Matthew 13:47-50

Jun 29, 2011 05:29 AM DONE

**47**Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

Our Saviour never fails to keep before our minds the great truth that there is to be a day of judgment, and that there will be a separation of the good and the evil. He came to preach salvation; and it is a remarkable fact, also, that the most fearful accounts of hell and of the sufferings of the damned, in the Scriptures, are from his lips. How does this agree with the representations of those who say that all will be saved?

Is like unto a net - A drag-net. This is the proper meaning of Σαγηνη, which the Latins translate verriculum, a sweep net; Quod in aquam jacitur ad pisces comprehendendos; imprimis, cujus usus est extrahendis iis a fundo. Martinius. "Which is cast into the water to catch fish, and the particular use of which is to drag them up from the bottom."

Net (σαγήνῃ)

See on Matthew 4:18. The only occurrence of the word in the New Testament. A long draw-net, the ends of which are carried out and drawn together. Through the transcription of the word into the Latin sagena comes seine. From the fact of its making a great sweep, the Greeks formed a verb from it, σαγηνέυω, to surround and take with a drag-net. Thus Herodotus (iii., 149) says: "The Persians netted Santos." And again (vi., 31), "Whenever they became masters of an island, the barbarians, in every single instance, netted the inhabitants.

Scofield Reference Notes

The kingdom of heaven is like a net which, cast into the sea of humanity, gathers of every kind, good and bad, and these remain together in the net (v. 49) and not merely in the sea, until the end of the age.
It is not even a converted net, much less a converted sea. Infinite violence has been done to sound exegesis by the notion that the world is to be converted in this age. Against that notion stands our Lord's own interpretation of the parables of the Sower, the Wheat and Tares, and the Net.

**48**Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

Vincent's Word Studies

Sat down - Implying deliberation in the assortment.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away-literally, "the rotten," but here meaning, "the foul" or "worthless" fish: corresponding to the "tares" of the other parable.

**49**So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

But further, while the former parable gives chief prominence to the present mixture of good and bad, in the latter, the prominence is given to the future separation of the two classes.

50And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.