And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
3. in parables ] Up to this time Jesus had preached repentance, proclaiming the kingdom, and setting forth the laws of it in direct terms. He now indicates by parables the reception, growth, characteristics, and future of the kingdom. The reason for this manner of teaching is given below, Mat 13:10-15.
A parable (Hebr. mashal) = “a likeness” or “comparison.” Parables differ from fables in being pictures of possible occurrences frequently of actual daily occurrences, and in teaching religious truths rather than moral truths.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In parables – The word parable is derived from a Greek word signifying to compare together, and denotes a similitude taken from a natural object to illustrate a spiritual or moral subject. It is a narrative of some fictitious or real event, in order to illustrate more clearly some truth that the speaker wished to communicate. In early ages it was much used. Pagan writers, as Aesop, often employed it. In the time of Christ it was in common use. The prophets had used it, and Christ employed it often in teaching his disciples. It is not necessary to suppose that the narratives were strictly true. The main thing – the inculcation of spiritual truth – was gained equally, whether it was true or was only a supposed case. Nor was there any dishonesty in this. It was well understood no person was deceived. The speaker was not understood to affirm the thing literally narrated, but only to fix the attention more firmly on the moral truth that he presented. The design of speaking in parables was the following:
- To convey truth in a more interesting manner to the mind, adding to the truth conveyed the beauty of a lovely image or narrative.
- To teach spiritual truth so as to arrest the attention of ignorant people, making an appeal to them through the senses.
- To convey some offensive truth, some pointed personal rebuke. in such a way as to bring it home to the conscience. Of this kind was the parable which Nathan delivered to David 2Sa 12:1-7, and many of our Saviours parables addressed to the Jews.
- To conceal from one part of his audience truths which he intended others should understand. Thus Christ often, by this means, delivered truths to his disciples in the presence of the Jews, which he well knew the Jews would not understand; truths pertaining to them particularly, and which he was under no obligations to explain to the Jews. See Mar 4:33; Mat 13:13-16.
Our Saviours parables are distinguished above all others for clearness, purity, chasteness, importance of instruction, and simplicity. They are taken mostly from the affairs of common life, and intelligible, therefore, to all people. They contain much of himself – his doctrine, life, design in coming, and claims, and are therefore of importance to all people; and they are told in a style of simplicity intelligible to the child, yet instructive to people of every rank and age. In his parables, as in all his instructions, he excelled all people in the purity, importance, and sublimity of his doctrine.
Mat 13:3
A sower went forth to sow – The image here is taken from an employment known to all people, and therefore intelligible to all.
Nor can there be a more striking illustration of preaching the gospel than placing the seed in the ground, to spring up hereafter and bear fruit.
Sower – One who sows or scatters seed – a farmer. It is not improbable that one was near the Saviour when he spoke this parable.
Mat 13:4
Some seeds fell by the way-side – That is, the hard path or headland, which the plow had not touched, and where there was no opportunity for it to sink into the earth.
Mat 13:5
Stony places – Where there was little earth, but where it was hard and rocky, so that the roots could not strike down into the earth for sufficient moisture to support the plant.
When the sun became hot they of course withered away. They sprang up the sooner because there was little earth to cover them.
Forthwith – Immediately. Not that they sprouted and grew any quicker or faster than the others, but they were not so long in reaching the surface. Having little root, they soon withered away.
Mat 13:7
Among thorns – That is, in a part of the field where the thorns and shrubs had been imperfectly cleared away and not destroyed.
They grew with the grain, crowded it, shaded it, exhausted the earth, and thus choked it.
Mat 13:8
Into good ground – The fertile and rich soil.
In sowing, by far the largest proportion of seed will fall into the good soil; but Christ did not intend to teach that these proportions would be exactly the same among those who heard the gospel. Parables are designed to teach some general truth, and the circumstances should not be pressed too much in explaining them.
An hundred-fold … – That is, a hundred, sixty, or thirty grains for each one that was sowed an increase by no means uncommon. Some grains of wheat will produce twelve or fifteen hundred grains. The usual proportion on a field sown, however, is not more than twenty, fifty, or sixty bushels for one.
Mat 13:9
Who hath ears … – This is a proverbial expression, implying that it was every mans duty to pay attention to what was spoken, Mat 11:15.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 13:3
And He spake many things unto them in parables.
Christ a moral, painter
Jesus did not confine Himself to the mere announcement or proof of a doctrine. But by means of words, He often presented to His hearers a moral picture-flashed upon the minds eye a whole scene of truth with such vividness and power that it could not be well perverted or forgotten. We should imitate His pointed, emotional preaching.
I. Some reasons for the use of moral painting in sermons.
1. It imitates the style of Christs painting, and is part of His gospel.
2. It meets a want in our nature. It appeals to mans perceptive facilities. God has met this want in the natural world.
3. It adds point and force to the argument. Reasoning and illustration are both essential.
4. Men who have deeply moved the human heart have used it. Poets, advocates, orators, etc. And shall the children of this world be wiser, etc.? Inspiration is full of it.
II. The kind of moral painting to be used. Great condensation, is essential to a good picture of truth. Deep emotion. The vastness of our work is enough to make an angel weep. (W. W. Newell.)
The design of speaking in parable
1. To convey truth in a more interesting manner to the mind adding to the truth conveyed the beauty of a lively image or narrative.
2. To teach spiritual truth so as to arrest the attention of ignorant people, making an appeal to them through the senses.
3. To convey some offensive truth, some pointed personal rebuke, in such a way as to bring it home to the conscience (2Sa 12:1-7, and many of our Saviours parables addressed to the Jews).
4. To conceal from one part of His audience truths which He intended others should understand (Mar 4:33; Mat 13:15-16.) (A. Barnes D. D.)
Similitude mentally stimulating
Christs habit, therefore, was not so much to tell what things were, as to draw pictures of them and mention some familiar thing they were like; as a boy really knows more about the earth when told that it is shaped like a big cricket-ball, than when taught to say that it is an oblate spheroid with a polar diameter of 8,000 miles. Thus Christ was continually telling, in an easy way, what this and that was like (drawing pictures). which is to say that He taught by parables. and without a parable spake He not unto them. A truth felt is more than a truth stated. Christ was continually dropping hints that led His disciples forward into a new surmise; kept treading down their horizon; did not let their opinions go to seed. He knew how to talk with them in such a way as to make them feel that what He did not tell them was considerably more than what He did tell them. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)
Why our Lord used parables
1. As a means of attracting attention.
2. To prevent His auditors from being repelled by a too sudden revelation, either of His purpose or of His message.
3. To stimulate inquiry.
4. To test the character of His hearers. (U. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Behold, a sower went forth to sow.–
The parable of the sower
Four kinds of soil:
1. The impenetrable.
2. The superficial.
3. The preoccupied.
4. The prepared.
Observation:
1. The seed is the same in every case; the difference is in the kinds of soils.
2. The parable is Christs answer to the objection, If the gospel be from God, why is it not more effective? The answer is, that, like any other remedy, much will depend on the way in which it is used. (The Clergymans Magazine.)
Parable of the sower
Where is the fault of failure?
1. It does not lie in God, the sower. God does not predestinate men to fail. He willeth not the death of a sinner.
2. The cause of failure is not in any impotency of truth. The old thinkers accounted for it by the depravity of matter. Once acknowledge freewill in man, and the origin of evil does not lie in God.
3. The fault might be solely in the soil of the heart.
I. The causes of failure.
1. The first of these is want of spiritual perception. There are persons whose religion is all outside, never penetrates beyond the intellect. Conceptions of religious life, which are only conceptions outward, having no lodgment in the heart, disappear. Fowls of the air devoured the seed. This is a picture of thought dissipated, and no man can tell when or how it went.
2. A second cause of failure is want of depth of character. This stony ground is the thin layer of earth upon a bed of rock. Shallow soft is like superficial character. There is easily-moved susceptibility. A pleasant, sunny religion would be the life to suit them. The superficial character is connected with the hard heart; beneath the thin surface lies the bed of rock. It is among those of light enjoyment we must look for stony heartlessness.
3. Once more impressions come to nothing when the mind is subjected to dissipating influences, and yieids to them-Some fell among thorns. Two classes of dissipating influences distract such minds. The cares of this world. Martha was cumbered with much serving. The deceitfulness of riches dissipate. Weeding work painful.
II. For the permanence of religious impressions this parable suggests three requirements.
1. An holiest and good heart. Earnest sincerity.
2. Meditation is a second requisite for perseverance. They keep the Word which they have heard. Must not confuse reverie with meditation. Truth is dwelt on till it receives innumerable applications; it is done in silence.
3. The third requisite is endurance-They bring forth fruit with patience. There is an active and passive endurance, bearing pain without complaining; and under persecution. It is also the opposite of that impatience which cannot wait. We are disappointed if the harvest does not come at once. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The parable of the sower
1. The careless hearer.
2. The temporary hearer.
3. The worldly-minded hearer.
4. The sincere hearers of the Word.
(1) They understand it;
(2) They receive it;
(3) They retain it:
(4) They practise it. (G. Burder.)
The Christians unfaithful hearing of the Word not natural, but self-induced
1. The unlimited method of the sowers work; the indiscriminate manner in which the seed is cast upon the ground. His care not limited to a single spot. The overflowing bounty, the merciful providence of God towards all classes.
2. The impediments to growth are to be found not in natural defects or incapacities, but in self-induced hindrances and wilful indisposition to listen to the truth.
In the gospel history these hearers are to be discovered:
1. The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection. Infidelity is a sad hardener of the heart.
2. Those of our Lords disciples of whom mention is made that they went back, and walked no more with Him. The varieties of soil does not describe varieties of heart as formed by nature, but the condition which the heart and mind assume, as men either neglect or employ the means of grace. They represent, not the physical but the moral condition of the human mind. Human and Christian society is divided into various classes of every variety of feeling and conduct; but the motive of good or ill is in the heart. (St. Pauls Cathedral Sermons.)
The parable of the sower
I. The sower. Jesus Christ Himself; through all the dispensations of dreams, angels, prophets: at last He came Himself with the seed of the kingdom.
