Matthew 13:51

13:51 “Have you understood all these things?” They replied, “Yes.”

Matthew 15:10

True Defilement

15:10 Then he called the crowd to him and said, ¹  “Listen and understand.

Matthew 17:13

17:13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

Matthew 13:13

13:13 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.

Matthew 16:12

16:12 Then they understood that he had not told them to be on guard against the yeast in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew 13:14

13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will listen carefully ²  yet will never understand,

you will look closely ³  yet will never comprehend.

Matthew 13:19

13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one ⁴  comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; ⁵  this is the seed sown along the path.

Matthew 13:23

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.” ⁶ 

Matthew 13:15

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.’ ⁷ 

[15:10]  ¹ tn Grk “And calling the crowd, he said to them.” The participle προσκαλεσάμενος (proskalesamenos) has been translated as attendant circumstance. The emphasis here is upon Jesus’ speaking to the crowd.

[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.

[13:19]  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.

[13:23]  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”).

[13:15]  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.