Luke 8:11-12

8:11 “Now the parable means ¹  this: The seed is the word of God. 8:12 Those along the path are the ones who have heard; then the devil ²  comes and takes away the word ³  from their hearts, so that they may not believe ⁴  and be saved.

[8:11]  ¹ tn Grk “is,” but in this context it is clearly giving an explanation of the parable.

[8:12]  ² sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for the devil here: Matt 13:19 has “the evil one,” while Mark 4:15 has “Satan.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.

[8:12]  ³ sn The word of Jesus has the potential to save if it germinates in a person’s heart, something the devil is very much against.

[8:12]  ⁴ tn The participle πιστεύσαντες (pisteusante") has been translated as a finite verb here. It may be regarded as an adverbial participle of attendant circumstance. From a logical standpoint the negative must govern both the participle and the finite verb.