II. The seed.
1. Ordinary seed is covered with an outward coat. The life principle is hidden away from observation. So we find Christ in appearance like a man. The words you hear are but the outward covering; there is an inward life. There are those who split hairs about Christianity; they know the outward form, but not the vital principle. Others ignore the outward form, and say Christianity is wholly spiritual. Both necessary.
2. The life-giving property is not in the soil, but in the seed. You may enrich the soil as you will, but without seed you can have no life. Scientists have given up the idea of spontaneous generation. There is no salvation apart from the indwelling Christ.
3. Where life is there is power. Sow pebbles, but they have no power to reach a harvest. The Word powerful because living.
4. Every seed brings forth after its kind. You cannot sow wickedness and reap religion.
III. The soil.
1. The wayside hearer.
2. The stony-ground hearer. The emotional hearer.
3. Among the thorns-the double-minded hearer.
4. Good soil-the man who hears aright. (G. F. Pentecost.)
The parable of the sower
I. The sower.
1. Our Lord first of all means Himself. His work chiefly was sowing the seeds of Divine truth in the minds of men. The reaping began on the day of Pentecost.
2. Then by the sower is meant our Lords apostles and the seventy disciples whom He sent cut to preach the gospel, and all ministers of His Word.
3. All Christian people are sowers. By our words and actions we are sowing some kind of principle in the minds of others; we cannot help it.
II. The seed. Gods Word.
1. It is sometimes rather more the word of man than the Word of God-the Word of God mingled with the Word of man.
2. It may be one part of the Word of God to the exclusion of another, grace to the exclusion of works.
3. Christ is in an emphatic sense the Word of God; so we are to sow the Word concerning Christ.
III. The ground. What does the ground mean?-the heart rather than the head, the affections rather than the intellect. A cold, feelingless man cannot effect much as regards religious truth.
IV. The result of the sowing. (H. S. Brown.)
Bad soul-conditions not unalterable
Why, there was a time, I suppose, when the very fruitfullest fields of England were something like either the stony places or the thorny places in this parable. I have recently seen in the distant parts of these islands, and in one of the most rugged parts of the West of Scotland, ground which I saw four or five years ago, when the present proprietor came into possession of it; and that ground-well, I cannot say there was anything on it like a wayside, for there was not a wayside within miles of it-but still, it was chiefly stones, and gorse, and heather, and all sorts of stuff; but the application of culture, skill, some capital, and so on, has made it very decent land indeed, and it is yielding something now for the support of man and beast. There is nothing fatalistic in this parable, nothing to drive to despair the man who feels he is bad, and wishes to be a true Christian, and nothing to encourage in sin the man who has no desire after good things. Gods grace can do for the heart, be what it may, what mans skill has done a thousand times for the land that he cultivates. (H. S. Brown.)
The parable of the sower opened
I. The agent. The hearts of men and women are Christs spiritual husbandry.
1. Christ is the principal sower, the master sower; ministers are His servants (2Co 6:1).
2. Christ sows His own by creation. Ministers have no seed of their own; their doctrine and word belong to Christ.
3. Christ is a most wise and skilful sower; He hath a perfect knowledge of all sorts of ground.
4. Christ is a universal sower.
5. Jesus Christ is an efficacious sower. He can cause the seed to take root; but so cannot a minister.
II. His action. Jesus Christ may be said to go forth in three ways:
1. In His own person.
2. In the ministry of His servants.
3. To sow His seed by the Spirit.
III. His design. (B. Keach.)
Ministers are Christs seedsmen
1. They, like seedsmen, must sow the seed in its proper season (2Co 6:2),
2. They must sow their seed, let it be what weather it will, a time of peace, or a time of persecution.
3. They must sow no seed of their own, but Christs doctrine (Deu 22:9).
4. They must sow all Christs seed.
5. Constantly, as long as seed-time lasteth (Ecc 11:6).
6. They sow, but the whole success is of God.
Why the Word is compared to seed
1. Seed springs not out of the ground naturally; it must first be sown. The heart must first have the seed of grace infused.
2. Seed, let it be of wheat or barley, is the choice, st of each sort respectively. True grace is of an excellent nature.
3. Until seed is sown there will be no increase. So the heart must take in the Word by faith.
4. Seed sometimes which is sown lies a considerable time in the ground before it springs up, or visibly appears; it must have time to take root.
5. Clods of earth, being not broken, oftentimes obstruct the springing up of the seed, or it is from thence it appears not to have taken root so soon as in some other ground; so likewise, through the power of Satans temptations and corruption of the heart, the Word is for a time hindered.
6. A husbandman observes the proper time and season of sowing his seed.
7. Men are not sparing in sowing their seed, but scatter it plentifully, though they expect not all to take root.
8. A husbandman soweth his seed on what ground he pleaseth; some he lets lie barren. There are nations to whom the gospel is not sent.
9. That the earlier seed is sown the better it is rooted; so with the Word sown in the hearts of young people. (B. Keach.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. He spake many things unto them in parables] Parable, from , near, and , I cast, or put. A comparison or similitude, in which one thing is compared with another, especially spiritual things with natural, by which means these spiritual things are better understood, and make a deeper impression on an attentive mind. Or, a parable is a representation of any matter accommodated, in the way of similitude, to the real subject, in order to delineate it with the greater force and perspicuity. See more on this subject at the conclusion of this chapter. No scheme, says Dr. Lightfoot, of Jewish rhetoric was more familiarly used than that of parables; which, perhaps, creeping in from thence among the heathens, ended in fables.
It is said in the tract Sotah, chap. 9. “From the time that Rabbi Meri died, those that spake in parables ceased.” Not that this figure of rhetoric perished in the nation from that time; but because he surpassed all others in these flowers, as the gloss there from the tract Sanhedrin speaks. “A third part of his discourses was tradition; a third part allegory; and a third part parable.” The Jewish books every where abound with these figures, the nation inclining by a kind of natural genius to this kind of rhetoric. Their very religion might be called parabolical, folded up within the covering of ceremonies; and their oratory in their sermons was like to it. But is it not indeed a wonder, that they who were so much given to and delighted in parables, and so dexterous in unfolding them, should stick in the outward shell of ceremonies, and should not have brought out the parabolical and spiritual sense of them? Our Saviour, who always spoke with the common people, uses the same kind of speech, and very often the same preface which they used, To what is it likened? See Lightfoot in loco. Though we find the basis of many of our Lord’s parables in the Jewish writings, yet not one of them comes through his hands without being astonishingly improved. In this respect also, Surely never man spoke like this man.
Under the parable of the sower, our Lord intimates,
1. That of all the multitudes then attending his ministry, few would bring forth fruit to perfection. And
2. That this would be a general case in preaching the Gospel among men.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
3. And he spake many things untothem in parables, saying, c.These parables are SEVENin number and it is not a little remarkable that while this is thesacred number, the first FOURof them were spoken to the mixed multitude, while the remaining THREEwere spoken to the Twelve in privatethese divisions, fourand three, being themselves notable in the symbolicalarithmetic of Scripture. Another thing remarkable in the structure ofthese parables is, that while the first of the Seventhat of theSoweris of the nature of an Introduction to the whole, theremaining Six consist of three pairsthe Second and Seventh,the Third and Fourth, and the Fifth and Sixth, corresponding to eachother; each pair setting forth the same general truths, but with acertain diversity of aspect. All this can hardly be accidental.
First Parable: THESOWER (Mat 13:3-9;Mat 13:18-23).
This parable may be entitled, THEEFFECT OF THE WORDDEPENDENT ON THE STATEOF THE HEART. Forthe exposition of this parable, see on Mr4:1-9, 14-20.
Reason for Teaching in Parables(Mt 13:10-17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he spake many things unto them in parables,…. For the parables of the sower, and the different sorts of ground the seed fell in, of the wheat and tares, of the grain of mustard seed, of the leaven in three measures of meal, of the treasure hid in a field, of the pearl of great price, of the net cast into the sea, and of the householder, were all delivered at this time. This way of speaking by parables was much in use among the eastern nations, and particularly the Jews. R. Meir was very famous among them for this way of teaching: they say a,
“that when R. Meir died, , “they that were skilled in, and used parables, ceased”.”
The commentators b on this passage say,
“that he preached a third part tradition, and a third part mystical discourse, , “and a third part parables”:”
which method of discoursing was judged both pleasant and profitable, and what served to raise the attention of the hearer, and to fix what was delivered the more firmly in their minds: what was our Lord’s reason for using them, may be seen in Mt 13:13. He begins with the parable of the sower. The design of which is to set forth the nature of the word of God, the work and business of the ministers of it, the different success of the preaching of it, and the fruitfulness of it; and to show when it is truly received, and the various degrees of fruit it produces; that the efficacy of it depends on the grace of God, which makes the heart good, and fit to receive it; and how few they be which hear the word to any spiritual advantage and benefit; and how far persons may go in hearing, and yet fall short of the grace of God; and therefore no dependence is to be had on the external hearing of the word.
Behold, a sower went forth to sow; Luke adds, “his seed”; as does also Munster’s Hebrew Gospel here; and Mark introduces the parable thus, “hearken, behold!” it being a matter of great importance and concern, which is expressed by this parable, it deserves the most diligent attention. By “the sower” is meant “the son of man”, as may be learnt from the explanation of another parable, Mt 13:37 which is Jesus Christ himself, who is often so called on account of his human nature; and may the rather be thought to be intended here, since the seed he sowed is called “his seed”; meaning the Gospel, of which he is the author, publisher, sum and substance; and since he is, by way of eminency, called , “the sower”; which must be understood of him as a prophet, or preacher of the word, who was eminently sent of God, and richly qualified for such an office, and was most diligent in it, and yet his success was but small. Indeed, every minister of the Gospel may be called a sower, who bears precious seed, sows spiritual things, and though in tears, he shall not return empty, but shall reap in joy, and bring his sheaves with him. This sower “went forth” from his own house to his field; which, as applied to Christ, may intend his incarnation, his coming into this world by the assumption of human nature, his appearance in the public ministry, in the land of Judea, and his going forth still in his ministers, and by his Spirit, in the preaching of the Gospel; and, as applied to the preachers of the word, may be explained of their commission, of their being sent, and of their going forth into the field of the world, preaching the Gospel every where. The end of the sower’s going forth is to “sow his seed”: by “his seed” is meant the word, the word of God; see Mr 4:14 so called, because of the choiceness and excellency of it in itself, that grain which is reserved for seed being usually the best of the kind; and because of its smallness, it being mean and contemptible in the eyes of those, who know not the nature of it; and because of the generative virtue it has, though not without a divine influence. Nor does it bring forth fruit, unless it is sown in the heart, as seed in the earth; where its operation is secret, its growth and increase gradual, and its fruitfulness different. By “sowing”, is meant preaching; which, as sowing, requires knowledge and skill, and an open and liberal hand; keeping back nothing that is profitable, a declaring the same doctrine in one place as another; and designs a constant ministration of it, notwithstanding all discouragements, and a patient waiting for success.
a Misn. Sota, c. 9. sect. 15. b Jarchi & Bartenora in ib. e Talmud. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 38. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Many things in parables ( ). It was not the first time that Jesus had used parables, but the first time that he had spoken so many and some of such length. He will use a great many in the future as in Luke 12 to 18 and Matt. 24 and 25. The parables already mentioned in Matthew include the salt and the light (5:13-16), the birds and the lilies (6:26-30), the splinter and the beam in the eye (7:3-5), the two gates (7:13f.), the wolves in sheep’s clothing (7:15), the good and bad trees (7:17-19), the wise and foolish builders (7:24-27), the garment and the wineskins (9:16f.), the children in the market places (11:16f.). It is not certain how many he spoke on this occasion. Matthew mentions eight in this chapter (the Sower, the Tares, the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Hid Treasure, the Pearl of Great Price, the Net, the Householder). Mark adds the Parable of the Lamp (Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16), the Parable of the Seed Growing of Itself (Mr 4:26-29), making ten of which we know. But both Mark (Mr 4:33) and Matthew (13:34) imply that there were many others. “Without a parable spake he nothing unto them” (Mt 13:34), on this occasion, we may suppose. The word parable ( from , to place alongside for measurement or comparison like a yardstick) is an objective illustration for spiritual or moral truth. The word is employed in a variety of ways (a) as for sententious sayings or proverbs (Matt 15:15; Mark 3:23; Luke 4:23; Luke 5:36-39; Luke 6:39), for a figure or type (Matt 9:9; Matt 11:19); (b) a comparison in the form of a narrative, the common use in the Synoptic Gospels like the Sower; (c) “A narrative illustration not involving a comparison” (Broadus), like the Rich Fool, the Good Samaritan, etc. “The oriental genius for picturesque speech found expression in a multitude of such utterances” (McNeile). There are parables in the Old Testament, in the Talmud, in sermons in all ages. But no one has spoken such parables as these of Jesus. They hold the mirror up to nature and, as all illustrations should do, throw light on the truth presented. The fable puts things as they are not in nature, Aesop’s Fables, for instance. The parable may not be actual fact, but it could be so. It is harmony with the nature of the case. The allegory () is a speaking parable that is self-explanatory all along like Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. All allegories are parables, but not all parables are allegories. The Prodigal Son is an allegory, as is the story of the Vine and Branches (Joh 15). John does not use the word parable, but only , a saying by the way (John 10:6; John 16:25; John 16:29). As a rule the parables of Jesus illustrate one main point and the details are more or less incidental, though sometimes Jesus himself explains these. When he does not do so, we should be slow to interpret the minor details. Much heresy has come from fantastic interpretations of the parables. In the case of the Parable of the Sower (13:3-8) we have also the careful exposition of the story by Jesus (18-23) as well as the reason for the use of parables on this occasion by Jesus (9-17).
Behold, the sower went forth ( ). Matthew is very fond of this exclamation . It is “the sower,” not “a sower.” Jesus expects one to see the man as he stepped forth to begin scattering with his hand. The parables of Jesus are vivid word pictures. To understand them one must see them, with the eyes of Jesus if he can. Christ drew his parables from familiar objects.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Parables [] . From para, beside, and ballw, to throw. A parable is a form of teaching in which one thing is thrown beside another. Hence its radical idea is comparison. Sir John Cheke renders biword, and the same idea is conveyed by the German Beispiel, a pattern or example; bei, beside, and the old high German spel, discourse or narration.
The word is used with a wide range in scripture, but always involves the idea of comparison :
1. Of brief sayings, having an oracular or proverbial character. Thus Peter (Mt 14:15), referring to the words “If the blind lead the blind,” etc., says, “declare unto us this parable.” Compare Luk 6:39. So of the patched garment (Luk 5:36), and the guest who assumes the highest place at the feast (Luk 14:7, 11). Compare, also, Mt 24:32; Mr 13:28.
2. Of a proverb. The word for proverb [] has the same idea at the root as parable. It is para, beside, oimov, a way or road. Either a trite, wayside saying (Trench), or a path by the side of the high road (Godet). See Luk 4:23; 1Sa 24:13.
3. Of a song or poem, in which an example is set up by way of comparison. See Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6.
4. Of a word or discourse which is enigmatical or obscure until the meaning is developed by application or comparison. It occurs along with the words ainigma, enigma, and problhma, a problem, something put forth or proposed (pro, in front, ballw, to throw). See Psalms 49. (Sept. 48) 4; 78 (Sept. 77) 2; Pro 1:6, where we have parabolhn, parable; skoteinon logon, dark saying; aijnigmata, enigmas. Used also of the saying of Balaam (Num 23:7, 18; Num 24:3, 15).
In this sense Christ uses parables symbolically to expound the mysteries of the kingdom of God; as utterances which conceal from one class what they reveal to another (Mt 13:11 – 17), and in which familiar facts of the earthly life are used figuratively to expound truths of the higher life. The unspiritual do not link these facts of the natural life with those of the supernatural, which are not discerned by them (1Co 2:14), and therefore they need an interpreter of the relation between the two. Such symbols assume the existence of a law common to the natural and spiritual worlds under which the symbol and the thing symbolized alike work; so that the one does not merely resemble the other superficially, but stands in actual coherence and harmony with it. Christ formulates such a law in connection with the parables of the Talents and the Sower. “To him that hath shall be given. From him that hath not shall be taken away.” That is a law of morals and religion, as of business and agriculture. One must have in order to make. Interest requires capital. Fruit requires not only seed but soil. Similarly, the law of growth as set forth in the parable of the Mustard Seed, is a law common to nature and to the kingdom of God. The great forces in both kingdoms are germinal, enwrapped in small seeds which unfold from within by an inherent power of growth.
5. A parable is also an example or type; furnishing a model or a warning; as the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Pharisee and the Publican. The element of comparison enters here as between the particular incident imagined or recounted, and all cases of a similar kind.
The term parable, however, as employed in ordinary Christian phraseology, is limited to those utterances of Christ which are marked by a complete figurative history or narrative. It is thus defined by Goebel (” Parables of Jesus “). “A narrative moving within the sphere of physical or human life, not professing to describe an event which actually took place, but expressly imagined for the purpose of representing, in pictorial figure, a truth belonging to the sphere of religion, and therefore referring to the relation of man or mankind to God.”
In form the New Testament parables resemble the fable. The distinction between them does not turn on the respective use of rational and irrational beings speaking and acting. There are fables where the actors are human. Nor does the fable always deal with the impossible, since there are fables in which an animal, for instance, does nothing contrary to its nature. The distinction lies in the religious character of the New Testament parable as contrasted with the secular character of the fable. While the parable exhibits the relations of man to God, the fable teaches lessons of worldly policy or natural morality and utility. “The parable is predominantly symbolic; the fable, for the most part, typical, and therefore presents its teaching only in the form of example, for which reason it chooses animals by preference, not as symbolic, but as typical figures; never symbolic in the sense in which the parable mostly is, because the higher invisible world, of which the parable sees and exhibits the symbol in the visible world of nature and man, lies far from it. Hence the parable can never work with fantastic figures like speaking animals, trees,” etc. (Goebel, condensed).
The parable differs from the allegory in that there is in the latter “an interpenetration of the thing signified and the thing signifying; the qualities and properties of the first being attributed to the last,” and the two being this blended instead of being kept distinct and parallel. See, for example, the allegory of the Vine and the Branches (John 15) where Christ at once identifies himself with the figure : “I am the true vine.” Thus the allegory, unlike the parable, carries its own interpretation with it.
Parable and proverb are often used interchangeably in the New Testament; the fundamental conception being, as we have seen, the same in both, the same Hebrew word representing both, and both being engimatical. They differ rather in extent than in essence; the parable being a proverb expanded and carried into detail, and being necessarily figurative, which the proverb is not; though the range of the proverb is wider, since the parable expands only one particular case of a proverb. (See Trench, “Notes on the Parables,” Introd.)
Mt 13:3 A sower [ ] . Rev., the sower. Generic, as representing a class.
To sow [ ] . “According to Jewish authorities, there was twofold sowing, as the seed was either cast by the hand or by means of cattle. In the latter case, a sack with holes was filled with corn and laid on the back of the animal, so that, as it moved onward, the seed was thickly scattered” (Edersheim, ” Life and Times of Jesus “).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And he spake many things unto them in parables,” (kai elalesen sutois polla en parabolais) And he spoke many things directly to them, the crowds, in parables,” He used comparative illustrations, drawn from nature, to disclose and clarify various aspects of His new Covenant fellowship, the church, and her work and people, herein referred to as “The Kingdom of Heaven,” whose work and mission had been hidden from other ages, Mat 3:11; Mr 4:10,11; Luk 8:10; Eph 3:3-10; Eph 3:21; Rom 16:25-26.
