Tares

Tares (Greek zizania) are weeds identified by most scholars as darnel (Lolium temulentum), a ryegrass that in its early stages is virtually indistinguishable from wheat. In Jesus' Parable of the Tares (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43), an enemy sows tares among a man's wheat while he sleeps. The householder refuses to pull the tares before harvest lest the wheat be uprooted with them; at harvest the reapers will separate them — burning the tares and storing the wheat. Jesus interprets the parable himself: the field is the world, the wheat the sons of the kingdom, the tares the sons of the evil one, the harvest the end of the age, and the reapers the angels (Matt. 13:36–43). The parable addresses the mystery of evil coexisting with the righteous during the present age of the kingdom.