Parable of the Wedding Feast
Encyclopedia
The Parable of the Great Banquet or the Wedding Feast or the Marriage of the King's Son is a parable
Parables of Jesus
The parables of Jesus can be found in all the Canonical gospels as well as in some of the non-canonical gospels but are located mainly within the three synoptic gospels. They represent a key part of the teachings of Jesus, forming approximately one third of his recorded teachings...

 told by Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, found in Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

  and Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...

 .

A variant of the parable also appears in the non canonical Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library...

 (Saying 64).

Narrative

The longer version of the parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...

 is in Matthew:

Interpretation

The eschatological
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...

 image of a wedding also occurs in the parable of the Faithful Servant
Parable of the Faithful Servant
The Parable of the Faithful Servant is a parable of Jesus found in three out of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament...

 and the parable of the Ten Virgins
Parable of the Ten Virgins
The Parable of the Ten Virgins, also known as the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, is one of the well known parables of Jesus. It appears in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament...

. Here it includes the extension of the original invitation (to Jews) to also include Gentiles. In Luke, the invitation is extended particularly to the "poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame" , evidencing explicit concern for the "poor and the outcasts."

The targets of the parable are the already religious who have no time for God; they are represented by the people who accepted an invitation, but when the food is ready claim they are too busy to turn up.

In Matthew, the parable immediately follows the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, to which it is linked. This connection helps to explain the treatment of the man without wedding clothes.

Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

 suggested that the wedding clothes or garment in this parable were provided by the host, but this is unlikely to be the intended implication. He also interpreted the garment as symbolizing love
Charity (virtue)
In Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving.- Caritas: altruistic love :...

, an interpretation not widely accepted even in medieval times. Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

 suggested that the garment represented Christ himself. John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

 alluded to other interpretations in commenting:

As to the wedding garment, is it faith, or is it a holy life? This is a useless controversy; for faith cannot be separated from good works, nor do good works proceed from any other source than from faith.


In the Gospel of Thomas, the parable "becomes an exhortation against the affairs of business and a life of gain."

Art and hymnody

The parable has been depicted by artists such as Bernardo Cavallino
Bernardo Cavallino
Bernardo Cavallino was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, working in Naples.Born in Naples, he likely died during the plague epidemic in 1656. While his paintings are some of the more stunningly expressive works emerging from the Neapolitan artists of his day, little is known about the...

, Jan Luyken
Jan Luyken
Johannes or Jan Luyken was a Dutch poet, illustrator and engraver.-Biography:...

, and John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...

.

A number of Christian hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

s have been inspired by the parable, such as "All is ready" by Fanny Crosby
Fanny Crosby
Frances Jane Crosby , usually known as Fanny Crosby in the United States and by her married name, Frances van Alstyne, in the United Kingdom, was an American Methodist rescue mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. During her lifetime, she was well-known throughout the United States...

, and "All Things are Ready" by Charles H. Gabriel
Charles H. Gabriel
Charles Hutchinson Gabriel was a writer of gospel songs and composer of gospel tunes. He is said to have written and/or composed between 7,000 and 8,000 songs, many of which are available in 21st century hymnals. He used several pseudonyms, including Charlotte G. Homer, H. A. Henry, and S. B...

, which begins:


“All things are ready,” come to the feast!
Come, for the table now is spread;
Ye famishing, ye weary, come,
And thou shalt be richly fed.

Music

The topic was the prescribed reading for the Second Sunday after Trinity, for which Bach composed cantata
Bach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....

s Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76
Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76
Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes , BWV 76, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed in Leipzig for the second Sunday after Trinity and first performed by the composer on 6 June 1723...

in 1723 and Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2 in 1724.

External links

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