2) “Saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;” (legon idou ekselthen ho speiron tou speirein) “Saying there went out, of his own choice, a sower sowing;” and to sow. He had seed, desired its increase, and knew that seed unsown could not increase in heaven’s sowing process. Jesus, not Moses, or the prophets, was this sower, Mat 13:37. He sowed the good seed from which the Kingdom of heaven, or the church, sprang up.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(3) He spake many things unto them in parables.This is the first occurrence of the word in St. Matthews Gospel, and it is clear from the question of the disciples in Mat. 13:10 that it was in some sense a new form of teaching to them. There had been illustrations and similitudes before, as in that of the houses built on the sand and on the rock in Mat. 7:24-27, and that of the unclean spirit in Mat. 12:43-45, but now for the first time He speaks to the multitude in a parable, without an explanation. The word, which has passed through its use in the Gospels into most modern European languages (palabras, parle, parabel), means literally, a comparison. It had been employed by the Greek translators of the Old Testament for the Hebrew word mashed, which we commonly render by proverb, and which, like the Greek parabole, has the sense of similitude. Of many, perhaps of most, Eastern proverbs it was true that they were condensed parables, just as many parables are expanded proverbs. (Comp. Joh. 16:25; Joh. 16:29.) In the later and New Testament use of the word, however, the parable takes the fuller form of a narrative embracing facts natural and probable in themselves, and in this respect differs from the fable which (as in those of sop and Phdrus, or that of the trees choosing a king in Jdg. 9:8-15) does not keep within the limits even of possibility. The mode of teaching by parables was familiar enough in the schools of the Rabbis, and the Talmud contains many of great beauty and interest. As used by them, however, they were regarded as belonging to those who were receiving a higher education, and the son of Sirach was expressing the current feeling of the schools when he said of the tillers of the soil and the herdsmen of flocks that they were not found where parables were spoken (Sir. 38:33). With what purpose our Lord now used this mode of instruction will appear in His answer to the question of the disciples. The prominence given in the first three Gospels to the parable that follows, shows how deep an impression it made on the minds of men, and so far justified the choice of this method of teaching by the divine Master.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(3) A sower.Literally, the sowerthe man whose form and work were so familiar, in the seed-time of the year, to the peasants of Galilee. The outward frame-work of the parable requires us to remember the features in which Eastern tillage differs from our own. The ground less perfectly clearedthe road passing across the fieldthe rock often cropping out, or lying under an inch or two of soilthe patch of good ground rewarding, by what might be called a lucky chance rather than skill of husbandry, the labour of the husbandman.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
FIRST PARABLE The Sower, Mat 13:3-23.
That this parable of the sower was the first of our Lord’s parables is probable from several reasons. It was so new a mode of instruction that the disciples, in verse tenth, inquired why he used it, and the reason that he gave them was, that truth might be revealed to them and hidden from others.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3. Spake many things in parables Hence he spoke many parables upon this one occasion. This clearly demonstrates that the SEVEN PARABLES presented in this chapter were all delivered on the same day. It contradicts the notion of some that Matthew has here brought together a collection of such pieces uttered at different times. On the subject of parables we may here remark:
1 . The PARABLE is a brief narrative of natural or earthly things, so constructed as to represent spiritual or heavenly things impressively to the mind. It has a foundation in the divine arrangements; for God has so constructed the natural world that the devout mind may look through nature up to nature’s God. No compositions in human language so forcibly trace the analogies of nature and grace as the parables of our Lord.
2 . This kind of composition has ever been used by the most thoughtful men of all ages, as the best method of drawing the heart of mankind from thoughts of mere earthly and material things to those of a Spiritual or heavenly nature.
The sacred parables serve as conductors from the world of matter to the world of thought. In the Old Testament are a few specimens, and among the later Jews, even before our Saviour, the wiser rabbis, taught by the sacred oracles, made use of this mode of instruction, and furnished many parables of no mean value, though none will compare in excellence with those of our Saviour. So the ancient Persians and the modern Germans have furnished many exquisite specimens of this kind of composition. Those of modern Europe have been all the more beautiful from the very reason that they are imbued with the Biblical spirit.
3 . Our Lord did not condescend, like the fable writers of modern times, as well as of the heathen world, to form parables for the illustration of principles of mere earthly morality. He never forgets that his theme is eternity, and his object the soul of man. Nor does he ever violate the laws of nature, by any speaking beasts or birds, or any monstrous fabrications of fancy. His parables are all true in the general. They are things which often happen. They are in the ordinary course of nature.
4 . The sacred parable was a wonderful vehicle of truth to serve three distinct purposes, namely: to reveal, to conceal, and to perpetuate. It revealed the sacred truth by the striking power of analogy and illustration. It concealed the truth from him who had not by proper sympathy or previous instruction the true key to its hidden meaning. To such a one it was a riddle or a tale. And so our Lord could give to his disciples in this method the deepest secrets of his kingdom for ages, while the caviller, who would have abused the truth, heard without understanding. See Mat 13:11. But the truth thus embodied in narrative was, as it were, materialized, and made fit for perpetuation. It had a form and body to it, by which it could be preserved in tangible shape for future ages.
These considerations will serve to show the great wisdom of our Lord in enshrining so much of doctrinal truth in vehicles at once so attractive and so imperishable.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3. Behold The animated introduction gives plausibility to the view that our Lord pointed to some distant sower in sight scattering his seed. A sower went forth The sower is the preacher, the seed is the word of truth, the soil is the receptive attention of the people. Went forth That is, the preacher does not wait for the people to come to him.
How truly our Lord drew his images from the scenery around him, Dr. Thomson thus illustrates:
“Behold a sower went forth to sow. There is a nice and close adherence to actual life in this form of expression. The expression implies that the sower, in the days of our Saviour, lived in a hamlet, or village, as all these farmers now do; that he did not sow near his own house or in a garden fenced or walled. Now here we have the whole within a dozen rods of us. Our horses are actually trampling down some seeds which have fallen by this wayside, and larks and sparrows are busy picking them up. That man with his mattock is digging up places where the rock is too near the surface for the plough, and much that is sown there will wither away, because it has no deepness of earth. And not a few seeds have fallen among this bellan, and will be effectually choked by these most tangled of thorn bushes. But a large portion after all falls into really good ground, and four months hence will exhibit every variety of crop, up to the richest and heaviest that ever rejoices the heart even of an American farmer.”
Sceptical writers have maintained that the soil of Palestine is so poor as to contradict the character for fertility ascribed to it in the Old Testament. Their error may be shown from the following considerations: 1. No such superiority of soil over other lands of the earth is ascribed to Palestine in Scripture as these objectors imagine. Thus the strongest Scripture phrase, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” is but a picturesque declaration that herds and bees should be an abundant natural product, which is eminently the fact. 2. Every land, even fertile Sicily has its barren spots. 3. Ages of oppression and total neglect have produced barrenness where most luxuriant harvests might have been gathered. With due culture the plains of Esdraelon might be made the granary of the East. 4. The very rocks of Palestine, being of limestone, are easily crumbled, and are thereby made a source of fertility. The hills afford terraces for the vines which under proper culture would cover them. The rich olive flourishes best in this rocky soil.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying,’
Then Jesus spoke to them many things ‘in parables’, illustrative stories. For while to His disciples He spoke plainly, as in the Sermon on the Mount, to the crowds He told stories with ‘hidden’ meanings. Each could then take from them the message that they were open to receive, or that the Holy Spirit would apply to them, and it was of course open to them to come and ask what the meaning of the parable was. Meanwhile even when He spoke of the Kingly Rule of Heaven they gave no hint of any stirrings towards insurrection. Note the ‘many things’. This suggests that He spoke far more than is recorded here. Parables in fact both revealed and concealed, depending on the heart and understanding of the hearer, and they prevented people from becoming ‘Gospel-hardened’ and getting wrong ideas which could then be blamed on Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
“Behold, the sower went forth to sow,”
All Jesus’ hearers were familiar with the sight of the sower, as he went out with his bag or other such container full of seed to be sown, and tossed it this way and that as he scattered the seed over his own strip of land. And as they heard mention of the sower many of their thoughts would go back to the words of Pro 11:18, ‘he who sows righteousness has a sure reward,’ and, somewhat guiltily (because they had not done it), to Hos 10:12, ‘Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, until he come and rain righteousness upon you.’ They would recognise that this sower was therefore issuing a call for repentance and righteousness in the light of the presence in Jesus of the Kingly Rule of Heaven.
And what would He sow? We find the answer in Isa 55:10. There seed for the sower was the result of God’s rain falling on God’s earth, producing ‘seed for the sower’, and this was figurative for God’s word going forth to fulfil His will, accomplishing what He pleased and prospering in the way in which He sent it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Parable of the Sowing of the Seed (13:3-9).
This parable compares those who hear the word, and in three ways fail to receive it successfully, with those who do receive the word, and produce fruit at three levels. It is another presentation of the two ways. It will be noted that the emphasis is not on the harvest but on what is, or is not, produced. It is a brilliantly simple analysis of men’s hearts. With some there was no interest. With some there was interest but no depth of thought or understanding. With some what interest there was, was choked by other things than the word of truth, by cares, anxieties and a desire for wealth. Notice also the fate of the seed which has failed to yield fruit. Some was devoured, some withered in the sun, and some was choked. The failures thus came for a variety of reasons but the end result was the same, there was no fruitfulness. Each listener was left to think for himself what it was that might be the hindrance in his own life. And then the glorious goal was set before him that he could, if he truly responded to Jesus and His words, produce one hundredfold.
It has sometimes been argued that Jesus original intention in this parable was simply to build up to the idea of the Harvest, but a moments thought will reveal that this really cannot be so unless Jesus was talking to half-wits. And He was not. He was speaking to people steeped in the Old Testament and later Jewish tradition, and inevitably when they heard of the birds swooping down to seize the seed their ears would prick up and they would think in terms of powers of evil and of demons, and even of Satan himself, in the light of Jewish tradition where birds were commonly seen in that way (compare Gen 15:11; Gen 40:17; Gen 40:19; Isa 18:5-6; Jer 7:33; Jer 12:9; Eze 39:4; Eze 39:17), especially in the light of what Jesus had taught in Mat 12:28-29; Mat 12:43-45. We can compare here Rev 18:2, which echoes those traditions, where devils, unclean spirits and unclean birds are seen to be operating in parallel (compare Isa 13:21; Isa 34:11; Isa 34:14-15).
