“Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?”
The full verse · Matthew 13:27 · KJV
the of the and unto , , thou ? from hath ?
Asked by
Servant: the servants of the householder in Jesus' parable of the tares, who found tares growing among his wheat (Matthew 13:27)
Asked to
Householder: the master of the house in Jesus' parable of the tares, who sowed good seed in his field (Matthew 13:24, 27)
The Scene
In a parable, Jesus tells of a man who sowed good seed in his field, but "while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat"; when the grain brought forth fruit, the tares appeared (Matthew 13:24-26).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionThe servants were puzzled. They knew their master sowed good seed, so how could the field be full of tares? Their first question expects the answer yes. The second asks where the bad plants came from. Gill says the servants "declare their ignorance of the rise of them," and that by their question they show "nothing but good could come from Christ." Matthew Henry sums it up: "whatever is amiss in the church, we are sure it is not from Christ."
The Response
What Scripture recordsThe householder answered at once: "An enemy hath done this" (Matthew 13:28). Later, in the house, Jesus explained the parable to His disciples: "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil" (Matthew 13:37-39).
Historical Context
The world behind the wordsTares were not ordinary weeds. The Greek word zizania, which Matthew uses only in this parable, is defined by Thayer as "a kind of darnel, bastard wheat ... resembling wheat except that the grains are black." Barnes thinks the tares were probably "a degenerate kind of wheat, or the darnel-grass growing in Palestine," and explains that it looked so much like wheat that it was not noticed until the wheat began to ripen. That is why the tares "appeared" only when the grain "brought forth fruit" (Matthew 13:26).
The "householder" (Greek oikodespotes, master of the house) owned the field and had servants who worked it. In His explanation, Jesus names the sower, the field, the seed, the enemy, the harvest, and the reapers (Matthew 13:37-39), but He does not say who the servants are. Gill takes them to be ministers of the gospel; that is his reading, not Jesus' stated meaning.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThis question asks one of the oldest questions people bring to God: if He is good and His work is good, where does evil come from? Jesus' parable gives a clear answer. The good seed is His. The tares are the work of an enemy, and Jesus names that enemy as the devil (Matthew 13:39). God is not the author of the evil mixed into His field.
The parable also shows that God sees the whole field and knows its end. The tares will not stay forever. At the harvest, "the end of the world," the Son of man will send His angels, and "then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:39-43).
Look Closer
When did the tares first become noticeable?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Father, I know You sow only good seed; where do I need Your eyes to tell the difference between Your work and the enemy's in my life?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- When you see something wrong among God's people, is your first instinct to doubt God, blame others, or bring it to Him as the servants did?
- Share a time when something good and something harmful seemed to grow up side by side. How did you see God at work in it?
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
You can bring hard questions about evil to God without accusing Him. The servants began by affirming what they knew about their master, "didst not thou sow good seed?", and then asked what they did not know. That is a good pattern for prayer: start with what you know of God's goodness, then ask honestly.
When you find tares in a good place, whether in a church, a family, or your own heart, remember Jesus' answer: "An enemy hath done this" (Matthew 13:28). Evil is real, but it is not from God.
This does not make every problem a direct attack, and it does not excuse our own wrongs. The parable is about where evil comes from and how it will end, not a label to place on people we disagree with. Jesus kept the work of sorting for the harvest (Matthew 13:30).
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources