Very helpful comments and texts awakening and corpselight
Some additional comments and emphasis:
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The tares are clearly something with no worth; they are valueless. So it takes a stretch to say they represent people/minds/souls. In our beloved Luke 15 parables of the Lost sheep, lost coin, and “lost” son, the thing/entity being sought has worth and thus the relevance of God’s persistence and initiative and ingenuity in seeking the lost. And of course we can’t postulate a salvation drama where Christ comes to save/redeem that which is worthless to Him…
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The burning in this parable is clearly for the purpose of total destruction; to get rid of; to make disappear, that which has no value. The Tares, as valueless, clearly will be subject to this destiny. While we can say that evil is valueless, we cannot say that those who engage in evil are also valueless. Therefore it makes sense the burning may indeed convey a purification in that it burns away that which is worthless. This of course fits quite well with the death and fire images in the bible as means of purification and journey to holiness and so on. Pauls dying daily, being crucified with Christ, etc
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As for the more tangential speculations about the Nephilim, I’m not real sure that’s a worthwhile path of inquiry here. Seems a central theme of the bible is that life’s author and sustainer is God – not the evil one. Satan (to put a name, if one prefers to, on the evil one) is the destroyer and God the creator. All Satan can do is twist and pervert and subvert and adulterate that which is/was created good. But the life that is in these perversions does not come from Satan, but from God. And thus should stand of object of God’s saving justice and mercy it seems to me…
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Lastly, and this is a bit sobering perhaps, it does seem that the presence of the Tares among the Wheat does have a negative impact on the Wheat. We’re told that uprooting the tares before the harvest will ruin the Wheat; presumably because their roots are all jumbled up together in the soil. But this would also mean that precious nutrients in the soil that are intended to nourish the Wheat is in fact being diverted to the Tares and thereby depriving the Wheat of it’s full sustenance. — But I have little idea what spiritual meaning that might have.
Bobx3
PS – yes Kelly S! I agree with your take on the fine folks who think together here!