The Dragnet
Read the parable
- Matthew 13:47-50 Primary account
Context
The dragnet (sagene) was a long seine net, drawn between boats or hauled to shore, that swept up everything in its path. Galilean fishermen — as several of the disciples had been — then sat down to sort the catch, keeping the good fish and discarding the inedible or ritually unclean ones. The image closes the sequence of kingdom parables in Matthew 13, spoken privately to the disciples.
Meaning
Like the wheat and the tares, the dragnet teaches that the kingdom's present phase gathers "of every kind" — the visible community of those who respond to the gospel will remain mixed until the end of the age. The sorting belongs to the angels at the close of the age, when the wicked are severed from among the just. The parable warns against presuming on mere inclusion in the net and urges genuine repentance before the final separation, while restraining the disciples from attempting that separation themselves.
Go deeper
Two free lessons walk through the parables as a whole: The Parables of Jesus and Interpreting the Parables.