Discovery BoxMatthew 13:13-36
Context13:13 For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. 13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
‘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.
13:18 “So listen to the parable of the sower: 13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one 7 comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; 8 this is the seed sown along the path. 13:20 The 9 seed sown on rocky ground 10 is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 13:21 But he has no root in himself and does not endure; 11 when 12 trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. 13:22 The 13 seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth 14 choke the word, 15 so it produces nothing. 13:23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” 16
13:24 He presented them with another parable: 17 “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. 13:25 But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds 18 among the wheat and went away. 13:26 When 19 the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. 13:27 So the slaves 20 of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ 13:28 He said, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So 21 the slaves replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’ 13:29 But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At 22 harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then 23 gather 24 the wheat into my barn.”’”
13:31 He gave 25 them another parable: 26 “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed 27 that a man took and sowed in his field. 13:32 It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest garden plant and becomes a tree, 28 so that the wild birds 29 come and nest in its branches.” 30
13:33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with 31 three measures 32 of flour until all the dough had risen.” 33
13:34 Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds; he did not speak to them without a parable. 13:35 This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet: 34
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.” 35
13:36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
[13:14] 1 tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).
[13:14] 2 tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.
[13:15] 1 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.
[13:16] 1 sn This beatitude highlights the great honor bestowed on the disciples to share in this salvation.
[13:17] 1 tn Grk “truly (ἀμήν, amhn) I say to you.”
[13:17] 2 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.
[13:19] 1 sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for Satan here: Mark 4:15 has “Satan,” while Luke 8:12 has “the devil.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.
[13:19] 2 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.
[13:20] 1 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[13:20] 2 tn Grk “The one sown on rocky ground, this is the one.” The next two statements like this one have this same syntactical structure.
[13:21] 1 tn Grk “is temporary.”
[13:21] 2 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[13:22] 1 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[13:22] 2 tn Grk “the deceitfulness of riches.” Cf. BDAG 99 s.v. ἀπάτη 1, “the seduction which comes from wealth.”
[13:22] 3 sn That is, their concern for spiritual things is crowded out by material things.
[13:23] 1 tn The Greek is difficult to translate because it switches from a generic “he” to three people within this generic class (thus, something like: “Who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one instance a hundred times, in another, sixty times, in another, thirty times”).
[13:24] 1 tn Grk “He set before them another parable, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.
[13:25] 1 tn Grk “sowed darnel.” The Greek term ζιζάνιον (zizanion) refers to an especially undesirable weed that looks like wheat but has poisonous seeds (L&N 3.30).
[13:26] 1 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[13:27] 1 tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.
[13:28] 1 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the owner’s statement.
[13:30] 1 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
[13:30] 3 tn Grk “burned, but gather.”
[13:31] 1 tn Grk “put before.”
[13:31] 2 tn Grk “He set before them another parable, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.
[13:31] 3 sn The mustard seed was noted for its tiny size.
[13:32] 1 sn This is rhetorical hyperbole, since technically a mustard plant is not a tree. This could refer to one of two types of mustard plant popular in Palestine and would be either ten or twenty-five ft (3 or 7.5 m) tall.
[13:32] 2 tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).
[13:32] 3 sn The point of the parable seems to be that while the kingdom of God may appear to have insignificant and unnoticeable beginnings (i.e., in the ministry of Jesus), it will someday (i.e., at the second advent) be great and quite expansive. The kingdom, however, is not to be equated with the church, but rather the church is an expression of the kingdom. Also, there is important OT background in the image of the mustard seed that grew and became a tree: Ezek 17:22-24 pictures the reemergence of the Davidic house where people can find calm and shelter. Like the mustard seed, it would start out small but grow to significant size.
[13:33] 2 sn This measure was a saton, the Greek name for the Hebrew term “seah.” Three of these was a very large quantity of flour, since a saton is a little over 16 pounds (7 kg) of dry measure (or 13.13 liters). So this was over 47 lbs (21 kg) of flour total, enough to feed over a hundred people.
[13:33] 3 tn Grk “it was all leavened.”
[13:35] 1 tc A few important
