said yes, and he said to them, Well then every scribe who
(01:21):
becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven is like a
householder who brings out from his storeroom things both old
and new. When Jesus finished these
parables, he went away from there.
So we're in chapter 13, which isthe parables chapter in Matthew.
(01:42):
So here, Matthew has given or assembled 7 Kingdom parables
that Jesus gives throughout his ministry.
Some of them only appear in the Gospel of Matthew, including the
one we're going to look at today, which is the last one in
the series, which is the parableof the dragnet.
It's exclusive to Matthew. This is where exegesis is really
(02:03):
useful. As I've said in the last couple
of days, when you're doing an exegesis on parables, you want
to get it. What was the meaning Jesus had
in mind? There's lots of spiritual
meanings you could take from parables, but usually Jesus has
one meaning in mind and this is one of the parables, the parable
of the dragnet, where Jesus actually basically gives us the
interpretation for us. So that's the one we want to go
(02:25):
with as much as possible. So let's start at verse 47.
Now our electionary here says Jesus said to the crowds, if you
look at chapter verse 47 in yourBible, it does not say Jesus
said to the crowds. It actually just continues from
what came before this. So the audience here is probably
(02:46):
not the crowds. Actually, I think the
electionary has made a mistake in putting in Jesus said to the
crowds. The reason they put that in is
to make it make a bit more sensewhen it's right out at mass,
because if they didn't put in that opening phrase, the reading
would start like this. The Kingdom of heaven is like a
dragnet and it might just all goa bit too quickly for the people
listening in mass. So they've added in this phrase,
(03:07):
Jesus said to the crowds. What it probably should say is
Jesus said to his disciples, thelast people who was talking to
just before this was the disciples, not the crowds.
And it appears that he's still speaking to the disciples.
So let's keep that in mind and the strong evidence that he's
speaking to his disciples because in this text he
interprets the parable for his listeners, which he only really
(03:30):
does for his disciples. He doesn't interpret the parable
for the crowds, so he starts theparable.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea.
This is a parable we're not all that familiar with, but it's a
pretty short and simple one. So what's a dragnet?
Well, that would be quite familiar to his Jewish heroes in
Galilee. When Jesus is giving this
(03:51):
sermon, he's probably actually standing at the edge of the Sea
of Galilee as he speaks his parable.
They're probably watching dragnets in action.
As he says this, A dragnet was essentially A Fisher's net,
which is pulled between two boats, or it's thrown into the
sea, and then it's pulled to shore with ropes.
It's one of those big Nets. It's like a dragnet cast into
(04:13):
the sea. And Jesus says it brings in a
hall of all kinds, which is exactly what would happen when
you use one of these big dragnets.
All sorts of fish would get in there, some which are good and
edible and some which are not much good at all.
But in the initial catch, you get all sorts caught in there.
Verse 48. When it is full, the fishermen
haul it ashore, then sitting down that they collect the good
(04:36):
ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use.
So in that culture, that's exactly what would happen.
While they're on the boat, they don't do any sorting.
It's only later that the fisherman sits down and sorts
out the ones that he wants, and the ones that he wants are the
useful ones, the ones that he can sell that are edible.
Notice that this parable is making the same basic point
(04:58):
already as the parable of the wheat and the weeds which Jesus
had given just a few verses earlier.
The main point so far is something like this.
Good and evil people will coexist for a time, but there
will come a day of sorting at the Judgment Day.
So the parable of the weeds and the wheat and the parable of the
dragnet make that same point. It appears, in fact, that Jesus
(05:20):
has given this parable, the parable of the dragnet, to his
disciples to help them understand this basic point that
the Kingdom of God is not going to come instantly in the way
that they think it will, but oneday there will be a day of
judgment. Now Jesus is going to give us
his interpretation of the parable.
Now verse 49, this is how it will be at the end of time.
(05:44):
Now, what it literally says there in Greek is close of the
age, and this is something we'vetalked about in the previous
days. That close of the age might
refer to 70 AD rather than the end of the world.
