28. The kingdom of the heavens is similar to a landowning man who went out early to hire workers, etc., up to, For many are called, but few are chosen.^[73][289]

On the one hand, it is possible that the whole parable, therefore, is to be received for this reason, so that we learn how [it is that] the last ones to come to work received payment first just as if called first, and a certain figure that those called first were assigned to the last position by the landowner, such that they received payment in last place. On the other hand, one should be aware that, as a parable of Jesus (“in whom the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden” ^[290]) is carefully investigated, what is spoken in the form of riddles about such teachings of the wisdom which has been hidden in a mystery will be found by those who are able to investigate such things, so that it is most certainly fitting [to apply] to this parable what the Savior said, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter obscurities from the beginning” ^[291], and “I will utter things hidden from the foundation” ^[292]. For one must realize that what is indicated as “day” in the parable, and the “hours” in that day, is to be understood as the future [age], and that it was not at random that the landowner hands over the work of the vineyard to five ranks of workers. Let the one who is able investigate the reason why certain workers are hired for the vineyard early, and that after this it is not around the second [hour] but around the third hour that others [are hired], and following this it is not around the fourth or fifth [hour], but about the sixth [hour], then after this <not around the seventh or eighth [hour], but around the ninth, then at the end not around the tenth, but> around the eleventh [hour that others are hired]. For there must be some reason worthy of Jesus <for> [why he sets] the time after the early morning into three equal intervals of the third, sixth, and ninth hours, and after this a smaller interval for those who were standing around at around the eleventh [hour], as much as was [the] interval from the early time to the third [hour]. One must also not attend idly to where the landowner has agreed with those who were invited in the early morning to [pay them] a whole denarius, whom he sent into his vineyard, but with those called around the third hour no numerical amount was named for the payment, but [only], Whatever is just, I will give you ^[293]. One must attend that he does the same thing with those called around the sixth and ninth hours, and that to those around the eleventh hour who were defending themselves with regard to their idleness the whole day he says, You yourselves also go into the vineyard ^[294], but also <that> as though being outside of the vineyard and finding workers there, he sends the first ones into the vineyard, but to the second group he says, You yourselves also go into the vineyard ^[295], and similarly the same reading to those called <around> the eleventh hour: You yourselves also go into the vineyard ^[296]. Let the one who is able consider what the market place is in which the second group of idle [workers] was standing that the landowner finds after going out. So also, let one investigate those who were found around the eleventh hour standing, to whom the landowner says, Why have you stood here the whole day idle? ^[297]. <And> let someone also give attention to the defense of those who stood idle the whole day, and the toil of having stood waiting patiently through the whole day <as they stood idle>, who said with boldness that they were willing to work, but that no one had hired them, as though there were many who were being hired, but [they had] not been hired.

29. Let one also not give attention idly to, when evening <came>, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers, and render the payment, beginning from the last to the first’ ^[298]. What moved the lord of the vineyard so as to direct the manager to call the workers, and to render the payment beginning from the last and thus ascending to the first, such that those from the eleventh hour might receive first, and those from the ninth second, and those from the sixth third, and after these those from the third <fourth>, and lastly those from the early morning? For this is clearly indicated from, Render the payment, beginning from the last to the first ^[299]. And who, beside the lord of the vineyard, is the lord’s manager, who renders the payment in accordance with the command of the lord? But since those called in the ninth hour did not bear the burden of the day and the intense heat ^[300], clearly it is not these who murmured against the landowner, saying, that these who were last worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the intense heat ^[301]. But those called at the sixth hour did not bear the burden of the day, but perhaps half the day. And those called on the third hour did not bear the burden of the whole day, but (if it is necessary to name precisely) three quarters of the day. Only those hired in the early [morning] bore the whole burden of the day and the intense heat, but the remainder to the end group <bore> [a burden] proportionate to the time for which they had worked in the vineyard.

