Matthew 25:1-13
What did William Branham teach about the "The Parable of the Ten Virgins"?
Matthew 25:1-13 states:
- Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
- As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.[1]
What the bible teaches
It is clear what this story does not teach.
This parable is not about the Bridegroom and the Bride
The bride is clearly not directly visible in the story, but she is the other chief character here. Her location determines the goal of the bridegroom’s journey, but she is not with the maidens who act to welcome of the bridegroom.[2]
This parable is about not being ready
This story mentions only two parties, the bridegroom and the ten girls. The precise role of the latter in the ceremonies is not clear, but the Greek term indicates unmarried friends or relatives of either the bride or the bridegroom. The story tells us that their role included escorting the bridegroom in a torchlight procession to his house, but that they were not present at whatever part of the ceremonies immediately preceded this procession.
The unexpected delay is unexplained. It does not matter; all that matters is the delay, and the effect it had on the readiness of the girls when the time for their part in the ceremonies eventually arrived. The sequel to the procession is the wedding feast in the bridegroom’s house, the high point of the celebration. To miss that is to miss everything, and the ending of the story again shades off into the language of judgment, with the emphatic closure of the door, and the unavailing appeal by the excluded girls.
Their address to the bridegroom as “Lord, Lord” and his response, “I don’t know you,” read oddly in the narrative situation—of course the bridegroom knew his own wedding party!—but clearly recall the fate of the pseudo-disciples of Matthew 7:21–23.
Why then did the five silly girls miss the feast? It was not that five slept and five stayed awake: verse 5 says explicitly that they all slept and all had to be awakened by the midnight shout. The problem goes back to the preparations they had made before going to sleep. We are offered no identification for the oil, and the best efforts of commentators and preachers to supply one are no more than speculation. The preceding and following parables both indicate an ethical understanding of what it means to be ready, and this will be further underlined in verses 31–46, but within this parable that is not spelled out. If there is any hint here as to what was lacking it is in the bridegroom’s verdict “I don’t know you,” which, as in Matthew 7:21–23, indicates a criterion deeper than merely ethical correctness. But the point is simply that readiness, whatever form it takes, is not something that can be achieved by a last-minute adjustment. It depends on long-term provision, and if that has been made, the wise disciple can sleep secure in the knowledge that everything is ready.
If that is what the parable means, the addition of verse 13 seems quite inappropriate to the story on which it comments: “keeping awake” is precisely what none of the ten girls did, and the sensible ones did not suffer because of their dozing. The verse virtually repeats Matthew 24:42, where it preceded a parable which was about staying awake. But the metaphor of keeping awake was more concerned with readiness than with disrupting the normal routine of life, and that sense is indeed appropriate here, even though the metaphor used to express it is literally incompatible with the different imagery of the parable just concluded.[3]
Footnotes
- ↑ The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Mt 25:1–13.
- ↑ Nolland John, “Preface,” in The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 2005), 1005.
- ↑ R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 946–948.