And there's some theological reasons to think that because of
what the Jews believed about thetwo great ages that God had set
up on earth. But I think there's some
(06:04):
features of this particular parable that point more towards
the final judgment. So we'll stick with that
interpretation. But just so you know that there
is a view out there that pretty much all these parables about
the final judgment. Some scholars think it's
actually talking about everything that happens in 70AD.
So Jesus goes on, the angels will appear and separate the
(06:25):
wicked from the just. So just is in the parable of the
weeds among the wheat, the angels are said to have a role
in judging and sorting on judgment day.
So in that parable, the parable of the weeds, Jesus specifically
says the Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather
out of his Kingdom all things that provoke offenses and all
(06:46):
who do evil. And it's the same basic idea
here. The angels are going to be the
ones that do the sorting. At the end of time, Jesus will
remove all causes of sin and those who persist in evil.
And the idea here is that beforethe Kingdom can be consummated
in its fullness, which will happen one day, those who are
evil and do not follow God's will must be taken out of the
(07:08):
Kingdom. So just like bad fish, these
evil people are useless in the Kingdom.
In fact, they're harmful to the Kingdom.
And Jesus says that we're throwninto the blazing furnace where
there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
Scary imagery here. So of course, the Greek word
that Jesus uses here for blazingfurnace is gahenna.
(07:28):
And Gehenna was a real place. It was a burning trash dump
outside of Jerusalem. Jesus often chooses to use this
place as the best approximation of what hell is like.
He wants to tell his heroes whatis hell like he directs them
towards Gehenna, this burning trash dump.
So those outside the Kingdom will go to Gehenna, the evil
(07:51):
doers, on judgment day. They'll be sent there and
they're going to experience weeping and grinding of teeth,
which is like extreme frustration.
Jesus has made this point several times in chapter 8, and
John the Baptist said very similar things about fiery
judgment as well. So that's Jesus interpretation,
Short parable short interpretation.
It's about the final judgment day, basically, and in
(08:13):
particular he wants his disciples to understand that
there is a judgment day coming, but it's not going to come
straight away as they thought itwas going to.
So verse 51, Jesus now asks his audience a question.
Have you understood all this? Now, the fact that he even asked
that question suggests that he'stalking to the disciples, not
the crowds, because he, Jesus doesn't expect the crowds to
(08:36):
understand parables. He said that at the start of
chapter or in verse 31 to 35 of chapter 13.
He said that he expects the crowds to not understand
parables, so he's probably talking to the disciples here if
he wants to check that they've understood it.
He wants his disciples to understand what these parables
are about because his disciples are going to lead the church,
(08:57):
particularly the apostles, and they're going to teach the
mysteries of the Kingdom to people.
So Jesus wants to make sure thatthey understand it, and his
audience says yes. Now that's quite significant,
isn't it? Because the parables can really
only be understood with illumination from God's grace.
So here we learned that the disciples, when they say yes, we
(09:18):
understand they must have at least an understanding, a basic
understanding of the kingdom's mysteries, which sets them apart
from the crowds as a whole. So the disciples don't fully
grasp everything about God and about Jesus and Messiah, but
they do seem to be cooperating with God's grace here to get the
point that Jesus he's trying to make with the parable.
(09:39):
Now many scholars have said about this.
When the disciples say yes, we understand.
Many scholars have said, I wish they would have said no, so that
then Jesus would have given us more explanation and that
Matthew could have recorded for us.
And that's quite true, isn't it?It's always good to have more
information, but here the disciples say yes.
So Jesus stops there, but he then he leaves us with this
(10:00):
enigmatic statement. It's a strange one, he says.
Well then every scribe who becomes a disciple of the
Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from
his storeroom things both old and new.
So why does Jesus mention scribes here, every scribe who
becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven?
(10:20):
There's two views about who is Jesus thinking of when he
mentioned scribes? So he could be referring to
actual literal Jewish scribes. At the time they were the legal
experts in Judaism, highly theologically trained.
