Matthew 25


The Parable of the Ten Virgins

¹"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
⁶"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
⁷"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
⁹" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
¹⁰"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
¹¹"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
¹²"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
¹³"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Matthew 25:1-13

Explanation:

Awaiting the Bridegroom (25:1-13)
Since the time of Jesus' coming is unknown, we must watch and be ready (24:36). Although some rabbinic parables also address the theme of readiness (see Sipre Deut. 43.15.2), Jesus' parables about the end time especially focus on readiness for the Son of Man (for example, 24:42--25:13). To live ready for Jesus' return involves living in light of the day of judgment, when our deeds and motives will be revealed.
Wise disciples remain vigilant for Jesus' return. In this parable the bridesmaids, rather than the bride herself, constitute the primary characters. Wedding processions from the bride's to the groom's home, accompanied by singing and dancing, normally happened at night and hence required light. The lamps in ancient weddings were not the small, hand-held lamps used under normal circumstances, but torches (as in Plut. Roman Questions 2, Mor. 263F; Ach. Tat. 2.11.1), perhaps sticks wrapped with oiled rags, as in traditional Palestinian Arab weddings (Jeremias 1972:174-75). Women torchbearers probably led the bride to the bridegroom's home, joined by the groom and his male friends (Jeremias 1972:173). Presumably the bridesmaids are thus waiting outside the bride's home for his coming, to escort her to his home (Argyle 1963:189).


In this particular parable (in contrast to 24:42-44) the issue is not that the virgins went to sleep--both the wise and foolish did so; this detail is merely part of the narrative's setting. The issue is that some were not watchful enough to have sufficient oil (Beare 1981:482; Schweizer 1975:467). Some suggest that the torches could burn only fifteen minutes before being rewrapped with more oiled cloth (for example, France 1985:351; Witherington 1984:43). In traditional Palestinian weddings, messengers may repeatedly announce the bridegroom's coming, yet it can be delayed for hours (Jeremias 1972:173). Delays occur while the bride's relatives haggle over the value of presents given them, emphasizing the bride's great value and thus the wisdom of the groom's selection (Jeremias 1972:173-74; compare Eickelman 1989:174).

Disciples should not lose heart if Jesus does not return as quickly as we expect him to. All the virgins would have been ready for the groom had he arrived when they expected, but grooms' delays were common enough that they should have anticipated it. This provides clear warning that the parousia may be delayed. The term used for the meeting or rendezvous with the bridegroom (meet, v. 6) often suggested a party going out to meet someone and forming his escort to a place where he would be honored (as in 1 Thess 4:17; see Milligan 1908:62; F. Bruce 1963:68-69).

Those unprepared for Christ's banquet insult him and warrant judgment. The wise virgins' unwillingness to share their oil reflects their concern for their friend's wedding; since they had only enough for their own torches, sharing would cause all the torches to be extinguished, ruining the whole procession (Meier 1980:295; Gundry 1982:500). Bridal processions were so important that later rabbis even suspended their lectures so they could hail a passing bride (ARN 4A; 8, Section 22B); for the groom and (some held) for the attendants, weddings even took precedence over some ritual obligations (as in t. Berakot 2:10), so a breach of etiquette was serious.

Thus the foolish virgins were not excluded simply because the door was locked (25:10-11), nor because the host actually did not recognize them (v. 12), but because they had insulted the bride and groom as well as all their relatives! They would never be allowed to forget such an offense. To participate in their friend's wedding was a great honor; as virgins, these young women were in a sense practicing for their own impending weddings around the age of twelve to sixteen. To have spoiled the wedding for their friend by failing to do their part was a great insult to everyone else at the wedding. That they would be shut out of the feast in punishment suits their case, but the language used to depict this nightmare points beyond itself to severer, eternal judgment, probably echoing the sayings in 7:21-23. Wedding feasts epitomized joy (as in Jn 3:29); the transgressors have been shut out.

