Matthew 13:31

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

13:31 He gave ¹  them another parable: ²  “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed ³  that a man took and sowed in his field.

Matthew 13:33

The Parable of the Yeast

13:33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with ⁴  three measures ⁵  of flour until all the dough had risen.” ⁶ 

Matthew 21:33

The Parable of the Tenants

21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner ⁷  who planted a vineyard. ⁸  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ⁹  he leased it to tenant farmers ¹⁰  and went on a journey.

[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.

[13:33]  ⁴ tn Grk “hid in.”

[13:33]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Grk “it was all leavened.”

[21:33]  ⁷ tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

[21:33]  ⁸ sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.

[21:33]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[21:33]  ¹⁰ sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.