So maybe Jesus mentions it here because he's using them as an
example of the most Jewish of Jewish leaders, much as Paul
(10:42):
calls himself a Pharisee of Pharisees.
Well, maybe this is a similar thing where the scribes are like
the most Jewish of the Jews, so Jesus is using them as the most
extreme example because they're the most theologically trained.
So if this is the right interpretation, the idea here
that Jesus is getting across would be something like this.
Even scribes can become disciples of the Kingdom of
(11:03):
heaven if you disciples of mine teach the scribes and lead them
to it. So he's telling his disciples
that hey, even scribes can become members of the Kingdom if
you help them understand these mysteries.
That kind of works. But most scholars think he's
using scribe in a different way.He's not referring to literal
scribes at the time. In the Old Testament,
(11:25):
particularly the book of Sirac, it describes A scribe as someone
who can. And here's what Sirac chapter 39
says. A scribe is someone who can
penetrate the subtleties of parables.
It's actually what it says. And so in that sense, he's
calling his disciples scribes because they're the ones who can
understand the mysteries of parables.
And in that case, Jesus is basically saying that his
(11:48):
disciples are like the new scribes of the Kingdom.
That's an interesting interpretation.
So maybe he's talking about his disciples as scribes.
Now what it actually says here in the Greek, our translation
says who becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven.
What it actually says is who hasbeen trained for the Kingdom of
heaven. Whenever you see that word,
(12:09):
disciple, it basically means discipline, teach.
And so that's what it means here.
It's talking about people who have been trained, taught the
ways of the Kingdom that's important.
Jesus envisages that the way a person becomes a Christian
becomes part of the Kingdom requires ongoing training.
It's not a one time event, It requires ongoing training about
(12:30):
the ways of God and his Messiah.So he says a scribe who has been
trained for the Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who
brings out from his storeroom things both old and new.
Interesting phrase. So a household would be usually
the man who owns the house. The imagery here in that culture
is of a man who owns the house and he's bringing out things
(12:53):
from his storeroom that have always been there, but they
haven't been used for a while. So he's bringing out these
really cool things that have been just sort of sitting there
unused. So the message here, if we take
this to be his Jesus is talking about literal scribes would be
something like this. Scribes who convert to the
Kingdom of God will display attributes that they have always
(13:14):
had, but not used for a long time now that would match well
with Jesus teaching in other places.
He says the Kingdom of God is within you.
He says that about people. And so here the teaching could
be something like this. When you become a disciple of
the Kingdom, the Kingdom will bedrawn out of you and it will be
manifested in your life. When you choose to become a
disciple, that would be if he's talking about literal scribes.
(13:38):
If he's talking about spiritual scribes being his disciples,
well, then it could just be people who follow Jesus in the
Kingdom will produce more and more good things in their life.
Something like that. But there's even more to this
because he uses the phrase brings out things from his
storeroom, both old and new. What does it mean to say things
both old and new from the storeroom?
(14:01):
Well firstly it could be a colloquial way of saying all
sorts of things, like just a phrase that means all sorts of
things. Some have thought there's more
theological significance to thisthough, old and new and this
would match with other things Jesus says about you don't put
new wine into old wine skin, so this old and new language is
(14:22):
something Jesus uses a bit. So what could old and new things
mean here? It could be a reference to the
old and new covenants, or maybe the Old and New Testament.
So in this case, Jesus would be saying something like the scribe
or the disciple will be able to add the riches of the new
covenant to those of the old covenant which he already
possesses. And that would apply to either
(14:44):
literal scribes or Jewish disciples that Jesus is making.
So if this is the right interpretation, Jesus is saying
that the disciples, those who join the Kingdom, will be much
better interpreters of Scriptureand therefore better scribes
than the old covenant scribes. And Matthew is a good example of
this because he is really good at bringing out the riches of
(15:05):
the old covenant in his writing.He's truly a new covenant
scribe. Now this interpretation of old
and new, referring to old and new covenants, It could be
right, but it might not fit entirely though, because think
about the storeroom analogy. It's about a man bringing things
out of his storeroom that were always there.
