JABRIL.MUHAMMAD
Read the following words concerning tares and darnels. I wrote this in an unpublished book some years ago.
The darnel (tares) is a different, harmful plant. It is not wheat at all. In this parable, it was something that was sown, not by God but by his enemy.
Tares, or darnel, as the more modern word for the plant looks like wheat, to begin with. It is not very easy for the untrained eye to see that it is not wheat, before it comes to fruit. But, even in the parable some persons were able to see that there was darnel among the wheat. They could see that already before harvest.
The enemy sowed it at night, while men slept, in darkness. It is a work of darkness. The seeds of darnel are black. The darnel is called zizania in the original Greek text.
Darnel was and is allowed to grow among the wheat until harvest, but after that it is to be bundled (bound together) and burned.
Why only at that time and not earlier? “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them”. Pulling up the darnel would damage the roots of the wheat also. They grow side by side in the same soil. To go through a field of wheat pulling up darnel would mean trampling down a lot of wheat, and pulling up the darnel plants would damage the roots of the wheat. Now, Jesus’ parable was of course not about plants but about beings of different kinds inhabiting this planet before Jesus’ return.
This is what Easton’s revised Bible dictionary says about darnel: Tare growing among the wheat is a poison sown by the enemy “Tares the bearded darnel, mentioned only in Mt. 13:25-30. It is the Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are a strong soporific poison. It bears the closest resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and only then the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine.”
So, darnel looks like wheat, while it is a totally different plant. But when it comes to fruit, it can more easily be seen for what it is.
Also please note, darnel’s seeds (fruit) contains a poisonous soporific drug, a drug that induces deep sleep, or causes one to become drowsy and lethargic. Simply, darnel has in it a narcotic drug causing slumber (or, with it: some says it is in a poison in the fungus which follows the seed.)
Again: darnel is not wheat but a totally different plant, which is sown by the enemy. It is not a part of God’s harvest at all, nor was it sown by God. It will be burned, and there is no chance for it to transform itself to wheat. In short: darnel is not “erring saints,” or unconverted humans, but a totally different species (kind).
The darnel does not think it is wheat. It is and knows that it is darnel. It mixes with wheat and it is soporific, and is only fit to be bound and then burned (Matthew 13:30).
The wheat will be gathered to God, but the darnel was not sown by God and has never been his wheat and has never been any part of his potential spiritual harvest. It is from the beginning a different plant, a one doomed to be bound together in bundles at the harvest time, and to be burned, without any way of escape. It is something that came from the enemy.
Now, when the darnel comes to fruit it is more easily recognized for even the non-expert. But those who know more about darnel’s characteristics can recognize it even earlier.
Its fruit, the black seeds, contain a narcotic drug causing slumber. Someone said that if darnel grows among oil-bearing plants and if its seeds are pressed together with the oil-giving seeds, the oil could become lethal because the oil carries the darnel’s poison in it.
Jesus said there would be dar- nel. Where do you think it will grow? Among whom? Why, among the wheat of God: among the saints. But while the darnel mixes with the wheat and may appear to be wheat, it is not a part of the spiritual assembly of God in any way at all. Still, it will be there, among the wheat, all the way to the time of the harvest. Please also note that darnel becomes really poisonous immediately before harvest time, when it comes to fruit. In other words: darnel is most dangerous just before harvest time, and here we are talking about God’s harvest, which is reaped by the angels.
We must be aware of the fact that there are many deceivers, who are not a part of the wheat of God but of a totally different kind, directly from the enemy, but still look-a-likes which mix with God’s people.
Just as physical darnel plants are many in a field, so are spiritual darnel plants many among what God sowed. God allows this to happen, perhaps in order to test his saints, or for some other purpose. But he has also many times and in different ways, and repeatedly, warned us about deceivers, about darnel. God tells his saints what to do: be close to God, study the Bible, blow up the fire of God (the Holy Spirit) so that it will be effective in one’s life, and, “buy up the opportunity,” as was quoted above. That is: one must use the opportunity, which one has been given by God.
A note: in this document it is taken “for granted” that the commentaries which are referred are correct in their identification of the tares/darnel/zizania as Lolium temulentum which is a wheatresembling plant with black seeds which contain a soporific drug. (Some say that the seeds in themselves are not soporific but the fungus, which comes with them, but nevertheless it means that those seeds are poisonous.) But even if the identification of the exact plant would be incorrect, that does not change Jesus’ warning message to us in the parable concerning darnel in Matthew 13.
Understanding the matter with the darnel plants, that they are special kind, a separate kindred among us humans, helps one to understand some other things in the Bible. Like this passage in Matthew which might seem to be logically incorrect but … Matthew 24:34 “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation [Greek, genea] will by no means pass away till all these things take place. (NKJV; comment added)
Once someone comes out of this condition can one become believers?
More next issue, Allah willing.