30. Since there are different parables which have vineyards as their subject, one should rather inquire concerning the different matters in each instance that the vineyard is employed, rather than concerning the matter itself. I deem it necessary <also> to examine why it is that the landowner does not respond to all those who came first and who believed that they would receive more, and so grumbled against the landowner, but he says to only one of them, Friend, I am doing you no injustice; did not you agree with me for a denarius? And, I choose to give to this last group the same as to you ^[302]. That the present parable, then, admits these things and things similar to them about which one might inquire, I would confidently affirm; but that it is not fitting for anyone to speak about the parable unless he can say with complete truthfulness, “But we have the mind of Christ” ^[303], I declare this with confidence as well. “Who,” then, “knows” the “mind of Christ” in this parable, except the one who entrusts himself to the Paraclete, concerning whom the Savior says that “He will teach you all things, and will remind you of all the things I said to you” ^[304]? For were the Paraclete not to teach all the things which Jesus said, including this parable, one would not [be able] to say anything worthy of Jesus concerning it. And if all those who read the Gospel according to John would seek such things from the Paraclete in accordance with the voice of Jesus, certain people might not devout themselves “to a deceiving spirit, and to teachings of demons, by the hypocrisy of liars, whose own conscience have been cauterized” ^[305] as though to a paraclete, so as to attribute the spirits of deception and demons to the great name of the Paraclete, which the Savior promised to the apostles and to anyone who might be similar to the apostles. Indeed, I am persuaded that Matthew knew the mysteries according to this parable, as [he] also [knew] the [mysteries] about the [parable] of the sower, and of the tares that are sown with the grain. But he did not judge it fitting to record an [explanation] concerning this parable in a way similar to the explanations for those [parables], not going so far as to entrust to letters the clarification of this parable, just as he recorded the complete explanation for the others. But if Matthew fittingly passed over in silence the explanation concerning the parable, clearly even if someone might be able to understand it in part, perhaps it would be fitting for him to riddle <something> of the explanation that appears to him, but he would in no way be clear of the danger involved in the exposition of the mysteries were he to explain and commit to writing all the things unveiled to him.

31. Come, therefore, let us who are quite insufficient [to treat] the depth of the matters in the parable and who suppose [to have comprehended] an exceedingly few things about it, with prayer, give a partial treatment of some things, but, after briefly explaining something of the things which appear [to us], let us pass on to the things following it after we have said what is appropriate about the parable. <So> first, then, let us look at the things concerning the “day” in the parable being investigated. And do take note whether we are able to say that the whole present age is a certain day, which is long as relates to us, but as relates to the life of God, and of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit is something brief and of short duration. For perhaps [this is] also [the case] for certain of the blessed powers who have ascended, by comparison with the many races of those [powers] which are below the principal Trinity [τῆς ἀρχικῆς τριάδος]. <For> the whole present age has <this> account as relates to their life, which account the day for mankind [has] to the whole time man is able to live.^[74] Let one who is able inquire whether or not some such mystery is indicated in Deuteronomy according to the song in which it is written, “Remember the days of eternity” ^[306]. And so, if there are such things as “days of eternity,” it might be consistent to understand the similar expression in, “I remembered eternal years and I meditated; by night with my heart I communed, and he stirred my spirit. And I said: Will the Lord reject unto the ages?” ^[307]. And perhaps (if I may speak more daringly) “the Lord will” not “reject” unto “the ages” (for indeed the Lord rejects a majority unto one age), though perhaps he will also reject unto a second age, when such sin is not forgiven “either in the present age or in the age to come” ^[308].^[75]

Who is sufficient, then, to offer an anagogical interpretation of the six days and the seventh day of the rest on the basis of these days,^[76] and after the Sabbaths the new moons, and the festivals in the first month, and <the> Pascha <in> the 14th day of the month, and to those [days] that follow of Unleavened Bread? To follow the analogy one would fall into an abyss of conceptions, reflecting on the rest of the feasts [on analogy to] such days, as also with the whole Sabbatical period, in which God bestows to the poor and proselytes and the beasts of the earth the fruits which grow from the previous farming, in a season when <the earth> is not being farmed. Who is able to give an anagogical interpretation for the abyss of the number of the days in “fifty years” (I say “abyss” on account of the depth of teachings), in order that one might ascend and understand the Pentecost [i.e., Jubilee] period and the fulness of the things that were legislated in it? Certainly, by inquiring concerning the “one day” of the present parable and considering it [to mean] the whole present age, we have embarked unawares into the depths of God, and we need “the spirit who searches all things, even the depths of God” ^[309]. For my part, I think that, just as it is said that something must be “at an end” (ἐπ' ἐξόδῳ)^[77] when it comes to the consummation of a period [of time], in the same way (as it were) <also> “upon the consummation of” many “ages,” whether [the ages] fulfill a certain period [of time] or some indeterminate time, our Jesus “appeared for the removal of sin” ^[310], in order that, after the consummation of the ages as though it were <one> period of days, another beginning would again obtain, and “God might demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his beneficence” ^[311], unto those whom he himself knows it needs to be demonstrated. And let these things be said on account of the “day” in the <present> parable, such as one could also furnish from the Epistle of John who says, “Children, this is the last hour; and just as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists exist, whence we know that this is the last hour” ^[312]. For the last hour is after the eleventh hour of the present parable, since around the eleventh hour the landowning man according to the parable came out and found others standing, and said to them, ‘Why have you stood here the whole day idle?’ ^[313].