(15:25):
So is it really correct to say that the new covenant was always
there in the storeroom and when people join the Kingdom, they're
able to bring it out of their storeroom?
I'm not sure that that's right, but it depends on how literal we
we take the imagery here. So this is one of these phrases
of Jesus that is a bit mysterious and that's discussed
by parables. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church uses an interesting application of this old and new
(15:48):
phrase as well as we'll see. So that's the end of verse 52.
Now there's a verse 53. Interestingly, it's not included
in the text of the general Electionary, though it probably
should be because it says that today's electionary reading
should be from verse 47 to verse53.
But for some reason verse 53 is not actually included in the
(16:09):
reading. That could just be a typo when
they were putting the electionary together.
Here's what verse 53 says. When Jesus finished these
parables, he went away from there.
So that phrase when Jesus finished these parables, that's
Matthew's typical way of signaling the end of a section.
He often does that at the end ofhis major parts of his gospel.
(16:30):
So that's the end of the parablesection.
And at this point, Jesus went away from there.
So he leaves the lakeside at Capernaum.
And we learned in the next versethat he goes to Nazareth.
So we've looked at all the King and parables in chapter 13.
There are seven Kingdom parables, and they're all quite
(16:50):
fascinating. I'm sure you'll agree.
And they're well worth revisiting and meditating on.
Let's now turn to the Catechism and see what the Catholic Church
teaches based on what we have inthe passage today.
So paragraph 1034 is about hell.Here's what it says.
Jesus often speaks of Gehenna, of the unquenchable fire
reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to
(17:13):
believe and be converted where both soul and body can be lost.
Jesus solemnly proclaims that hewill send his angels, and they
will gather all evildoers and throw them into the furnace of
fire, and that he will pronouncethe condemnation.
Depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire.
So scary language there from theCatechism.
(17:33):
But it is indeed a teaching of the Catholic Church that hell is
a real place, and Jesus speaks of it as an unquenchable fire,
as he does here in today's passage.
And then in paragraph 1117, there's an interesting
application of that phrase, things old and new.
So this is in the section about the sacraments and how the
sacraments of the Church have been developed over time, as she
(17:56):
has done for the Canon of SacredScripture and for the doctrine
of the faith. The Church, by the power of the
Spirit who guides her into all truth, has gradually recognized
this treasure received from Christ, and as the faithful
steward of God's mysteries, has determined its dispensation.
Thus the Church has discerned over the centuries that among
(18:17):
the turgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the
strict sense of the term sacraments instituted by the
Lord. Now that paragraph doesn't
directly quote the old and new phrase, but it does reference
it. So the Church sees in here when
Jesus talks about someone who comes into the Kingdom is able
(18:38):
to bring out things old and new.Well, the Church says that the
Church kind of does that as wellas it deepens its understanding
of the Kingdom. It brings out old things and
brings out new things, develops its teachings further.
It has certainly done that with the sacraments because it did
take a while for the Church to settle on that.
There are only 7 sacraments. That was actually defined quite
(19:00):
late in Church history, but it was always there in seed form.
It just took them a while to flesh it out.
And so that's an interesting application of that phrase.
So we'll leave it there for today.
Thank you for tuning in to logical Bible study.
Hopefully you enjoyed these exegesis of the parables of
chapter 13 of Matthew. If you have, then please share
(19:20):
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(19:42):
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Thank you. We'll continue to look at more
of the Gospel of Matthew tomorrow.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to Logical Bible
study. Once again, we're continuing to
look at the Gospel of Matthew, and our goal here is to do a
proper exegesis on the text. What is the text saying on the
literal level? What does it mean in its
original context? And I know so many of you have
benefited from studying the Scriptures in this way.
And that's the goal, to help people get closer to God and to
(00:33):
build the Kingdom of God. So we're going to look at
Matthew, chapter 13, verses 47 to 53.
Here's the text Jesus said to the crowds.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that
brings in a hall of all kinds when it is full.
