This parable spoke Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spoke unto them.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Our Lord feeds by plain words, exercises by obscure. For when two persons, one godly, the other ungodly, hear the words of the Gospel, and they happen to be such that neither can understand them; one says, What He said is true and good, but we do not understand it: the other says, It is not worth attending to. The former, in faith, knocks, yes, and, if he continue to knock, it shall be opened to him. The latter shall hear the words in Isaiah, If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.
This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they knew not what things they were which he snake unto them. In the Greek παζοιμίον, a similitude, proverb. (See note on Proverbs 1:5.) The Pharisees and Jews, against whom He launched it (and the apostles also), did not understand it, as being involved and obscure.
Simple is the language of the saints, and far removed from the elaborateness of the Greeks: for God chose the foolish things of the world, according to the word of Paul, that He might put to shame them that are wise. He used therefore the name of proverb, for thus he designates the parable, perhaps because the distinction of the two words was always somewhat confused, and the signification is understood equally well whether both or either be used. Yet this we do say, that the inspired Evangelist marvels much at the Jews' want of understanding. For as the experience of events itself bears witness, they have a mind like to rocks or to iron, persistently refusing to accept any profitable instruction of any sort. Wherefore it was said to them by the voice of Joel the Prophet: Rend your hearts and not your garments.
And again, the writer of the Book seems to me not inconsiderately to have said: This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not, he says, what things they were wh...