32. After this let us inquire how it is not at random that the landowner delivers the work of the vineyard over to five ranks of workers: to the first when he came out in the early morning to hire workers for the vineyard, and then to the second, when coming out around the third hour he saw others standing in the marketplace idle, and then to the third and fourth when again coming out around the sixth and ninth hour he did likewise, while for the fifth around the eleventh hour, when he came out he found others standing, and he said to them, ‘Why have you stood here the whole day idle?’ ^[314]. And do take note if one might be able say that the first order pertains to Adam at the creation of the world, for the Landowner came out early and (if I may speak in such a way) hired Adam and Eve so that they might work the vineyard of piety. The second order pertains to Noah and the covenant with him, and the third pertains to Abraham, in whom one is to hear [all] that concerns the Patriarchs until Moses combined together, while the fourth concerns Moses, and the whole economy of Egypt and the legislation in the wilderness. The last order concerns the appearing of Christ Jesus which is around the eleventh hour. Now the one landowning man (insofar as the present parable is concerned) went out five times and came to the realities [πράγματα] here, in order that he might send to the vineyard workers who are unashamed rightly divide “the word of truth” ^[315], who will perform its work. For the one Christ (who condescends to humans frequently) continually manages [ᾠκονόμησεν] what is involved in the call of workers.

33. Let him who is able also attend carefully if the five successions of wor<ke>rs contain a certain symbol of those who begin to do [their] works from the sensible world and from the things based in sense-perception. Let one engage in the exercise [of this idea], even if someone might not want to accept the things [we] suggest as dogma.^[78] For someone might say that [the sense of] touch pertains to the first call—since “the woman said to the serpent” th<at> “God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, nor in any way touch it’” ^[316]—whereas smell pertains to the second [call]—whence in reference to Noah, “the Lord also smelled a sweet aroma” ^[317], but taste pertains to Abraham—since indeed when he was entertaining the angels he set before them cakes of fine flour, and a tender calf ^[318]. Hearing pertains to Moses— when the voice of God became audible from heaven. But sight, which is more valuable than all the senses, pertains to the coming of Christ—when they see Christ with blessed eyes ^[319]. But indeed let these things concerning the five calls be said for the sake either of rational or dogmatic exercise, should one so desire.

34. But I also think that the works of the vineyard are necessarily connected to the hour of the workers. For it is necessary that there be someone in the vineyard to do the works that pertain to the early morning, and the landowner who calls the workers knows that they are expedient for the works that pertain to the early morning. But there was another work around the third hour which concerned Noah, when God made a covenant with him. Then there were five generations from Noah to Abraham which came to an end with Abraham, which became a beginning of another exceedingly high calling. Indeed, Abraham began to be a worker of the vineyard at that time. And after him Moses, along with those with him, was employed in the vineyard. But there remained the final work for the vineyard, which required a fresh, new call, which would bring into effect what was lacking in the vineyard with full vigor and continuously in a short time. This was the [work] of the New Covenant. There are equal intervals, therefore, for those called around the third, sixth, and ninth hours. But the <interval> from the ninth hour of Moses to the eleventh hour of the coming of Christ Jesus in the flesh is proportionate to that from the beginning to the third hour. But the landowner agrees with those who were invited in the early morning to a denarius. This (I think) is the currency of salvation, with the group identified together by [receiving] it involving no [degree of] glory.^[79] For the denarius (I think) is a term for salvation, but the [term] for glory is that which surpasses the denarius, wherever it was that the coins were called “mina” which was given fivefold or tenfold ^[320]. But he who says to those who were invited around the third hour, Whatever is just, I will give to you ^[321], urged those workers from the third hour to work in every way they could. But he reserves to himself to judge what is the just wage for the work that occurs. Since he acted likewise to those around the sixth and ninth hour, clearly he also tells them, Whatever is just, I will give you ^[322]. Indeed they were able to perform a work that was <equal> to those who had worked from the early morning, for they were willing to devote the strength and energy for the work in a shorter time, not growing weary, which is what happened to those called in the early morning. But someone may inquire how it is not only to those who are idle, but also to those who stand the whole day—that is, for the whole time before the eleventh hour—that the landowner says after coming out around the eleventh hour, Why did you stand here the whole day idle? ^[323]. I myself suspect that some ineffable teaching concerning the soul has been hidden in these verses, seeing as they were idle the whole day until the eleventh hour, desiring to work on the one hand, but not being invited into the vineyard, they confidently defend themselves and say, No one hired us ^[324]. We have been daring to say such things as these, reflecting from many Scriptures and from the present parable, so as to establish that it is because no one had hired them that those who were called around the eleventh hour stood idle the whole day.