The fishermen hall at a shore. Then sitting down, they collect
(00:56):
the good ones in a basket and throw away those that are no
use. This is how it will be at the
end of time. The angels will appear and
separate the wicked from the just to throw them into the
blazing furnace, where they willbe weeping and grinding of
teeth. Have you understood all this?
They said yes, and he said to them, Well then every scribe who
(01:21):
becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven is like a
householder who brings out from his storeroom things both old
and new. When Jesus finished these
parables, he went away from there.
So we're in chapter 13, which isthe parables chapter in Matthew.
(01:42):
So here, Matthew has given or assembled 7 Kingdom parables
that Jesus gives throughout his ministry.
Some of them only appear in the Gospel of Matthew, including the
one we're going to look at today, which is the last one in
the series, which is the parableof the dragnet.
It's exclusive to Matthew. This is where exegesis is really
(02:03):
useful. As I've said in the last couple
of days, when you're doing an exegesis on parables, you want
to get it. What was the meaning Jesus had
in mind? There's lots of spiritual
meanings you could take from parables, but usually Jesus has
one meaning in mind and this is one of the parables, the parable
of the dragnet, where Jesus actually basically gives us the
interpretation for us. So that's the one we want to go
(02:25):
with as much as possible. So let's start at verse 47.
Now our electionary here says Jesus said to the crowds, if you
look at chapter verse 47 in yourBible, it does not say Jesus
said to the crowds. It actually just continues from
what came before this. So the audience here is probably
(02:46):
not the crowds. Actually, I think the
electionary has made a mistake in putting in Jesus said to the
crowds. The reason they put that in is
to make it make a bit more sensewhen it's right out at mass,
because if they didn't put in that opening phrase, the reading
would start like this. The Kingdom of heaven is like a
dragnet and it might just all goa bit too quickly for the people
listening in mass. So they've added in this phrase,
(03:07):
Jesus said to the crowds. What it probably should say is
Jesus said to his disciples, thelast people who was talking to
just before this was the disciples, not the crowds.
And it appears that he's still speaking to the disciples.
So let's keep that in mind and the strong evidence that he's
speaking to his disciples because in this text he
interprets the parable for his listeners, which he only really
(03:30):
does for his disciples. He doesn't interpret the parable
for the crowds, so he starts theparable.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea.
This is a parable we're not all that familiar with, but it's a
pretty short and simple one. So what's a dragnet?
Well, that would be quite familiar to his Jewish heroes in
Galilee. When Jesus is giving this
(03:51):
sermon, he's probably actually standing at the edge of the Sea
of Galilee as he speaks his parable.
They're probably watching dragnets in action.
As he says this, A dragnet was essentially A Fisher's net,
which is pulled between two boats, or it's thrown into the
sea, and then it's pulled to shore with ropes.
It's one of those big Nets. It's like a dragnet cast into
(04:13):
the sea. And Jesus says it brings in a
hall of all kinds, which is exactly what would happen when
you use one of these big dragnets.
All sorts of fish would get in there, some which are good and
edible and some which are not much good at all.
But in the initial catch, you get all sorts caught in there.
Verse 48. When it is full, the fishermen
haul it ashore, then sitting down that they collect the good
(04:36):
ones in a basket and throw away those that are no use.
So in that culture, that's exactly what would happen.
While they're on the boat, they don't do any sorting.
It's only later that the fisherman sits down and sorts
out the ones that he wants, and the ones that he wants are the
useful ones, the ones that he can sell that are edible.
Notice that this parable is making the same basic point
(04:58):
already as the parable of the wheat and the weeds which Jesus
had given just a few verses earlier.
The main point so far is something like this.
Good and evil people will coexist for a time, but there
will come a day of sorting at the Judgment Day.
So the parable of the weeds and the wheat and the parable of the
dragnet make that same point. It appears, in fact, that Jesus
(05:20):
has given this parable, the parable of the dragnet, to his
disciples to help them understand this basic point that
the Kingdom of God is not going to come instantly in the way
that they think it will, but oneday there will be a day of
judgment. Now Jesus is going to give us
his interpretation of the parable.
