414Book X.

1.  The Parable of the Tares:  the House of Jesus.

“Then He left the multitudes and went into His house, and His disciples came unto Him saying, Declare to us the parable of the tares of the field.”^51605160    Matt. xiii. 36.  When Jesus then is with the multitudes, He is not in His house, for the multitudes are outside of the house, and it is an act which springs from His love of men to leave the house and to go away to those who are not able to come to Him.  Now, having discoursed sufficiently to the multitudes in parables, He sends them away and goes to His own house, where His disciples, who did not abide with those whom He had sent away, come to Him.  And as many as are more genuine hearers of Jesus first follow Him, then having inquired about His abode, are permitted to see it, and, having come, see and abide with Him, all for that day, and perhaps some of them even longer.  And, in my opinion, such things are indicated in the Gospel according to John in these words, “On the morrow again John was standing and two of his disciples.”^51615161    John i. 35.  And in order to explain the fact that of those who were permitted to go with Jesus and see His abode, the one who was more eminent becomes also an Apostle, these words are added:  “One of the two that heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.”^51625162    John i. 40.  And if then, unlike the multitudes whom He sends away, we wish to hear Jesus and go to the house and receive something better than the multitudes, let us become friends of Jesus, so that as His disciples we may come to Him when He goes into the house, and having come may inquire about the explanation of the parable, whether of the tares of the field, or of any other.  And in order that it may be more accurately understood what is represented by the house of Jesus, let some one collect from the Gospels whatsoever things are spoken about the house of Jesus, and what things were spoken or done by Him in it; for all the passages collected together will convince any one who applies himself to this reading that the letters of the Gospel are not absolutely simple as some suppose, but have become simple to the simple by a divine concession;^51635163    Or, by a dispensation. but for those who have the will and the power to hear them more acutely there are concealed things wise and worthy of the Word of God.