The Parable of the Ten Virgins is one of three parables Jesus told on the Mount of Olives (along with the Talents and the Sheep and Goats) to illustrate the urgency of readiness for His return. In a first-century Jewish wedding, the bridegroom would come for the bride at an unpredictable hour, often late at night. The bridal party — typically young unmarried women of the village — would wait with lamps, ready to escort the bridegroom into the feast when he arrived. Ten virgins wait in Jesus' parable. Five are wise: they take extra oil in their vessels, not knowing how long the wait would be. Five are foolish: they take their lamps but no extra oil. The bridegroom delays. Midnight comes. A cry goes up: "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!" (Matthew 25:6). The foolish realize their lamps are going out. They beg the wise to share oil, but the wise refuse — not out of cruelty but out of realism; dividing the oil would leave all ten dark. The foolish run to buy oil; while they are gone, the bridegroom arrives, the wise enter the feast, and "the door was shut" (25:10). When the foolish return and plead, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" the bridegroom answers, "Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you" (25:12). Jesus' application: "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming" (25:13). The parable warns that superficial Christianity — lamp but no oil, profession but no possession, name but no life — will not survive the delay or endure until the end. The oil has been variously interpreted (Holy Spirit, faith, perseverance), but the point of the parable is simpler: be ready, be stocked, be prepared. When the door shuts, it will be too late.