Now verse 49, this is how it will be at the end of time.
(05:44):
Now, what it literally says there in Greek is close of the
age, and this is something we'vetalked about in the previous
days. That close of the age might
refer to 70 AD rather than the end of the world.
And there's some theological reasons to think that because of
what the Jews believed about thetwo great ages that God had set
up on earth. But I think there's some
(06:04):
features of this particular parable that point more towards
the final judgment. So we'll stick with that
interpretation. But just so you know that there
is a view out there that pretty much all these parables about
the final judgment. Some scholars think it's
actually talking about everything that happens in 70AD.
So Jesus goes on, the angels will appear and separate the
(06:25):
wicked from the just. So just is in the parable of the
weeds among the wheat, the angels are said to have a role
in judging and sorting on judgment day.
So in that parable, the parable of the weeds, Jesus specifically
says the Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather
out of his Kingdom all things that provoke offenses and all
(06:46):
who do evil. And it's the same basic idea
here. The angels are going to be the
ones that do the sorting. At the end of time, Jesus will
remove all causes of sin and those who persist in evil.
And the idea here is that beforethe Kingdom can be consummated
in its fullness, which will happen one day, those who are
evil and do not follow God's will must be taken out of the
(07:08):
Kingdom. So just like bad fish, these
evil people are useless in the Kingdom.
In fact, they're harmful to the Kingdom.
And Jesus says that we're throwninto the blazing furnace where
there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
Scary imagery here. So of course, the Greek word
that Jesus uses here for blazingfurnace is gahenna.
(07:28):
And Gehenna was a real place. It was a burning trash dump
outside of Jerusalem. Jesus often chooses to use this
place as the best approximation of what hell is like.
He wants to tell his heroes whatis hell like he directs them
towards Gehenna, this burning trash dump.
So those outside the Kingdom will go to Gehenna, the evil
(07:51):
doers, on judgment day. They'll be sent there and
they're going to experience weeping and grinding of teeth,
which is like extreme frustration.
Jesus has made this point several times in chapter 8, and
John the Baptist said very similar things about fiery
judgment as well. So that's Jesus interpretation,
Short parable short interpretation.
It's about the final judgment day, basically, and in
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particular he wants his disciples to understand that
there is a judgment day coming, but it's not going to come
straight away as they thought itwas going to.
So verse 51, Jesus now asks his audience a question.
Have you understood all this? Now, the fact that he even asked
that question suggests that he'stalking to the disciples, not
the crowds, because he, Jesus doesn't expect the crowds to
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understand parables. He said that at the start of
chapter or in verse 31 to 35 of chapter 13.
He said that he expects the crowds to not understand
parables, so he's probably talking to the disciples here if
he wants to check that they've understood it.
He wants his disciples to understand what these parables
are about because his disciples are going to lead the church,
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particularly the apostles, and they're going to teach the
mysteries of the Kingdom to people.
So Jesus wants to make sure thatthey understand it, and his
audience says yes. Now that's quite significant,
isn't it? Because the parables can really
only be understood with illumination from God's grace.
So here we learned that the disciples, when they say yes, we
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understand they must have at least an understanding, a basic
understanding of the kingdom's mysteries, which sets them apart
from the crowds as a whole. So the disciples don't fully
grasp everything about God and about Jesus and Messiah, but
they do seem to be cooperating with God's grace here to get the
point that Jesus he's trying to make with the parable.
(09:39):
Now many scholars have said about this.
When the disciples say yes, we understand.
Many scholars have said, I wish they would have said no, so that
then Jesus would have given us more explanation and that
Matthew could have recorded for us.
And that's quite true, isn't it?It's always good to have more
information, but here the disciples say yes.
So Jesus stops there, but he then he leaves us with this
(10:00):
enigmatic statement. It's a strange one, he says.
Well then every scribe who becomes a disciple of the
Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from
his storeroom things both old and new.
So why does Jesus mention scribes here, every scribe who
becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven?
