The Parable of the Weeds or Tares (KJV: tares, WNT: darnel, DRB: cockle) is a parable of Jesus which appears in . The parable relates how servants eager to pull up weeds were warned that in so doing they would root out the wheat as well and were told to let both grow together until the harvest. Later in Matthew, the weeds are identified with "the children of the evil one", the wheat with "the children of the Kingdom", and the harvest with "the end of the age". A shorter, compressed version of the parable is found without any interpretation in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. Narrative The parable in the Gospel of Matthew goes as follows: Analysis The word translated "tares" in the King James Version is (zizania), plural of (zizanion). This word is thought to mean darnel (Lolium temulentum), a ryegrass which looks much like wheat in its early stages of growth. The Weymouth New Testament, a translation of the resultant Greek, translates the word as "Darnel". The Douay-Rheims Bible translates the word as "Cockle", possibly referring to the "White Cockle". Roman law prohibited sowing darnel among the wheat of an enemy, suggesting that the scenario presented here is realistic. Many translations use "weeds" instead of "tares". A similar metaphor is wheat and chaff, replacing (growing) tares by (waste) chaff, and in other places in the Bible "wicked ones" are likened to chaff. Interpretation An eschatological interpretation is provided by Jesus in : Although Jesus has distinguished between people who are part of the Kingdom of Heaven and those who are not, this difference may not always be readily apparent, as the parable of the Leaven indicates. However, the final judgment will be the "ultimate turning-point when the period of the secret growth of God's kingdom alongside the continued activity of the evil one will be brought to an end, and the new age which was inaugurated in principle in Jesus' earthly ministry will be gloriously consummated." St. Augustine pointed out that the invisible distinction between "wheat" and "tares" also runs through the Church: Some Christians understand "the children of the evil one" and "the children of the kingdom" to be something else than humans. Origen for instance offered such an interpretation. He also argued that Jesus's interpretation of the parable needs an interpretation of its own, pointing to the phrase with which Jesus followed his exposition of