But even more so when they heard of sowing among thorns their minds would immediately call to mind the words of Jeremiah, ‘Do not sow among thorns’ (Jer 4:3), and ‘they have sown wheat and have reaped thorns’ (Jer 12:13). It was inevitable. They could hardly have failed to do so. And thus alert minds would already be looking into the details of the parable and asking themselves what it meant. And it can hardly be doubted in the light of this that Jesus intended them to do so.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The parable story:
v. 3. And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying: Behold, a sower went forth to sow.
v. 4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came, and devoured them up.
v. 5. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.
v. 6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
v. 7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up and choked them.
v. 8. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Parables are stories of comparison, and as Jesus employed them, He made use of the familiar in nature and in human life and experience to teach and bring home the great facts of His kingdom in its real and in its apparent form. Even ordinarily the Orientals were fond of parables, but Jesus had, besides, a remarkably effective way of catching the attention of His hearers, and emphasizing the important points in the comparison. The parable of the fourfold soil is an example. There is a farmer, a husbandman, such as the people of Galilee were accustomed to see, engaged in sowing his grain, broadcast. It cannot be avoided that some of the seed falls upon the pathway leading through the field, such as were common in Palestine. The result: The grains are trodden under foot; the birds, all manner of birds, pick them up as welcome food. Some of the seeds find lodgment in the stony soil, where the rock was close to the surface, with only a thin covering of earth. The result: The rock holds the heat, there is a quick sprouting and shooting up into the air, but a still quicker scorching by the sun, since the roots have no chance to enter deeply into the ground. Other grains fell among the thorns, where the plow had indeed been used, but had not succeeded in clearing away all the thorn roots. The result: The hardier weeds with their heavy foliage cut off air, light, and moisture from the tender stalks of grain, thus suffocating them. But other seed fell upon good soil, rich, loamy, soft, deep, clean, where it had moisture and sunlight in the right proportion, and could grow up and fulfill the hopes of the husbandman, bringing a rich return for his labor.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 13:3. He spake many things unto them in parables The word , which we translate parable, signifies a comparison or simile; a transferring of the ideas or properties which are in one subject generally familiar and well known, to another less known and understood, in order to heighten and enliven that other the more to the mind. It is a putting of one thing for another, that the matter intended to be taught may not immediately appear from the bare letter, and the case put;but when the key is given may strike more fully and strongly on the mind; for a parable is exactly what we call “putting a case;” when one thing is said and supposed, with a design to teach, illustrate, and enforce, some other. Such are our Saviour’s parables; so that, to understand them, we must look beyond the letter; in such as he has not himself interpreted, we shall find the key either from his general application, or from the connection wherein the parable stands with his miracles or his discourses. And while, carefully attending hereto, we explain the other circumstances agreeably to the subject in hand, and the analogy of faith, there is no doubt but we shall obtain all the profit which was intended to be conveyed to us by this most pleasing, beautiful, and persuasive method of instruction. That parables were very familiar, and much in use among the Eastern nations, and particularly those of Palestine, we learn from the concurrent evidence of all writers on the subject; and, for the most part, as Sir Isaac Newton (on Daniel, p. 148.) observes, “Both Christ, and his forerunner John, as well as the old prophets, were wont in their parabolical discourses to allude to things present, and such as immediately offered themselves.” See the note on ch. Mat 5:1; Mat 5:14. These are some of the reasons why our Saviour spoke in parables: 1st, As a judicial punishment upon those who were hardened against, and ill disposed to the truth; and sometimes as a more lively method to convince and confute them, even from their own mouths: 2nd, As a means to awaken the attention and whet the inquiry of those who were well disposed, and to lead them to a serious examination and diligent searching after the truth, as a method the most natural, beautiful, and instructive, to teach, from common and familiar objects, the most divine and important lessons, and to imprint them on the memory. 3rdly, As a veil to the mysteries of his kingdom, and a method less offensive to convey some very ungrateful and unpalatable truths, such particularly as the rejection of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, &c. 4thly, Asa lesson of man’s natural blindness and ignorance in spiritual matters, unless Christ, by his grace, opens the understanding and enlightens the mind. And all this, 5thly, to fulfil the prophesies concerning him in this respect, as well as to comply with the customs and manners of the nation with whom this method of instruction was familiar.
In this chapter our Lord delivers seven parables, directing the four former, as being of general concern, to all the people; the three latter to his disciples. He began with the parable of the sower, who cast his seed on different soils, which, according to their natures, brought forth either plentifully, or sparingly, or not at all. By this similitude he represented the different kinds of hearers, with the different effects which the doctrines of religion have upon them, according to their different dispositions. In some, these doctrines are suppressed altogether; in others, they produce the fruits of righteousness, more or less, according to the goodness of their hearts, through divine grace. A parable of this kind was highly seasonable, now that the multitude shewed such an itching desire to hear Christ’s sermons, while perhaps they neglected the end for which they ought to have heard them. This parable too was exquisitely proper for an introduction to all the rest, as our Lord answers in it a very obvious and very important question: “The same sower Christ, and the same preachers sent by him, always sow the same seed; why has it not always the same effect?” He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. See Bengelius.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 13:3 f. (Arist. Rhet . ii. 20), , the narrating of an incident which, though imaginary, still falls within the sphere of natural events, with the view of thereby illustrating some truth or other ( , , , Chrysostom). See Unger, de parabolar. Jesu natura, interpretatione, usu, 1828, who gives the following definition: collatio per narratiunculam fictam, sed veri similem, [448] serio illustrans rem sublimiorem . [449] The correct canon for the interpretation of the parables is already to be found in Chrysostom on Mat 20:1 : , , , .
] the sower , whom I have in view. Present participle, used as a substantive. See on Mat 2:20 . A similar parable is given in the Jerusalem Talmud Kilaim I. f. 27.
. ] upon the road (which went round the edge of the field), so that it was not ploughed in or harrowed in along with the rest.
] the rocky parts, i.e . “saxum continuum sub terrae superficie tenui,” Bengel.
[448] To be distinguished from the fable , which, for example, may introduce animals, trees , and such like as speaking and acting. “Fabula est, in qua nec vera nec verisimiles res continentur,” Cic. invent . i. 19. So far as appears from the New Testament, Christ never made use of the fable; as little did the apostles; in the Old Testament, in Jdg 9:8 ff.
[449] Observe, moreover, that the New Testament and may mean something more comprehensive and less definite (including every description of figurative speech, Mar 3:23 ; Mar 4:30 ; Mar 7:17 ; Luk 4:23 ; Luk 5:36 ; Luk 6:39 ; Luk 14:7 ; Mat 15:15 ; Mat 24:32 ) than is implied in the above definition of the parable as a hermeneutical terminus technicus. Comp. the Johannean (note on Joh 10:6 ). John does not use the word parable; but then he does not report any such among the sayings of Jesus, though he has a few allegories; as, for example, those of the vine and the good shepherd.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; (4) And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: (5) Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: (6) And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. (7) And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: (8) But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. (9) Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (10) And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? (11) He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. (12) For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. (13) Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. (14) And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: (15) For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (16) But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. (17) For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. (18) Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. (19) When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. (20) But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; (21) Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. (22) He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. (23) But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Very happily for the Lord’s people, Jesus hath not left this parable of the sower to our interpretation, but hath given it himself, and which therefore supersedes all the labors of his servants. And so plain and clear is our Lord’s explanation of it, that a little child, under grace, may understand it. I detain not the Reader to add to what Jesus hath here said, but only to observe upon it what a beautiful vein of instruction runs through the whole of it. When the Lord Jesus compares himself to a Sower, and the seed he soweth to the Gospel of his kingdom, we enter at once into the blessedness of apprehension concerning the whole purport of salvation. But when Jesus speaks of the devil, under the figure of the fowls of the air, catching away that which was sown in the heart, it should be remembered, that it is the ministry of the word, and not the grace of the Lord Jesus that is thus rendered unprofitable. The heart is sometimes put for the memory; as in the instance of Mary. And she kept all these sayings in her heart; that is, in her memory. Luk 2:51 . So that by the devil’s catching away the word from them that understand it not, (See also what is meant in scripture of the want of understanding. Job 28:28 .) means not that he taketh away what was sown of grace in the heart, for grace implanted by the Lord can never be taken away, but that he causeth the graceless hearers to forget what they heard. In them, as well as all others of the unprofitable hearers, as children not of the kingdom, is fulfilled that striking prophecy of Isaiah, which, from its vast importance, is quoted no less than six times in the New Testament; namely, in this Chapter, (Mat 13:14-15 ; Mar 4:1 ; Luk 8:10 ; Joh 12:40 ; Act 28:26 ; Rom 11:8 . In like manner, concerning the sun arising on the stony-ground hearers, we are not to suppose that our Lord meant the Sun of righteousness, for he ariseth not to scorch, but to warm, and with healing in his wings. But by the sun being up, is meant the sun of persecution, the drying, scorching heat of what the Church complained of, Son 1:6 . the anger of men. The persons here spoken of were never rooted in Christ, and therefore no dews of heaven to water them; and moreover the seed is said not to have fallen into the ground, but upon stony ground. And those men who, from hence, have argued of the possibility of falling from grace, should first have observed, that they never were in grace. It is impossible to lose that we never had. An union with Christ, brings after it a communion in Christ. These stony-ground hearers never had root, and, as such, could not do otherwise than wither away. To the same purport is what is said concerning the seed sown among thorns, It is not supposed that the characters here alluded to, are the openly profane, and such as are inattentive to divine things, but rather such as make much profession. They have received conviction in the head, of the importance of salvation, but from never having felt it in their heart, and no saving grace having passed upon them, this world’s riches are preferred to the riches of eternity, and their hearts, like ground over-run with thorns, and wholly unfruitful. By the good ground, into which the seed is cast, is meant an heart renewed, and made good by sovereign grace, for every man’s heart by nature is evil. And the different product from hence, is also wholly from the same grace, and not man’s improvement. But it is blessed for the soul of that man, whose increase is but of the lowest kind, that all is of the same quality, though not of the same quantity. The drop of dew on the blade of grass, is as truly water as the ocean. And an union with Christ, makes the blessed, the humblest soul, as much as the highest. For it is all of Jesus, and from Jesus, and to Jesus, all the glory.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Ver. 3. And he spake many things to them in parables ] A parable, saith Suidas, is , a setting forth of the matter by way of similitude from something else that differs in kind, and yet in some sort resembleth and illustrateth it. Christ, the prince of preachers, varieth his kind of teaching according to the nature and necessity of his audience, speaking as they could hear, as they could bear, saith St Mark. Ministers, in like sort, must turn themselves, as it were, into all shapes and fashions both of spirit and speech, to win people to God.
