Commentary Par VIII 91-93

Dante continues by wondering, on the basis of [Par VIII 82-83], how a good father can have a bad son.  See Picone (DDP Pico.2002.3), pp. 129-31, for clarifying discussion of this passage and the rest of the canto, which, he argues, relies for its basic point on a biblical text, the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-23).