Matthew 13:20

13:20 The ¹  seed sown on rocky ground ²  is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Matthew 13:19

13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one ³  comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; ⁴  this is the seed sown along the path.

Matthew 13:22-23

13:22 The ⁵  seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth ⁶  choke the word, ⁷  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.” ⁸ 

[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.

[13:19]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[13:22]  ⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[13:22]  ⁶ tn Grk “the deceitfulness of riches.” Cf. BDAG 99 s.v. ἀπάτη 1, “the seduction which comes from wealth.”

[13:22]  ⁷ sn That is, their concern for spiritual things is crowded out by material things.

[13:23]  ⁷ 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”).