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There's two views about who is Jesus thinking of when he
mentioned scribes? So he could be referring to
actual literal Jewish scribes. At the time they were the legal
experts in Judaism, highly theologically trained.
So maybe Jesus mentions it here because he's using them as an
example of the most Jewish of Jewish leaders, much as Paul
(10:42):
calls himself a Pharisee of Pharisees.
Well, maybe this is a similar thing where the scribes are like
the most Jewish of the Jews, so Jesus is using them as the most
extreme example because they're the most theologically trained.
So if this is the right interpretation, the idea here
that Jesus is getting across would be something like this.
Even scribes can become disciples of the Kingdom of
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heaven if you disciples of mine teach the scribes and lead them
to it. So he's telling his disciples
that hey, even scribes can become members of the Kingdom if
you help them understand these mysteries.
That kind of works. But most scholars think he's
using scribe in a different way.He's not referring to literal
scribes at the time. In the Old Testament,
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particularly the book of Sirac, it describes A scribe as someone
who can. And here's what Sirac chapter 39
says. A scribe is someone who can
penetrate the subtleties of parables.
It's actually what it says. And so in that sense, he's
calling his disciples scribes because they're the ones who can
understand the mysteries of parables.
And in that case, Jesus is basically saying that his
(11:48):
disciples are like the new scribes of the Kingdom.
That's an interesting interpretation.
So maybe he's talking about his disciples as scribes.
Now what it actually says here in the Greek, our translation
says who becomes a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven.
What it actually says is who hasbeen trained for the Kingdom of
heaven. Whenever you see that word,
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disciple, it basically means discipline, teach.
And so that's what it means here.
It's talking about people who have been trained, taught the
ways of the Kingdom that's important.
Jesus envisages that the way a person becomes a Christian
becomes part of the Kingdom requires ongoing training.
It's not a one time event, It requires ongoing training about
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the ways of God and his Messiah.So he says a scribe who has been
trained for the Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who
brings out from his storeroom things both old and new.
Interesting phrase. So a household would be usually
the man who owns the house. The imagery here in that culture
is of a man who owns the house and he's bringing out things
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from his storeroom that have always been there, but they
haven't been used for a while. So he's bringing out these
really cool things that have been just sort of sitting there
unused. So the message here, if we take
this to be his Jesus is talking about literal scribes would be
something like this. Scribes who convert to the
Kingdom of God will display attributes that they have always
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had, but not used for a long time now that would match well
with Jesus teaching in other places.
He says the Kingdom of God is within you.
He says that about people. And so here the teaching could
be something like this. When you become a disciple of
the Kingdom, the Kingdom will bedrawn out of you and it will be
manifested in your life. When you choose to become a
disciple, that would be if he's talking about literal scribes.
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If he's talking about spiritual scribes being his disciples,
well, then it could just be people who follow Jesus in the
Kingdom will produce more and more good things in their life.
Something like that. But there's even more to this
because he uses the phrase brings out things from his
storeroom, both old and new. What does it mean to say things
both old and new from the storeroom?
(14:01):
Well firstly it could be a colloquial way of saying all
sorts of things, like just a phrase that means all sorts of
things. Some have thought there's more
theological significance to thisthough, old and new and this
would match with other things Jesus says about you don't put
new wine into old wine skin, so this old and new language is
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something Jesus uses a bit. So what could old and new things
mean here? It could be a reference to the
old and new covenants, or maybe the Old and New Testament.
So in this case, Jesus would be saying something like the scribe
or the disciple will be able to add the riches of the new
covenant to those of the old covenant which he already
possesses. And that would apply to either
(14:44):
literal scribes or Jewish disciples that Jesus is making.
So if this is the right interpretation, Jesus is saying
that the disciples, those who join the Kingdom, will be much
better interpreters of Scriptureand therefore better scribes
than the old covenant scribes. And Matthew is a good example of
this because he is really good at bringing out the riches of
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the old covenant in his writing.He's truly a new covenant
scribe. Now this interpretation of old
and new, referring to old and new covenants, It could be
right, but it might not fit entirely though, because think
about the storeroom analogy. It's about a man bringing things
out of his storeroom that were always there.
