The Wheat And The Tares

A bishop asked me to conduct his Bible study this coming Wednesday on "the wheat and the tares". I gave it a first cursory look today. The first thing that stands out is that Jesus was likely speaking of "the wheat and the darnel". The NIV completely obscures this, while the KJV partly does. Darnel is sometimes called "false wheat". It grows up with the wheat, and looks like the wheat, but it isn't the wheat. In the parable, this is only noticed very late. What this implies is that the Church is full of people who look absolutely like the genuine article, but are not.