Matthew 13:48 - Exposition

Which, when it was full; filled (Revised Version, ἐπληρώθη ); i.e. not as a matter of course, but by those that came or were brought in. They drew to shore. The Revised Version reproduces the local touch, they drew up on the beach ( Matthew 13:2 , note). In the parable those who cast the net also separate the fish, but this identification of two distinct sets of persons ( Matthew 13:24 , Matthew 13:30 , Matthew 13:37 , Matthew 13:41 ) is merely part of the machinery of the story (cf. Matthew 13:25 ). And sat down . How true to life. Perhaps it "intimates the thoughtful care with which the work of separation is performed" (Goebel). And gathered ( συνέλεξαν ); Matthew 13:30 , note. The good. Corresponding to their proper nature also in appearance ( τὰ καλά : cf. Matthew 7:17 , note). Into vessels, but cast the bad ( τὰ δε ); Matthew 7:17 , Matthew 7:18 , notes; Matthew 12:33 . Not to be pressed to mean "corrupt, dead fish, in a state of rottenness" (Goebel), for surely fishermen seldom get many of these, but simply the worthless, the unfit for use. This would include the legally unclean. Tristram writes," The greater number of the species taken on the lake are rejected by the fishermen, and I have sat with them on the gunwale while they went through their net, and threw out into the sea those that were too small for the market or were considered unclean". Away ( ἔξω ἔβαλον ). Compare, for both language and thought, the treatment of the salt that has lost its savour ( Matthew 5:13 ).