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So is it really correct to say that the new covenant was always
there in the storeroom and when people join the Kingdom, they're
able to bring it out of their storeroom?
I'm not sure that that's right, but it depends on how literal we
we take the imagery here. So this is one of these phrases
of Jesus that is a bit mysterious and that's discussed
by parables. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church uses an interesting application of this old and new
(15:48):
phrase as well as we'll see. So that's the end of verse 52.
Now there's a verse 53. Interestingly, it's not included
in the text of the general Electionary, though it probably
should be because it says that today's electionary reading
should be from verse 47 to verse53.
But for some reason verse 53 is not actually included in the
(16:09):
reading. That could just be a typo when
they were putting the electionary together.
Here's what verse 53 says. When Jesus finished these
parables, he went away from there.
So that phrase when Jesus finished these parables, that's
Matthew's typical way of signaling the end of a section.
He often does that at the end ofhis major parts of his gospel.
(16:30):
So that's the end of the parablesection.
And at this point, Jesus went away from there.
So he leaves the lakeside at Capernaum.
And we learned in the next versethat he goes to Nazareth.
So we've looked at all the King and parables in chapter 13.
There are seven Kingdom parables, and they're all quite
(16:50):
fascinating. I'm sure you'll agree.
And they're well worth revisiting and meditating on.
Let's now turn to the Catechism and see what the Catholic Church
teaches based on what we have inthe passage today.
So paragraph 1034 is about hell.Here's what it says.
Jesus often speaks of Gehenna, of the unquenchable fire
reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to
(17:13):
believe and be converted where both soul and body can be lost.
Jesus solemnly proclaims that hewill send his angels, and they
will gather all evildoers and throw them into the furnace of
fire, and that he will pronouncethe condemnation.
Depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire.
So scary language there from theCatechism.
(17:33):
But it is indeed a teaching of the Catholic Church that hell is
a real place, and Jesus speaks of it as an unquenchable fire,
as he does here in today's passage.
And then in paragraph 1117, there's an interesting
application of that phrase, things old and new.
So this is in the section about the sacraments and how the
sacraments of the Church have been developed over time, as she
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has done for the Canon of SacredScripture and for the doctrine
of the faith. The Church, by the power of the
Spirit who guides her into all truth, has gradually recognized
this treasure received from Christ, and as the faithful
steward of God's mysteries, has determined its dispensation.
Thus the Church has discerned over the centuries that among
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the turgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the
strict sense of the term sacraments instituted by the
Lord. Now that paragraph doesn't
directly quote the old and new phrase, but it does reference
it. So the Church sees in here when
Jesus talks about someone who comes into the Kingdom is able
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to bring out things old and new.Well, the Church says that the
Church kind of does that as wellas it deepens its understanding
of the Kingdom. It brings out old things and
brings out new things, develops its teachings further.
It has certainly done that with the sacraments because it did
take a while for the Church to settle on that.
There are only 7 sacraments. That was actually defined quite
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late in Church history, but it was always there in seed form.
It just took them a while to flesh it out.
And so that's an interesting application of that phrase.
So we'll leave it there for today.
Thank you for tuning in to logical Bible study.
Hopefully you enjoyed these exegesis of the parables of
chapter 13 of Matthew. If you have, then please share
(19:20):
it with other people so that they can benefit from hearing a
really solid Catholic academic exegesis of Scripture.
And if you're learning a lot from this podcast and you
believe it's worth investing in,then please consider becoming a
Patreon supporter. If you're willing to give $10 a
month or more to the ministry, then you can get access to
exclusive bonus episodes where we go through gospel texts that
(19:42):
are never read out at mass. And if you do that, then
eventually you will have an audio recording of a proper
exegesis of every single phrase in the Gospels.
So if you're interested in that then please have a look at the
Patreon page and that's the linkfor that in the show notes.
Thank you. We'll continue to look at more
of the Gospel of Matthew tomorrow.
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