It has been pointed out already that this passage is composite, verses 1–10 forming one parable, and 11–14 the conclusion of another whose beginning has been lost. In the present note I wish to draw attention to some peculiarities of the former passage.

First it has certain points of contact with the parable of the Great Feast in Lk. xiv. 16–24. The matter common to the two versions may be summarised as follows: A person makes a feast and issues invitations. When the feast is ready he sends his servant (Mt servants) to tell the guests that the feast is ready. The guests however decline to come, having business elsewhere. Thereupon the host, being justly annoyed, sends out to bring in all and sundry and the house is filled.

Now this skeleton outline is a single complete story in itself, and all that is added to it in the Lucan version is just a filling in of detail whereby the story may be made more vivid and lifelike. In the account in Matthew, however, this is not the case. There a number of new features are introduced, which have no parallel in Luke, which moreover are not essential to the narrative at all. The feast is a wedding feast given by a king for his son.