The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 204

"'"011 free~, mig-ht be repr0ecntccl a■ reaenn- t'h1tn twenty-two W••l'\lA in I.ho lfrhrew Dible i ni; Rnd spm,king. The parabl11, on the denoling thorny a11,l prickly pla11ts" (Pro- o,,11trary, never viofated probability, but fessor lfoc ket ). told ils solemn lesson, often oortainly in a, Ver. 8.--And bare fruit l\D hunllredfold. dramntio form, but its imagery WM nornr Thie is by no means an tmheur,1-of iucreBBO fanciful or impossible. even in tho \\'est., whero vcgotntio11 is less Yer. 5.-A sower went out to BOW hi1 Beed. luxu!'iant. lforodotus, quoted by Trenoh The III aster's words, in after-dRys, must (' Parables'), mentions that two hundred- oft.en h:ive oorue home to the disciplos. They fold was a oommon return in the Plain of would ft>el that in each of them, if they Babylon, and somctimos threo hundrodfold; were faithfnl to their work, the "sower" of and Niebuhr mentions a species of mnize the pM1'hle WM reprodu<'ed; they would tha.t returns four hun,lredfold. On the rcmember what they ba.d heud from bis mRI'Velloue fruit-benring which would tnke Ii ps; bow be had warned them of the r0cep- place in the days of the Lord's future king- tinn which their words would surely meet dom on earth, lrenmus giyes a quotRtion with ; bow by far the greeter proportion of from Papias, who gave it ou the authority the seed they would l!OW, would perish. Ilut of those who had heard St. John speak of though the disoiplee and all true Chri,ti,10 the teaching of the Lord to tliat effect. men in a greater or less degree revrocluce Professor We,tcott ('Introduction to the the sower of the parable, still the gre.,t Study of the Gospels.' Appendix 0, 21) Sower, it must be remembered, is the Holy thinks that the tradition was based on the l"-pirit. Every true teacher or sower of the real diocoursL"S of the Lord. U is, of course, Word does but repeat what they have !Parned allegorical, for is it not o. memory of a con- from him. And as he eowed, some fell by versation between Jesus and his disciples the wayside. Dean Stanley, on the scenery arising out or this parable of the sower? of the p:irable, thus writes : " Is thc,re any- "The Lord taught of those days (of his thing on the spot to suggest the iwagcs thus fnture kingdom on ellrth) and said, Th& conveved? So I Mked as I rode along the days tDill come in which vines shall spring tract under the hillside, by which tl,e Pio.in up, each having ten thnusand stocl,s, and on of Genneaaret is approached. So I a.,,ked each stock ten th-Ofl8a1>d branches, and on each at the moment, seeing nothing but the steep branch ten thousand shoots, and on each shoot sides of the hill, alternately of rock and ten thousand buuches, and on each bunch ten gr1'8& And when I thought of the par:;,ble Uiousand grapes, and each grape when pressed of the sower, I answered that here at least shalt give five and tu:enty measures of tDine. woe nothing on whioh the Divine teacl,ing And tDhen any saint shall have seized one could fasten ; it must have been the distRnt bunch, another shall cry, I am a better bunch; C(lnJ-fields of Sa.maria or Esdraelon on which take me; throllc}h me bless the Lord. Like- his mind was dwelling. The tliought had wise also (he said) that a grain of tDheat hardly occurred to me wl:en a ~light recess shall produce ten thousand ears of corn, an,l in the hillside, close upon the plain, dis- each grain ten pouuds of fine pure flour; and closed at once, in detail, and witli a conjunc- so all other f1·uits, and seeds, and each herb tion which I remember nowhere else in aceording to its proper natltre. . . . And he Palestine, ernry feature of the great parable. (Papias) a,lded, sa.ying, Now, these thinga There WM the undulatini? corn-field de- are credible to them that believe. And scending to the water's edge; there Wfl8 when Ju,las the traitor believed not, and the trodden pathway runniug through the a,ked-How, then, shall such productions mid.rt of it, with no fence or hedge to prernnt proceed from the Lord? the Lord sairl, They the seed from falling here and there on shall see who come to thoae timeB " (Papi11.11; either side of it, or upon it; it~elf hard with see Irenreus, v. :33. 3). the constant tramp of horse arnl mule end , Ver. 9.-And his disciples aa'll:ed him, human foot" ('Sinai and Palestine,' eh. xiii.). saying, What might thiB parable bet Thie \' er. 6.-Alld some fell upon a rock. 'l'be is the only parable St. Luke gives as spokon picture !Jere i.B not of a soil full of atones, by our Lord in this place. St. l\fottl1ow- Lut of a rocky vorLion of the corn-land where v.ho gives the additional detail that on the rock is only oovcred with a thin L.yer account of the pressure of the crowd on lbe of earth. Jake-shore it was spoken from o. boat moored Yer. 7.-And some fell among thorns. c!r,i,e to the ba11k-relates seven pa.ra.bl()ff " E,•ery one who !Jll<! been in Palestine must here in sequence. It is prob:ible that tho Lave Leen struck with the number of thorny ]\faster spoke some of these at least on this shrul,s and plants that aLound there. 'fhe occasion, but St. Luke, poesit,Jy on account traveller flndJ! them in hie path, go where of its extreme solemnity, poeeiL!y because lit way. M,my of tl,em are slllall, l,ut some he wished to mark thia para.hie as the first f.'TOW as high as a n,o.n's head. 'I'he rab- of this new kind of teaching, rela.tcs it Linicru wril.ers ijay U,at tL1:re are uo lt:11s u.ud its iutcrpret.1tiou oIJly, s::i.yiug nothing on. vm. 1-56.J TTIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 203