‘You will listen carefully 1 yet will never understand,
you will look closely 2 yet will never comprehend.
13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;
they are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes,
so that they would not see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’ 3
13:16 “But your eyes are blessed 4 because they see, and your ears because they hear. 13:17 For I tell you the truth, 5 many prophets and righteous people longed to see 6 what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
1 tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).
2 tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.
3 sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.
4 sn This beatitude highlights the great honor bestowed on the disciples to share in this salvation.
5 tn Grk “truly (ἀμήν, amhn) I say to you.”
6 sn This is what past prophets and righteous people had wanted very much to see, yet the fulfillment had come to the disciples. This remark is like 1 Pet 1:10-12 or Heb 1:1-2.