Matthew 25


The Parable of the Talents

¹⁴"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. ¹⁷So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
¹⁹"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
²¹"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
²²"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'
²³"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
²⁴"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'
²⁶"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
²⁸" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. ²⁹For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ³⁰And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Matthew 25:14-30

Explanation:

The Industrious and the Lazy Managers (25:14-30)
As in 24:45-51, readiness for Jesus' return here demands faithfulness in doing the work he has called us to do. This warning applies to all disciples, but perhaps most seriously to church leaders: "A Christian leader who does not lead is damned" (Meier 1980:300).
We have the opportunity to multiply what Christ has entrusted to us. Matthew seems to make a special point in noting that the master gave to each according to his ability--he already knew which slaves would be most industrious, but expected all to show some industry. In the Roman Empire slaves could earn wages and bonuses and acquire property (as in Apul. Metam. 10.13; Cohen 1966:179-278), hence they would have more incentive to look out for the master's property than slaves in many cultures do. Householders going on long journeys might entrust their estate to slaves to oversee (compare 24:45-51), since household slaves often held managerial roles (for example, Treggiari 1975:49). Thus the servants understood very well what was required of them.

Most people lacked capital, but those who had it could multiply their investment fivefold or even tenfold (Lk 19:16-18); doubling one's investment (Mt 25:20, 22) might be regarded as a reasonable minimum return in the ancient economy (Derrett 1970:24). Burying money (v. 18) kept the capital safe, but the money would have been no less safe with bankers (m. Baba Mesi`a 3:11; Gundry 1982:509).

Jesus promises eternal reward for those who prove worthy of his trust. The servants' rewards were commensurate with their faithfulness in pursuing the master's interest. Elsewhere we encounter the principle that one untrustworthy in what is his own will not be trustworthy in what concerns others (Lk 16:10-12; m. Demai 2:2); here we find the principle that only those proved in small leadership positions will be prepared for bigger ones (compare, for example, Ep. Arist. 264; t. Hagiga 2:9). In the context of the preceding parable (Mt 25:10), sharing the master's happiness probably connotes banqueting with the master.


Professed disciples who insult Christ's grace by neglecting his commission in this world are damned. But as in the preceding parable (25:12), the exclusion of the unfaithful, who insult their patron's trust in them, is explicit: it involves hell's darkness (8:12; 22:13) and wailing (22:13). When the lazy servant declares, "Here is your own money back!" he refuses to acknowledge responsibility, a responsibility he could have easily enough fulfilled. Having already failed the master's trust, he now proceeds to insult the master. He offers an excuse no master would have accepted: knowing the master's reputation for sternness, he was paralyzed with fear (25:24-25). He is like too many Christians so overwhelmed by the magnitude of God's task that we put off contributing anything to it. The master rightly responds, "On the assumption that I am indeed hard and merciless, you should have been all the more diligent!" (vv. 26-27).


Whereas the other servants are rewarded by the master's benevolence, this servant, fearing the master's harshness but unaware of his benevolence (compare Patte 1987:346), experiences the very wrath he feared. This, says Jesus, is what will happen to those who claim to be his followers but do not invest their lives in the work of the kingdom.

Matthew 25


The Sheep and the Goats

³¹"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
⁴¹"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
⁴⁴"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
⁴⁶"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Matthew 25:31-46

Explanation:

The Division of the Sheep and the Goats (25:31-46)
This final parable in Jesus' final sermon in Matthew brings home the reality of judgment. As the missionaries from Matthew's churches spread the good news of the kingdom both among fellow Jews and among Gentiles, they faced hostility as well as welcome. This parable brings together some themes from the rest of the Gospel: Christ, like the kingdom, had been present in a hidden way (compare chap. 13), and one's response to his agents represented one's response to him (chap. 10).
Jesus is the judge on the day of judgment. The parable assumes Jesus' deity. Whereas others sometimes fill the role of final judge in Jewish tradition (as in Test. Ab. 13A; 11B), the central biblical and Jewish role of final judge that Jesus here assumes normally belongs to God himself (see, for example, 1 Enoch 9:4; 60:2). As noted earlier, the king in rabbinic parables is nearly always God. Likewise, coming with all the angels (Mt 25:31; compare 13:41; 16:27; 24:31; 2 Thess 1:7) alludes to various versions of Zechariah 14:5 (see Gundry 1982:511), where God is in view. Further, Jesus' claim that whatever others have done to his servants they have done to him fits a rabbinic perspective about God (Smith 1951:154). Finally, although shepherds could represent Moses, David and others in biblical and Jewish tradition, the chief shepherd remained God himself (as in Ps 23:1-4; 74:1-2; Is 40:11; Ezek 34:11-17; Zech 10:3; Sirach 18:13; 1 Enoch 89:18; Ps-Philo 28.5; 30.5). Jesus is both judge and the focus of the final judgment, spelling disaster to those who ignored him on this side of that day.