35. Let those who are not satisfied with these teachings tell us [what] the whole day [is] and [who] they are who stood idle the whole day <on the one hand> desiring to work <but> not having been called into the vineyard, and who declare boldly that, No one hired us. For if the soul is entwined together with the body, how do they stand idle the whole day? Or let them tell us what this whole day is, and about the different calls of the workers in connection with the different hours in it. Whether those who were hired by the landowner in the parable are blessed (and there were other workers who were hired either by different landowners or by the same) or are not blessed or not blessed in the same way, it is beyond us to understand such a thing in a worthy fashion, or even, as we think, to entrust the intelligible things to writing. I might inquire also about the [places] outside of the vineyard, where <indeed> the workers were found by him who came out to hire them, and I may consider that perhaps the place outside of the vineyard^[80] is the region of souls apart from the body [πρὸ τοῦ σώματος], yet [the] vineyard includes not only those [places] here, but also those [places] outside of the body, where (I think) the workers are working.^[81] For the souls of the workers that have been released from the body who are invited into the region of the landowner are not in idleness. Indeed, Samuel did the work of a prophet while outside of a body ^[325], as did Jeremiah when praying “on behalf of the people” ^[326].^[82] Let us be ambitious, therefore, to work the vineyard “whether at home [in the body] or absent” ^[327], receiving whatever may be just. Indeed, no one (as far as concerns the parable) who would not perform the work of the vineyard is dispatched to it, for the landowner censured no one as though they had performed a less than adequate job, even though he did censure the expectation of a greater and fuller wage. Indeed, perhaps the place that is outside the vineyard is the marketplace, where they were standing idle. A great defense is recorded in reference to those who were worthy of the payment for the whole day when they say that, No one hired us ^[328]; wherefore he hired them, and (if I may speak in such a way) he renders a wage to them for having very patiently stood the whole day and having waited until evening for him who hires.

After these things when evening comes, that is, the consummation of the age which is related to the day according to the parable, the Lord speaks to his manager ^[329], who is either a certain angel who [manages the distribution] of wages, or indeed is one manager from the many who act as managers, insofar as it is said that the heir is “under managers and administrators” during the time that “he is an infant” ^[330]. According to the command of the landowner, then, the workers are called by the manager, so that the wage might be given to the last first. For the first workers, “having been attested though [their] faith, did not receive the promise of God,” [for] <the Landowner> “made provision for something better for us” (who were called in the eleventh hour), “so that they may not be made perfect apart from us” ^[331]. Indeed we have been shown mercy because we stood the whole day and we desired that he who hires would come for us, but having been idle and making a defense that we were worthy of work, let us who are familiar with Christ, having been shown mercy, expect to receive the wage first. Then, in ascending order, he will give the wage to those who worked before us, then to those before these and so on until the first. Someone who knows the place where Samuel was passing time and consequently considers those workers who were called <before> the eleventh hour, will see a certain figure [in the fact that] the first group bore the burden and the intense heat of the day, but <we>, as those called at the eleventh hour, have not bo<rn>e the burden of the day and the intense heat, but we have bo<rn>e the burden of standing idle before the appearing of the <land>owner for us, who said to us, “Come to me, all who are weak and weighed down, and I will give you rest” ^[332], for the burden was idleness <itself> along with being judged unworthy of the works in the vineyard. Indeed those who <were called> before the eleventh hour bore intense heat, each according to the proportion of the call. <But> the first group, not knowing the dignity^[83] of the landowner, and that there was no need to grumble against him, thought they would receive something greater than the salvation that the last group received and they grumbled against the landowner, bearing ill-will to us who were last, who had worked one hour until the consummation and yet became equal to those who were called to the divine vineyard from the beginning. But the landowner said to one of them (perhaps to Adam), Friend, I am not treating you unjustly. Did I not agree with you for a denarius? Take what is yours, and go (for your denarius is salvation]). For (he says) I desire to give to this one <which was last> the same as you ^[333]. Indeed, he does not say, “to these <last ones>,” but he indicated one particular preeminent person. It is a bit daring to identify who this is, but one would not be unpersuasive to conjecture that the apostle Paul is he who worked one hour <and> perhaps [worked] more than all the others before him. If it is necessary also to say something about the vineyard, taking [our] cue from the very person who explained the vineyard in the [passages] concerning another parable, we would say that the vineyard is the kingdom of God. For he himself speaks in this way in, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation who produces its fruit” ^[334]. All, therefore, who perform the works of the vineyard, bringing to completion the works of the kingdom of God in a fashion worthy of salvation, will receive the denarius.

