Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Ten Virgins
Matthew 25:1-13
1 “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. · WEB
Ten girls wait for a wedding procession; five brought extra oil, and the difference only shows when the wait runs long.
"Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom" Matthew 25:1.
The second waiting parable is Matthew's, and its setting is a village wedding. The bridegroom came for his bride at an hour nobody could fix in advance, and the young women of the party went out with lamps to bring the procession in.
All ten are invited. All ten are expecting him, all ten have lamps, and all ten fall asleep — the sleeping is not the fault, since the wise sleep too. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise Matthew 25:2, and the entire difference is a flask of oil.
It is worth noticing how invisible that difference is at the start. Standing together at dusk with lit lamps, the ten are indistinguishable. Only the length of the wait exposes which of them prepared for a wait.
"But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold! The bridegroom is coming!'" Matthew 25:6. The delay is real and the arrival is sudden, which is the pairing the whole discourse has been making.
"Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out" Matthew 25:8. The request is reasonable and the refusal is not selfishness. "What if there isn't enough for us and you?" Matthew 25:9 — the wise cannot meet the need, and the parable is saying something about what kind of thing the oil is. Some things cannot be lent at the last minute. Nobody can hand another person a life of preparation at midnight, however willing they are.
"While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut" Matthew 25:10. They do go and buy, which is the sad part. The effort is finally made, and it is made after the only hour when it mattered.
"Lord, Lord, open to us"... "I don't know you" Matthew 25:11–12. The exchange repeats the end of the sermon almost word for word Matthew 7:22–23, and the ground is the same both times: not hostility, not a refused invitation, but an absence of the relationship the words claim.
"Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour" Matthew 25:13. And the watching being commended is not staying awake — everyone in the story slept. It is what was done before dark.
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