COMMENTARY WRITING ON
 THE PARABLE OF THE TARES - By Robert Ferrell

The Tares Parable

Another parable that Jesus expounds is the parable of the tares. Unless one is familiar with the apocryphal Book of Enoch, the meaning of this similitude will be obscure, but to one that is familiar with this ancient text, the meaning is unmistakable. In this one Jesus says: “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the tares appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said unto him, ‘Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence hath it tares?’ And he said unto them, ‘An enemy hath done this.’ And the servants say unto him, ‘Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?’ But he saith, ‘Nay; lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn...’”
     Jesus then goes on to explain this parable to his disciples: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man; and the field is the world; and the good seed are the sons of the Kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them is the devil: and the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are angels. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears, let him hear.”
   The important thing to bear in mind here is the fact that the devil is identified as the father of certain people who will coexist with God’s people until the time of the end. There is only one place in the canonical Scriptures where this story is told in detail.
   In Genesis 6:1-4 we read the following account: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God (the fallen angels, see Jude 6,) saw the daughters of men that they were fair: and they took them wives of all which they chose....” “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
   We thus have at least two data here about the offspring of the fallen angels: they were ‘giants’, and they were “mighty...men of renown”. We may thus infer from this that the word: ‘giant’ is a code word for ‘the powerful’, or ‘men of renown’. In other words, those men who strive for power and renown in this world are spiritual offspring of the devil. After all, if they were physically gigantic, how could they be mistaken for the “sons of the Kingdom?” Moreover, the entire principle behind the analogy of tares being indistinguishable from wheat would not make any sense if these were really giants.
   The Book of Enoch, which was widely read by early Christians, widely attested to in other apocryphal books, and even quoted as Scripture in Jude 14&15, contains this story in all of its details. In fact, in addition to fathering their children, these angels also taught these women numerous wicked things. Chapter 7 tells us that these angels were the first to teach about magical medicine and incantations, and in chapter 8 we are told that they also taught them how to make knives, swords, and breastplates. These angels also taught them about jewelry, and ornamentation, and cosmetics. Other evil practices include astrology, the smashing of the embryo in the womb, and even the mystery of writing, since chapter 69:10&11 read: “For human beings are not created for such purposes to take up their beliefs with pen and ink. For indeed human beings were not created but to be like angels, permanently to maintain pure and righteous lives. Death, which destroys everything, would have not touched them, had it not been through Their knowledge by which they shall perish; death is now eating us by means of this power.”
     In other words, all of the strife, and warfare, and wickedness and idolatry on this earth is being carried out by people who have an inclination to follow the voices of devils. These angels have conspired among themselves to carry out great wickedness on the earth. Their children live in luxury and power, not to mention eminence and respect. These are our mighty men of today, those who ‘cause stumbling’ and ‘do iniquity’. They are without conscience, and are busily at work destroying mankind and the earth.
     In Enoch chapter 7, we have an account of how these giants afflict men and destroy the earth. “These (giants) consumed the produce of all the people until the people detested feeding them. So the giants turned against the people in order to eat them. And they began to sin against birds, wild beasts, reptiles, and fish. And their flesh was devoured the one by the other, and they drank blood. And then the earth brought an accusation against the oppressors.” The modern counterpart to these giants, the bad seed, operate in the very same ways. For example, the rich possess land, money and resources so vast that there always exists a permanent underclass who are impoverished and put in a position to serve the rich. Then, when these people are no longer needed, or other people in other places will work for less, these people will be replaced. The part about sinning against birds and reptiles and beasts has to do with environmental consequences of industrial and technological advances. Even today, many are concerned that the earth is laying accusation against us by becoming a less hospitable place to live.
     Another striking parallel to the modern situation is the account of Noah in chapter 65: “In those days, Noah saw the earth, that she was deformed, and her destruction was at hand.” The earth had become deformed as the result of the secrets that the angels revealed. The earth is deformed today. Is it possible that our destruction is also near? The point is that we are busy destroying the earth at the instigation of these evil angels--and their children do their bidding, furthering the Kingdom of sin and death.
     Since we are almost all tied into this world system, whether we like it or not, we are forced to participate in the destruction of mankind and the earth. Only God can rescue us from certain death. I have gone into this level of detail so that you can see that there is a great deal of enlightenment to gain from reading the apocryphal books. They don’t just tell us the kinds of things we already know, but they supply supplementary and complementary information. It does very little good just to tell you that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people that are difficult to tell apart. By encoding the mysteries of these books in parables, they can be held back until the time of the end, and then given back to us after most of the prophecies encoded in them are already fulfilled. The remainder of the prophecies will be fulfilled as the inevitable consequence of this interpretation of them. Conflicts between those who understand these things and those that are in positions of authority and eminence will certainly come to pass since their authority will be threatened by them.