36. After suggesting these things about <this> present parable and the things that came to mind for us about it, [let us offer] things that might be able to benefit those who are advanci<ng into> the deeper and more ineffable explanation. Someone may say, then, that the whole life of men is the day according to the parable. Those on the one hand who are called from childhood and a first stage of maturity for performing the works of the kingdom of God are indicated by those who are hired by the landowner in the early morning. Those on the other hand who come to piety after adolescence are those who came from the third hour, and those who are already men are those dispatched to the vineyard around the sixth hour. The elders who are bringing themselves to piety are <those> who have been invited by the Logos of God <around> the ninth hour after the intense heat in youth and the burden of the practices until the [attainment of] elderly stature. Those who have <already> aged to the point of the departure itself are indicated by those who were called to the works of the vineyard <around> the eleventh hour. Since then free will and not time is being examined,^[84] which someone performs in faith, that is why the equal wage of salvation is given to all those who perform what falls to their lot from which [hour] they were called. Because of this the believers from childhood who have toiled and have overpowered youthfulness by force become irritated, if they are going to have a salvation equal to those who from <youth> had been idle <in regard to> piety until having become elderly and <are idle in unbelief and in just> a short time came to the faith and the works of faith.

37. According to this same explanation, the vineyard might be the church of God, and the marketplace and the [places] outside the vineyard [might be] the [places] outside the church, whence the Logos invites those who are called and sends [them] to the vineyard, the church. But no numerical reckoning <may> be given (according to this explanation) for the workers of the vineyard, how many as were called first to piety, but then went out, not preserving the things of the faith, being conquered by passions. For even though, after taking their fill of the pleasures in sins, they might desire, as being repentant, to work the vineyard <again as from the beginning>, they would not be able to say to the landowner, No one hired us ^[335], for they were hired with respect to the first time they were called to believe. But neither will it be said to them, Why have you stood here the whole day idle? ^[336]. Especially if “after beginning in the spirit” and later “finishing in the flesh” ^[337] they might desire to return again by choosing to live by the spirit as from the beginning. Indeed we do not say these things to prevent those who have fallen from being restored, or <to impede> those who have wandered from returning, or those <licentious sons who> have squandered the substance of the evangelical teaching on profligate living from running back to the paternal home ^[338]. For let them have <the consolation of salvation> that they, on account of repentance, laid hold of by a converted life, which is better than those things acquired in sins. One should not suppose concerning these people that they are similar to those who sinned because they were in [their] youth, simply because they had not learned the things of the faith from the beginning. The landowner desires, therefore, to give the denarius— that is, salvation—even to those who are last as also to the first, since it is appropr<iate for him> to do what he desires with those who are his own, and he reproves the person who has an evil eye because the landowner is good. Many of the last, therefore, will be first, and certain of those called first will be last, for “Many are called, but few are chosen” ^[339].

It is fitting, therefore, for someone wiser than us who is judged worthy by God of a clearer and richer grace in the word of wisdom through the Spirit of God, and a gift of knowledge in the word according to the Spirit, to find more exalted and greater things in this parable with a complete apprehension, and to supply with proofs the high and noble discourses he has received about them. As for us, having set forth the meaning of the parable as far as we were able, we ask for leniency from those who engage [our work], should we have not been able to touch on the intention of the things written here in a worthy fashion. For perhaps by virtue of zeal and for the sake of not shrinking back [from the task] we might be considered to have something worthy of acceptance.