31 ῎Αλλην παραβολὴν παρέθηκεν αὐτοῖς λέγων· ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν κόκκῳ σινάπεως, ὃν λαβὼν ἄνθρωπος ἔσπειρεν ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ αὐτοῦ· 32 ὃ μικρότερον μέν ἐστι πάντων τῶν σπερμάτων, ὅταν δὲ αὐξηθῇ, μεῖζον πάντων τῶν λαχάνων ἐστὶ καὶ γίνεται δένδρον, ὥστε ἐλθεῖν τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ κατασκηνοῦν ἐν τοῖς κλάδοις αὐτοῦ. 33 ῎Αλλην παραβολὴν ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς· ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ζύμῃ, ἣν λαβοῦσα γυνὴ ἐνέκρυψεν εἰς ἀλεύρου σάτα τρία, ἕως οὗ ἐζυμώθη ὅλον.
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44 Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν θησαυρῷ κεκρυμμένῳ ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ, ὃν εὑρὼν ἄνθρωπος ἔκρυψε, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς αὐτοῦ ὑπάγει καὶ πάντα ὅσα ἔχει πωλεῖ καὶ ἀγοράζει τὸν ἀγρὸν ἐκεῖνον. 45 Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ ἐμπόρῳ ζητοῦντι καλοὺς μαργαρίτας· 46 ὃς εὑρὼν ἕνα πολύτιμον μαργαρίτην ἀπελθὼν πέπρακε πάντα ὅσα εἶχε καὶ ἠγόρασεν αὐτόν. 47 Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν σαγήνῃ βληθείσῃ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ ἐκ παντὸς γένους συναγαγούσῃ· 48 ἥν, ὅτε ἐπληρώθη, ἀναβιβάσαντες αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τὀν αἰγιαλὸν καὶ καθίσαντες συνέλεξαν τὰ καλὰ εἰς ἀγγεῖα, τὰ δὲ σαπρὰ ἔξω ἔβαλον. 49 οὕτως ἔσται ἐν τῇ συντελείᾳ τοῦ αἰῶνος. ἐξελεύσονται οἱ ἄγγελοι καὶ ἀφοριοῦσι τοὺς πονηροὺς ἐκ μέσου τῶν δικαίων, 50 καὶ βαλοῦσιν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν κάμινον τοῦ πυρός· ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. 51 Λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς· συνήκατε ταῦτα πάντα; λέγουσιν αὐτῷ, ναί, Κύριε. 52 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· διὰ τοῦτο πᾶς γραμματεὺς μαθητευθεὶς εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ὅμοιός ἐστιν ἀνθρώπῳ οἰκοδεσπότῃ, ὅστις ἐκβάλλει ἐκ τοῦ θησαυροῦ αὐτοῦ καινὰ καὶ παλαιά. Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
By my count there are six parables or analogies to the Kingdom of Heaven in today’s Gospel. 1) Mustard Seed, 2) leaven or yeast, 3) treasure hidden in a field, 4) merchant seeking pearls 5) the fisherman’s net, and 6) the scribe like a house-master. In my church attending days, I have heard sermons explicating the meaning of the first five, but I cannot recall a sermon explicating the sixth. Therefore it behooves us to examine this analogy to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Greek word for a scribe - γραμματεὺς - means to the classical mind a secretary or a clerk. But our scribe we are told is no mere secretary, or clerk, but an educated (learned, μαθητευθεὶς) scribe, one might think of an executive assistant in today’s world. But the scribe here described is learned in the Kingdom of Heaven (εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν). We are told he is like a house-master (οἰκοδεσπότῃ, householder, KJV). I think in this regard as the head servant to a noble house, who acted as butler and kept the household servants in order, instructing the servants as to their duties and scheduling them. All the while he is taking from his storage something new and something old.
What makes this analogy work is the connotations of the Greek words. If we read the scribe as grammarian educated in Theological matters taking out of his thesaurus (ἐκ τοῦ θησαυροῦ αὐτοῦ) something of the old language and something of the new (καινὰ καὶ παλαιά), making the meaning of the Kingdom clear to those for whom the scribe is house-master. By this the exegesis of the scripture becomes all important. Although it is likely that the readers of Matthew’s gospel were of a Semitic culture, the educated Greek who read this gospel would naturally imagine the picture thus painted. The grammarian and rhetorician was an important part of Hellenistic culture, from Alexandria to Athens, perhaps to Rome itself. The rhetoricians had a powerful influence on intellectual trends in Hellenistic times from the Stoics to early Christians. Perhaps Matthew is using this imagery to gain understanding amongst those Hellenistic (Greek speaking) members of the Jewish community.
So what does this analogy all mean? The easy interpretation is that the clergy instructing the laity on Theological matters bring something old and something new from their storehouse of Theological knowledge, and in this consists the Kingdom of Heaven. But I tend to think there is something more here. Perhaps the Kingdom of God is the whole sphere of Theology, and the scribe is the Theological author, who must take from his store of what is available to him something of the Historical and something of the Modern in his development of a Systematic Theology. Rather than think of it in terms of the church and it’s clergy perhaps one might think of it in terms of the Theologian and the academic Theological enterprise. The Kingdom of God by this becomes the whole of the Theological Milieu. Perhaps the parable is an analogy of the whole of Christianity, Jesus being the scribe, the house-master instructing the other servants (disciples and followers) into the nature of the Kingdom, bringing both the Old and the New out of his thesaurus (Word).
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