Behold, a sower went forth ] Our Saviour stirs them up to attention by a “Behold.” Which, though it might seem not so needful to be said to such as came far, and now looked through him, as it were, for a sermon: yet he, well knowing how dull men are to conceive heavenly mysteries, how weak to remember, hard to believe, and slow to practise, calls for their uttermost attention to his divine doctrine, and gives them a just reason thereof in his ensuing discourse. It fares with the best, while they hear, as with little ones, when they are saying their lesson; if but a bird fly by, they must needs look after it: besides the devil’s malice striving to distract, stupify, or steal away the good seed, that it may come to nothing.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3 9. ] THE SOWER. Mar 4:2-9 . Luk 8:4-8 . See note on the locality in Mat 13:51-52 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
3. ] The senses of this word in the N.T. are various, and may be found in the lexicons. My present concern with it is to explain its meaning as applied to the “ parables ” of our Lord. (1) The Parable is not a Fable , inasmuch as the Fable is concerned only with the maxims of worldly prudence, whereas the Parable conveys spiritual truth. The Fable in its form rejects probability, and teaches through the fancy , introducing speaking animals, or even inanimate things; whereas the Parable adheres to probability, and teaches through the imagination , introducing only things which may possibly happen. , , . Origen, cited by Trench on the Parables, p. 4. (2) Nor is the Parable a Myth: inasmuch as in Mythology the course of the story is set before us as the truth , and simple minds receive it as the truth, only the reflective mind penetrating to the distinction between the Vehicle and the thing conveyed; whereas in the Parable these two stand distinct from one another to all minds, so that none but the very simplest would ever believe in the Parable as fact. (3) Nor is the Parable a Proverb: though is used for both in the N.T. (Luk 4:23 ; Luk 5:36 ; Mat 15:14-15 ), and in John for a Parable (Joh 10:6 ; Joh 16:25 ; Joh 16:29 ). It is indeed more like a Proverb than either of the former; being an expanded Proverb, and a Proverb a concentrated Parable, or Fable, or result of human experience expressed without a figure. Hence it will be seen that the Proverb ranges far wider than the Parable, which is an expansion of only one particular case of a Proverb. Thus ‘ Physician heal thyself ’ would, if expanded, make a parable; ‘ ne sus Minervam ,’ a fable; ‘ honesty is the best policy ,’ neither of these. (4) Nor is the Parable an Allegory: inasmuch as in the Allegory the imaginary persons and actions are placed in the very places and footsteps of the real ones, and stand there instead of them, declaring all the time by their names or actions who and what they are. Thus the Allegory is self-interpreting, and the persons in it are invested with the attributes of those represented; whereas in the Parable the courses of action related and understood run indeed parallel, but the persons are strictly confined to their own natural places and actions, which are, in their relation and succession, typical of higher things. (5) It may well hence be surmised what a Parable is . It is a serious narration, within the limits of probability, of a course of action pointing to some moral or spiritual Truth (‘Collatio per narratiunculam fictam, sed veri similem, serio illustrans rem sublimiorem.’ Unger, de Parabolis Jesu (Meyer)); and derives its force from real analogies impressed by the Creator of all things on His creatures. The great Teacher by parables therefore is He who needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man, Joh 2:25 ; moreover, He made man, and orders the course and character of human events. And this is the reason why none can, or dare, teach by parables, except Christ. We do not, as He did, see the inner springs out of which flow those laws of eternal truth and justice, which the Parable is framed to elucidate. Our parables would be in danger of perverting, instead of guiding aright. The Parable is especially adapted to different classes of hearers at once: it is understood by each according to his measure of understanding. See note on Mat 13:12 .
The seven parables related in this chapter cannot be regarded as a collection made by the Evangelist as relating to one subject, the Kingdom of Heaven and its development; they are clearly indicated by Mat 13:53 to have been all spoken on one and the same occasion , and form indeed a complete and glorious whole in their inner and deeper sense. The first four of these parables appear to have been spoken to the multitude from the ship (the interpretation of the parable of the sower being interposed); the last three, to the disciples in the house .
From the expression in [126] Mk. compared with the question of the disciples in Mat 13:10 , and with Mat 13:34 , it appears that this was the first beginning of our Lord’s teaching by parables , expressly so delivered, and properly so called. And the natural sequence of things here agrees with, and confirms Matthew’s arrangement against those who would place (as Ebrard) all this chapter before the Sermon on the Mount. He there spoke without parables , or mainly so; and continued to do so till the rejection and misunderstanding of his teaching led to His judicially adopting the course here indicated, . . The other order would be inconceivable: that after such parabolic teaching, and such a reason assigned for it, the Lord should, that reason remaining in full force, have deserted his parabolic teaching, and opened out his meaning as plainly as in the Sermon on the Mount.
[126] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
3. ] For the explanation of the parable see on Mat 13:19-23 . ., generic , singular of a sower; he that soweth.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 13:3-9 . The Parable .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 13:3 : this method of teaching was not peculiar to Jesus it was common among Easterns but His use of it was unique in felicity and in the importance of the lessons conveyed. bstract a priori definitions of the word serve little purpose; we learn best what a parable is, in the mouth of Jesus, by studying the parables He spoke. Thence we gather that to speak in parables means to use the familiar in nature or in human life (in the form of a narrative or otherwise) to embody unfamiliar truths of the spiritual world.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 13:3 . : either generic, or the Sower of my story. : the infinitive of purpose with the genitive of article, very frequent in N. T. and in late Greek.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 13:3-9
3And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9He who has ears, let him hear.”
Mat 13:3 “the sower went out to sow” This parable (Mat 13:3-9) is extremely important because Jesus Himself gave interprets it. The seed, the sower, the soils, and the harvest are all significant in Jesus’ interpretation of the parable (Mat 13:18-23).
It is somewhat allegorical or at least typological. Allegory seeks a hidden, deeper level of meaning in a text. It imports meaning into the text that has no relation at all to the intended meaning of the original author or his day or even the thrust of Scripture as a whole. Typology, on the other hand, seeks to focus on the unity of the Bible, based on one divine Author and one divine Plan. Similarities in the OT pre-figure NT truths. These similarities rise naturally out of a reading of the entire Bible (cf. Rom 15:4; 1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11).
Mat 13:4-7 “the road. . .the rocky places. . .thorns” Usually the village farmers worked together and plowed the entire field around their homes. In this field were footpaths, some shallow ground and some places where thorn bushes had established themselves. All of the field had been plowed. The sowers scattered the seed indiscriminately in this large plowed field.
Mat 13:8 “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” The plants bearing of fruit, not the precise amount, is the focal point. We must be careful not to identify germination with salvation! Joh 8:31 says “those Jews who had believed Him,” yet later in the context it is obvious they are not saved (i.e., Joh 8:59). The Bible differentiates between an initial emotional response and a life changing permanent discipleship. In this parable germination referred to the first, and fruit-bearing to the second.
Mat 13:9 See note at Mat 11:15.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
many things. Some of these parables were repeated (and varied) on other occasions. There are no “discrepancies”.
in = by. Greek. en. App-104.
parables. Here, eight (not “seven” as sometimes alleged) are selected for the special purpose of the Holy Spirit in this Gospel. See App-96and App-145.
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
a sower = the sower. As these eight parables relate to “the Kingdom of the Heavens” (App-114), the sowing must relate to the proclamation of it (Mat 13:19): (1) by John, “the wayside”, Mat 3:2, Mat 3:5, Mat 3:6; (2) by Christ, the Twelve, and the Seventy, “the stony ground”, Mat 4:12, Mat 4:26, Mat 4:35; (3) by the Twelve in the land, and Paul in the synagogues of the Dispersion (the Acts); (4) still future (Mat 24:14) and on “good”, because prepared ground. See App-140., and 145.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3-9.] THE SOWER. Mar 4:2-9. Luk 8:4-8. See note on the locality in Mat 13:51-52.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 13:3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
He had much instruction to give, and he chose to convey it in parables. What wonderful pictures they were! What a world of meaning they have for us, as well as for those who heard them! This parable of the sower is a mine of teaching concerning the kingdom; for the seed was the word of the kingdom. (See verse 19.) Behold: every word is worthy of attention. May be, the preacher pointed to a farmer on the shore, who was beginning to sow one of the terraces. A sower, read The Sower. Jesus, our Lord, has taken up this business of the Sower at his Fathers bidding. The sower went forth. See him leaving the Fathers house, with this one design upon his heart to sow.
Mat 13:4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
When HE sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside: even when the Chief Sower is at work, some seed fails. We know he sows the best of seed, and in the best manner; but some of it falls on the trodden path, and so lies uncovered and unaccepted of the soil. That soil was hard, and beaten down with traffic. There, too, on the wayside, we meet with dust to blind, settlements of mud to foul, and birds to pilfer: it is not a good place for good seed. No wonder, as the seeds lay all exposed, that the fowls came and devoured them up. If truth does not enter the heart, evil influences soon remove it.
Mat 13:5-6. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
Among the rocks, or on the shallow soil, with the unbroken rock-pan underneath, the seed fell; for if the sower had altogether avoided such places he might have missed some of the good ground. In these stony places the seed speedily sprang up, because the rock gave it all the heat that fell on it, and so hastened its germination. But, soon up, soon down. When the time came for the sun to put forth his force, the rootless plants instantly pined and died. They had no deepness of earth, and no root; what could they do but wither quite away? Everything was hurried with them; the seeds had no time to root themselves, and so in hot haste the speedy growth met with speedy death. No trace remained.
Mat 13:7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
The ground was originally a thorn-brake, and had been cleared by the thorns being cut down; but speedily the old roots sent out new shoots, and other weeds came up with them; and the tangled beds of thistles, thorns, nettles, and what not, strangled the feeble up-shootings of the wheat. The native plants choked the poor stranger. They would not permit the intrusive corn to share the field with them: evil claims a monopoly of our nature. Thus we have seen three sets of seed come to an untimely end.
Mat 13:8. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.