The nations will be judged according to how they respond to the gospel and its messengers. The nations or "Gentiles" in Jewish literature would be judged according to how they treated Israel (4 Ezra 7:37; Klausner 1979:200). As in other parables, here they are gathered (compare 13:40; Is 2:4; Rev 16:16) and separated (Mt 13:30, 49), in this instance the way a shepherd would separate sheep from goats (compare Ezek 34:17), to keep the goats warm at night while keeping the sheep in open air as they preferred (Jeremias 1972:206). Sheep cost more than goats (Jeremias 1972:206) and because of their greater utility and value were nearly always more numerous on a farm (N. Lewis 1983:131-32).

The older dispensational scheme viewed this passage as the judgment of the nations based on their treatment of Israel. This suggestion could fit Jewish perceptions of the judgment, as noted above (compare Manson 1979:249-50). But this suggestion does not fit well Jesus' own designation of his brothers in the Gospels elsewhere (Mt 12:50; 28:10; see below). Because the passage explicitly declares that this judgment determines people's eternal destinies (25:46), it cannot refer to a judgment concerning who will enter the millennium, as in some older dispensational schemes (Ladd 1977:38; compare Ladd 1978b:98-102).

Nor is the popular view that this text refers to treatment of the poor or those in need (as in Gross 1964; Hare 1967:124; Catchpole 1979; Feuillet 1980a) exegetically compelling, although on other grounds it would be entirely consonant with the Jesus tradition (such as Mk 10:21; Lk 16:19-25) and biblical ethics as a whole (for example, Ex 22:22-27; Prov 19:17; 21:13). Jewish lists of loving works include showing hospitality and visiting the sick, though not visiting prisoners; such acts were found praiseworthy in the day of judgment (2 Enoch 63:1-2; Jeremias 1972:207-8; compare Bonsirven 1964:151-52).

In the context of Jesus' teachings, especially in the context of Matthew (as opposed to Luke), this parable addresses not serving all the poor but receiving the gospel's messengers. Elsewhere in Matthew, disciples are Jesus' brothers (12:50; 28:10; compare also the least--5:19; 11:11; 18:3-6, 10-14). Likewise, one treats Jesus as one treats his representatives (10:40-42), who should be received with hospitality, food and drink (10:8-13, 42). Imprisonment could refer to detention until trial before magistrates (10:18-19), and sickness to physical conditions brought on by the hardship of the mission (compare Phil 2:27-30; perhaps Gal 4:13-14; 2 Tim 4:20). Being poorly clothed appears in Pauline lists of sufferings (Rom 8:35), including specifically apostolic sufferings (1 Cor 4:11). The King thus judges the nations based on how they have responded to the gospel of the kingdom already preached to them before the time of his kingdom (Mt 24:14; 28:19-20). The passage thus also implies that true messengers of the gospel will successfully evangelize the world only if they can also embrace poverty and suffering for Christ's name (compare Matthey 1980).

The stakes involved in our witness are eternal. The horrifying conclusion (25:46) is the damnation of people who did not actively embrace messengers of the gospel but nevertheless were oblivious to how they had offended God. The goats thus depart (7:23) into eternal fire (the worst possible conception of hell; see comment on 3:8, 10, 12), but tragically, God had not originally created them for the fire or the fire for them (compare 4 Ezra 8:59-60). Rather, it had been prepared (compare Mt 25:34) by God for the devil and his angels (compare 2 Pet 2:4; 1QM 13.11-12).

We too must "receive" one another with grace. In the context of the surrounding parables, welcoming Christ's messengers probably involves more than only initially embracing the message of the kingdom: it means treating one's fellow servants properly (24:45-49). Unless we "receive" one another in God's household, we in some way reject Christ whose representatives our fellow disciples are (18:5-6, 28-29). Paul likewise reminds the Corinthians that to be reconciled to him is to be reconciled to God himself (2 Cor 5:11--7:1).