Researched by the Ignaria Editorial Team · Published 2026-03-12
Chrysostom (390 AD) provides the dominant patristic reading: Jesus teaches in parables because the crowds were voluntarily blind. He draws a sharp distinction between natural blindness (which calls for healing) and self-chosen blindness (which the parable's concealment reflects): "It was a voluntary and self-chosen blindness, therefore He said not simply, 'They see not,' but, 'seeing, they see not.'" The parabolic method thus fulfills Isaiah's prophecy not by creating the hardness but by responding to it — the crowd gets what its posture has chosen. Kingdom mysteries remain hidden in plain sight, accessible only to those who have been given ears to hear.
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What the primary sources show
"Therefore speak I to them in parables; because they seeing see not." If the blindness were natural, it were meet to open their eyes; but because it was a voluntary and self-chosen blindness, therefore He said not simply, "They see not," but, "seeing, they see not" — Chrysostom's interpretation: parabolic concealment mirrors the crowd's own chosen refusal, not divine arbitrariness.
"Mysteries of the kingdom of God are such things as lie hidden in the kingdom of God" — Luther on the parabolic form as the vehicle for concealed kingdom truth, available to those given ears to hear and opaque to those who have not been granted understanding.