This would repay all losses, especially at the highest rate of increase here quoted. To the bird, the weather, and the weeds, three sets of seeds have gone; yet, happily, one remains to increase and fill the barn. The sowing of good seed can never be a total failure: other fell into good ground. The harvest was not equally great on every spot of fertile soil: it varied from an hundredfold to thirtyfold. All good ground is not alike good; and, besides, the situation may differ. Harvests are not all alike in the same farm, in the same season, and under the same farmer; and yet each field may yield a fairly good harvest. Lord, if I cannot reach to a hundredfold, let me at least prove to be good ground by bearing thirtyfold.
Mat 13:18. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Because you see behind the curtain, and have grace given to discern the inner meaning through the outer metaphor, come and hear the explanation of the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
The gospel is the word of the kingdom: it has royal authority in it; it proclaims and reveals King Jesus, and it leads men to obedience to his way. To hear but not to understand, is to leave the good seed on the outside of your nature, and not to take it into yourself. Nothing can come of such hearing to anyone. Satan is always on the watch to hinder the Word: Then cometh the wicked one, even at the moment when the seed fell. He is always afraid to leave the truth even in hard and dry contact with a mind, and so he catcheth it away at once, and it is forgotten, or even disbelieved. It is gone, at any rate; and we have not in our hearers mind a corn-field, but a highway, hard, and much frequented. The man was not an opposer, he received seed; but he received the truth as he was, without the soil of his nature being changed; and the seed remained as it was, till the foul bird of hell took it off the place, and there was an end of it. So far as the truth was sown in his heart, it was in his natural, unrenewed heart, and therefore it took no living hold. How many such hearers we have! To these we preach in vain; for what they learn they unlearn, and what they receive they reject almost as soon as it comes to them. Lord, suffer none of us to be impervious to thy royal word; but whenever the smallest seed of truth falls on us, may we open our soul to it!
Mat 13:20-21. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for awhile: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Here the seed was the same and the sower the same, but the result somewhat different. In this case there was earth enough to cover the seed, and heat enough to make it grow quickly. The convert was attentive, and easily persuaded; he seemed glad to accept the gospel at once, he was even eager and enthusiastic, joyful and demonstrative. He heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Surely this looked very promising! But the soft was essentially evil, hard, barren, superficial. The man had no living entrance into the mystery of the gospel, no root in himself, no principle, no hold of the truth with a renewed heart; and so he flourished hurriedly and showily for a season, and only for a season. It is tersely put, He dureth for a while. That while may be longer or shorter according to circumstances. When matters grow hot with Christians, either through affliction from the Lord, or persecution from the world, the temporary believer is so sapless, so rootless, so deficient in moisture of grace, that he dries up, and his profession withers. Thus, again, the sowers hopes are disappointed, and his labour is lost. Till stony hearts are changed it must always be so. We meet with many who are soon hot and as soon cold. They receive the gospel anon, and leave it by-and-by Everything is on the surface, and therefore is hasty and unreal. May we all have broken hearts and prepared minds, that when truth comes to us it may take root in us and abide.
Mat 13:22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
This class of hearers we know by personal acquaintance in this busy age. They hear the word, they are affected by the gospel, they take it as seed into their minds, and it grows well for a season; but the heart cannot belong to two absorbing objects at the same time, and therefore these men cannot long yield themselves up to the world and Christ too. Care to get money, covetousness, trickery, and sins which come from hasting to be rich, or else pride, luxury, oppression, and other sins which come of having obtained wealth, prevent the man from being useful in religious matters, or even sincere to himself: He becometh unfruitful. He keeps his profession; he occupies his place; but his religion does not grow; in fact, it shows sad signs of being choked and checked by worldliness. The leaf of outward religiousness is there, but there is no dew on it; the ear of promised fruit is there, but there are no kernels in it. The weeds have outgrown the wheat, and smothered it. We cannot grow thorn and corn at the same time: the attempt is fatal to a harvest for Jesus. See how wealth is here associated with care, deceitfulness, and unfruitfulness. It is a thing to be handled with care. Why are men so eager to make their thorn-brake more dense with briars? Would not a good husbandman root out the thorns and brambles? Should we not, as much as possible, keep free from the care to get, to preserve, to increase, and to hoard worldly riches? Our heavenly Father will see that we have enough; why do we fret about earthly things? We cannot give our minds to these things and to the kingdom also.
Mat 13:23. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Here is the story of the Words success. This fourth piece of land will repay all charges. Of course, no one parable teaches all truth, and therefore we have no mention here of the plowing which always precedes a fruitful harvest. No heart of man is good by nature: the good Lord had made this plot into good ground. In this case, both thought and heart are engaged about the heavenly message, and the man heareth the word, and understandeth it. By being understood lovingly, the truth gets into the man, and then it roots, it grows, it fruits, it rewards the sower. We must aim at the inward apprehension and comprehension of the Word of God; for only in this way can we be made fruitful by it. Be it ours to aim to be amongst those who would bear fruit an hundredfold! Ah, we would give our Lord ten thousandfold if we could. For every sermon we hear we should endeavor to do a hundred gracious, charitable, or self-denying acts. Our divine Sower, with such heavenly seed, deserves to be rewarded with a glorious harvest.
This exposition consisted of readings from Mat 9:35-38; Mat 10:1; Mat 13:3-8; Matthew , 18-23.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Mat 13:3. , in parables) The Evangelist here indicates a remarkable period of Christs teaching to the people in Galilee, as to the chief priests and elders of the people in Jerusalem. See Mar 12:1,- , He BEGAN to speak to them in parables.[597] Parables are frequent in the East: but our Lord had previously taught much, in both places, without parables. The parables in the present passage are seven: four addressed to the people, in Mat 13:3; Mat 13:24; Mat 13:31; Mat 13:33; and three to the disciples, in Mat 13:44-45; Mat 13:47.[598] The first four and the last three form severally two groups, which are, respectively, intimately connected together. The former are connected by the formula, another parable; the latter, by the formula, Again the kingdom of heaven is like And since the seventh refers more than any of the others to the end of the world, which the first does not refer to at all, but applies the prophecy of Isaiah to the people at the time of our Lords teaching,-these seven parables have a most recondite meaning (see Mat 13:35), applying especially to distinct periods of the Churchs history and condition, besides the common and universal principles which they teach concerning the course and administration of the kingdom of heaven: and this in such a manner, that each begins successively to be fulfilled after that which preceded it, though no preceding one concludes before the beginning of that which follows. The first and second, and only these two, were explained to the apostles. In the first, before the explanation-in the second, after it-occurs the formula, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. The first, indeed, was fulfilled, as we have already observed, in the first age-namely, that of our Lords ministry; the second, in that of His apostles, and thenceforward, for then men began to sleep (see Mat 13:25); the third and fourth denote the propagation of the kingdom of God among princes and the whole human race; the fifth describes the darker condition of the Church; the sixth, the state of the kingdom of God when esteemed above all things; the seventh, the condition of the Church in the last days, greatly mixed. It may be asked, whether these seven parables extend through the whole period of the New Testament dispensation in such a manner that the three latter begin from the goal of the four former; or whether those four extend from the beginning to the end, and also these three? On the settlement of these questions depends a more accurate distribution, which I leave to be decided by the wise, [merely subjoining the following sketch]:-
[597] Compare Mat 21:23. [Qy. 28].-E. B.
[598] The parable concerning the four different kinds of soil the Saviour explained to His disciples, at their request, before that He returned to the house-all other witnesses, however, being out of the way-whether His explanation was given on the sea or on land, Mat 13:10; with which comp. Mar 4:10. Then next He set forth the rest of the parables before the multitude, Mar 4:33; and, returning to the house, He cleared up also the parable of the tares for the disciples, who begged Him to do so, Mat 13:36; with which comp. Mar 4:34. After the setting forth of these parables, of which several are derived from the tillage of land, within the lapse of a few days the barley harvest began. In like manner the parable of the net (Mat 13:47) cast into the sea, was put forth close by the sea.-Harm., p. 322.
1. The time of the apostles, Mat 13:16
2. After the decease of the apostles, Mat 13:25
3. Constantine, Mat 13:32
4. Nine centuries under the trumpet of the seventh angel, Mat 13:33
5. The kingdom of the Beast, and the Reformation, Mat 13:44
6. The kingdom of God esteemed above all things, Satan being bound, Mat 13:46
7. The last confusion, Mat 13:47
.-He that soweth) in the present tense; i.e. Christ.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
The seven parables of Matthew 13, called by our Lord, “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 13:11), taken together, describe the result of the presence of the Gospel in the world during the present age, that is, the time of seed sowing which began with our Lord’s personal ministry, and ends with the “harvest” Mat 13:40-43. Briefly, the result is mingled tares and wheat, good fish and bad, in the sphere of Christian profession. It is Christendom.
sower
The figure marks a new beginning. To labour in God’s vineyard Israel, Isa 5:1-7 is one thing, to go forth sowing the seed of the word in a field which is the world, quite another (cf) Mat 10:5. One fourth of the seed takes permanent root, but the result is “wheat”; Mat 13:25; 1Pe 1:23 or “children of the kingdom” Mat 13:38. This parable Mat 13:3-9; Mat 13:18-23 is treated throughout as foundational to the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. It is interpreted by our Lord Himself.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
in: Mat 13:10-13, Mat 13:34, Mat 13:35, Mat 13:53, Mat 22:1, Mat 24:32, Jdg 9:8-20, 2Sa 12:1-7, Psa 49:4, Psa 78:2, Isa 5:1-7, Eze 17:2, Eze 20:49, Eze 24:3-14, Mic 2:4, Hab 2:6, Mar 3:23, Mar 4:2, Mar 4:13, Mar 4:33, Mar 12:1, Mar 12:12, Luk 8:10, Luk 12:41, Luk 15:3-7, Joh 16:25, *marg.
parables: A parable, [Strong’s G3850], from [Strong’s G3844], near, and [Strong’s G906], I cast, or put, has been justly defined to be a comparison or similitude, in which one thing is compared with another, especially spiritual things with natural, by which means those spiritual things are better understood, and make a deeper impression on a honest and attentive mind. In a parable, a resemblance in the principal incidents is all that is required; smaller matters being considered as a sort of drapery. Maimonides, in Moreh Nevochim, gives an excellent rule on this head: “Fix it as a principle to attach yourself to the grand object of the parable, without attempting to make a particular application of all the circumstances and terms which it comprehends.”
a sower: Mar 4:2-9, Luk 8:5-8
Reciprocal: Isa 61:11 – as the earth Mar 4:26 – as 1Co 3:9 – ye are God’s
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SOWERS OF SEED
A sower went forth to sow.
