2. Seed, on the other hand, depends to a certain extent upon soil. While essentially designed to co-operate with the vital forces of nature, it may be rendered wholly or partially barren. And in this further senss it forms a symbol for Jesus of the Divine word and its fortunes in tlie world of men. Consequently we find that in two other parables the seed represents not the Kingdom, but the word (cf. Mt W).
The first of these, the parable of the Sower and the Soils (Mk 42f; = Mt I33f- = Lk S"'-), bears on the difficulties and disappointments encountered in the preaching of the word of God. The latter is com-
pared to the vital germ or grain of the plant, which, through no fault of its own or of the sower, may fail to germinate, owing to the unpromising nature of the ground on which it chances to fall. Nevertheless, the work of the sower must proceed. The partial failure of his efforts is not to render his career or calling void. In the parable itself, which is undoubtedly genuine, the original refer- ence is to the experiences of Jesus Himself as a preacher. ' Jesus has to preach ; the rest is God's concern ' (Wellhausen). But in the subsequent interpretation of the parable, which, like other interpretations, must be held to contain in whole or part reflexions of the Apostolic age and traces of the editor's hand, the scope widens to include the general preaching of Christian evangelists, who are counselled not to let themselves be daunted by finding the unsympathetic and the preoccupied among their hearers. The seed must be sown. The word must be trusted to do its work in con- genial hearts. The teaching must be imparted. Such is the supreme lesson for evangelists drawn here by Jesus from the vegetable world.
The other parable is that of the Tares, or darnel (Mt 13-'"-), which may be an allegorized variation, and in part an expansion, of the ideas contained in Mk l^""-**. Certainly, whatever be the original nucleus, the editorial reflexions indicate a rather advanced period in the history of the early Church's mission and discipline. Growth, here too, is a partial feature of the situation. But the seed or word is further exposed to deliberate and wide- spread corruption and rivalry. Another pover of influence is stealthily at work among men. God's message finds no virgin soil, for the growth of the seed is thwarted ; and specious, vigorous rivals abound.
Both of the latter parables, in so far as they em})hasize the nature of God's word or message as seed, thus touch wisely and earnestly on its mys- terious power of growth. The spoken word is essentially fruitful. It is the instrument of the Divine mission. ' We forget too often that lan- guage is both a seed-sowing and a revelation,' says Amiel. ' Man is a husbandman ; his whole work rightly understood is to develop life, to sow it everywhere. ' And the supreme method is the con- tact of one personality with another, especially through the medium of that spoken intercourse which conveys the truth of God to the soul of man. This, and no external means, is the chosen way of Jesus.
Literature. — In addition to the critical editors on the pas- sages above cited, and writers on the Parables (especially Trench, Bruce, Jiilicher, and Godet), cf. T. G. Selby, Ministry of the Lord Jems, p. 157 f . ; Keim, Jesus of Nazara, iv. p. 138 f . ; and J. Rendel Harris, Union with God, p. 171 f.
J. MOFFATT.
SEEING. — In the Gospels there are three Greek words (/3X^7ra), deoipeoo, opdu) used for ' see,' some- times rendered in the EV by ' behold,' ' take heed,' 'beware,' 'regard.' The mo.st ordinary signifi- cance of the word ' see ' is, of course, the natural one — to recognize by the act of vision ordinary external objects, as when the blind are described as seeing (Mt 15^\ Jn 9''), or men are promised that they shall see the Son of Man, or when the disciples think they see a vision, or the multitude see the miracles of Jesus (INIk W\ Lk 2423, ,;„ g'i)
The more significant uses of the word are, how- ever, f<jurrifim'. (1) The first usage under this head is where the verb ' to see ' is used of the recognition of objects not strictly visible, as, for example, when it is said of Peter that he saw the wind (Mt I430) ; or when men are told that, if they first cast out tiie beam out of their own eye, they will then be able to see clearly to cast the mote out of their brother's eye (Mt 7*^) ; or, again, when
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SELF-CONTROL
it is said that a man shall see death (Lk 2^, Jn 8^') ; or when the Lord speaks of a man as 'seeing the light of this world' (Jn 11"), where, of course, it is more strictly the vision of objects made possible through the jiresence of the light of day.
(2) The second figurative sense is a very ordinary one in the Gospels, where the verb ' to see ' is employed in the sense of the spiritual vision of the mind and soul. In the Beatitudes, for example, the blessing of the pure in heart is that they shall see God (Mt 5^). The angels also possess the same privilege (Mt 18^"). The disciples are told that in seeing Christ they have already obtained the vision of the Father ( Jn 14") ; while in another passage of the same Gospel the seeing of Christ and believing on Him are the conditions of jjossess- ing eternal life (6'*"). In the Lord's gTeat prayer for His disciples He desires that they may see His glory (l?-"*), which implies a participation in the understanding of Divine things of the highest and most intimate character. In this connexion also is to^be noted the strange utterance of our I.iord in Lk 10^^ where, on the return of the Seventy, He speaks of His beholding Satan ' fallen as lightning from heaven,' which must imply His spiritual pre- vision of the final overthrow of the powers of evil, and the establishment of His Divine kingdom. Most significant of all this class of passages, how- ever, are those found in Jn 9^", and Mt 13'^'^'' with its jjarallels in Mk 4}^ and Lk 8"*. The jjassage in Jn. distinctly states that the purpose of Christ's presence in the world was first to bring liglit to blind eyes, but, secondly, to make blind those who were able to see ; and this last statement is further explained in the passage by the answer given to the indignant question of the Pharisees as to whether they also were blind, that their fault consisted in claiming to possess the power of spiritual vision, while their hearts were closed to the real significance of Christ's message ; and so their boast of spiritual perception only magnified their sin. On Mt 13"-i« || see Parable, p. 315 f.