Mat 13:3
The parables, of which the text is one, do not seem to have been suggested by any immediate wants of Christs hearers: the difficulties with which they deal are such as were not likely to be felt by converts in the first enthusiasm of hope. The lessons taught were meant to remove the stumbling-block which the seeming imperfection of His success might place in the path of future disciples.
I. Take heed how ye hear.To our Lords hearers the one great practical lesson taught by the parable was, Take heed how ye hear. The same seed was cast upon every heart in that crowd. Nothing was wanting to its excellencethe difference was in the soil on which it fell.
II. Take heed how ye speak.But there is another lesson now that the seed is sown not by the lips of the Son of God, but by frail and erring men! Must we not say, Take heed how ye speak? We are all sowers, and the chance word of a youth to his friend, or of a child to his parent, may be the seed whence good fruit springs which shall endure to eternity. But, alas! it is not only good seed which is thus sown.
III. Sowers of the Divine seed.There are some lessons for those who own it to be their duty to help in sowing the Divine seed in the world.
(a) There is the lesson of responsibility: the duty of taking heed what seeds we sow.
(b) There is the lesson of humility taught to those who have done any successful work for God. Paul had planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who had given the increase.
(c) There is also encouragement to the despondent. The seeds growth is not affected by any weakness in the planter.
Professor Salmon.
Illustration
Is there anything on the spot to suggest the images thus conveyed? So I asked as I rode along the track under the hillside, by which the Plain of Gennesareth is approached, seeing nothing but the steep sides of the hill, alternately of rock and grass. And when I thought of the parable of the Sower, I answered, that here at least there was nothing on which the Divine teaching could fasten: it must have been the distant cornfields of Samaria or Esdraelon on which His mind was dwelling. The thought had hardly occurred to me, when a slight recess in the hillside, close upon the Plain, disclosed at once in detail, with a conjunction which I remember nowhere else in Palestine, every feature of the great parable. There was the undulating cornfield descending to the waters edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it, or upon it; itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and human feet. There was the good rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of that Plain and its neighbourhood from the bare hills elsewhere descending into the Lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky ground of the hillside, protruding here and there through the cornfields, as elsewhere, through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thornthe Nabk, that kind of which tradition says that the Crown of Thorns was wovenspringing up like the fruit trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE SEED AND THE SOIL
As the sower sowed the seed, some fell:
I. By the wayside.This was the path across or by the side of the field. Here the birds devoured it. Satan is that bird of prey which follows Gods seedsmen and steals the precious seed. There is a solemn petition in the Litany, From hardness of heart, good Lord, deliver us.
II. On stony places.Here was no depth of soil. This is the picture of a man who receives the word with joy. But he cannot bear the sneers of his clever friends, or the laugh of the worldly. The hot sun of persecution kills the sickly seed.
III. Among thorns.There are two great thorns which choke the Word. In the case of the poor it is care. In the case of the rich it is money and pleasure.
IV. On good ground.No ground is good by nature. No heart is good until the Holy Spirit has made it good. Good ground, therefore, means ground prepared by God. He mercifully did so in the case of Lydia (Act 16:14).
V. Scatter this seed.Above all things, we shall desire to scatter this precious seed far and wide.
(a) Think of the peace it imparts! (Psa 119:165; St. Joh 16:33).
(b) Think of the joy it bestows! (Psa 119:162; Jer 15:16).
(c) Think of the light it communicates! (Psa 119:130; 2Co 4:6).
(d) Think of the hope it inspires! (Rom 15:4).
The Rev. F. Harper.
Illustration
Robert Burns, Scotlands national poet, once had deep conviction of sin. He consulted a minister, and the unfaithful steward laughed his fears to scorn, and bade him dance them away at balls, and drown them in wine. Alas! in Burns case, the thorn of pleasure choked the good seed.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
HINDRANCES TO GROWTH
There is no doubt about the meaning of this parable. In every heart there is all the capability of service. It is not only the great saints of God who have this capability, but all of us. There are three hindrances:
I. The hindrance of sin.There is an exhaustive catalogue of the things that keep people from God. Not one when asked to answer for all his innumerable opportunities will be able to make this excuse, I could not. Capability is there; the footprint plain, good soil just here and there printed by the marks of evil. Oh, how bitterly lamented the first great sin! And those that came after? The path is no longer separate footprints, but it is a path now trodden down. Only one thing will servethe ploughshare.
II. The hindrance of levity.One sees the shallow heart, the heart of sheer levity, in which the seriousness of repentance and the difficulty of right, and the power of the enemy have never been believed in for a moment. After a very little while the condition into which it gets is that which is described in the United States of America, where emotional revivals have raged and gone on until all power of emotion has been lost, as the burnt districts, the burnt heart which blazes away in one little flare all its power of emotion, which has nothing left behind. If the ploughshare was the cure for the hard footpath, sometimes one is tempted to ask what is there for hope for the heart which sheer levity has used up?
III. The hindrance of pre-occupation.After sin shallowness, after shallowness pre-occupation. What was it that choked that soil? Does our Lord say poisonous weeds? No. What is a weed? A weed is simply something growing in the wrong place. An ear of wheat is a weed in your garden, and a rose is a weed in your field. So the very things planted round the outskirts of the heart, the daily occupations, the business honestly and earnestly pursued, the family cares taken on as just the one thing in which you are called to serve God, the amusements which recreated the weary brain and braced the shattered nervethose very things which were Gods protection round the heart, where the central place was to be reserved for bearing fruit to Himself, those may grow up in the middle of the fruitful soil, keeping out the knowledge of the love of God.
Each heart here is capable of bringing forth that fruit for Him provided only that the sin which has hardened the soil be done away, and the hardness ploughed up by penitence; provided only that the shallowness which made things seem easy give way to the seriousness which faces and overcomes the difficulty; provided only that pre-occupation is turned into care for the things of this world in God and for God.
Bishop Mylne.
Illustration
We have several Scripture examples of the four characters. Pharaoh and Festus may be named as wayside hearers. King Saul, Herod Antipas, the Galatians (Gal 5:7), some of the disciples in Galilee (Joh 6:66), proved to be like the stony ground; Balaam, Judas, and Ananias, like the thorny ground. The young ruler, Simon Magus, and Demas, combine some of the features of the two latter classes; Felix combines those of the first and second. Peter was in danger of being one of the second class; Lot and Martha of belonging to the third. Of the good soil, Nathanael and Lydia are striking instances.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
13:3
The literal meaning of the original for parable is, “A placing of one thing by the side of another.”–Thayer. As to the results of such a placing, or the reason or reasons why it is done, that has to be determined by the context in each case. (See the comments at verse 11.) Caution should be observed in the study of the parables not to make them mean more than was intended. Jesus spoke about thirty parables all pertaining to the plan of salvation that he intended to set up among men. Surely that many would not have been necessary just for the sake of emphasis. The conclusion is that different parts of that plan were considered in the various parables. No one illustration could be large enough to cover all the phases of the one plan of salvation that was to be given to the world. As a result of the above truths, there may be some features of one parable that do not fit in with the Gospel plan at all. That is because the whole story had to be told in order to make it understood at the point where it does apply. Then another parable will be given that will cover the points in its application where the other one seemed not to be fitting. The parables of our Lord were drawn both from nature and art, and from the customs of man in the conduct of his public and private affairs in all of life’s relations.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow.
[In parables.] I. No figure of Jewish rhetoric was more familiarly used than that of parables; which perhaps, creeping in from thence, among the heathen ended in fables. It is said, in the place of the Talmud just now cited, From the time that R. Meir died, those that spake in parables ceased; not that that figure of rhetoric perished in the nation from that time, but because he surpassed all others in these flowers; as the Gloss there from the tract Sanhedrim speaks; A third part [of his discourses or sermons] was tradition, a third part allegory, and a third part parable. The Jewish books abound everywhere with these figures, the nation inclining by a kind of natural genius to this kind of rhetoric. One might not amiss call their religion Parabolical; folded up within the coverings of ceremonies; and their oratory in their sermons was like to it. But it is a wonder indeed, that they who were so given to and delighted in parables; and so dextrous in unfolding them, should stick in the outward shell of ceremonies, and should not have fetched out the parabolical and spiritual sense of them; neither should he be able to fetch them out.
II. Our Saviour (who always and everywhere spake with the vulgar) useth the same kind of speech, and very often the same preface, as they did in their parables. To what is it likened; etc. But in him, thus speaking, one may both acknowledge the Divine justice, who speaks darkly to them that despise the light; and his Divine wisdom likewise, who so speaks to them that see, and yet see not, that they may see the shell and not see the kernel.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 13:3. Many things. Out of the many, Matthew selects these parables; for this selection we seek a reason (see note on the whole discourse).
Behold, calling attention to what follows, not to some object in sight, which would have distracted attention from the parable.
The sower, standing for the class; went forth, i.e., as usual, pointing rather to a supposed case, than to something occurring before their eyes.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 13:3. And he spake many things unto them Delivered many doctrines of the highest importance, wisely making choice of such for the subject of his sermons, when he had the greatest number of hearers, because on those occasions there was a probability of doing the most good by them. In parables The word parable sometimes signifies a sublime discourse, elevated beyond the common forms of speech, as Num 23:7; Num 24:15; Job 27:1; Job 29:1, where see the notes: sometimes a mere proverb, or adage, such as those mentioned Luk 4:23, Physician, heal thyself; and Luk 6:39, Can the blind lead the blind? in both which places the word , parable, is used in the original, and in the former place is rendered proverb in our translation. Sometimes the word means an apologue, or fable, as Eze 17:2, where also see the note. But here, and generally in the gospels, the word is to be understood, according to its Greek etymology, as signifying a similitude or comparison, namely, taken from the ordinary affairs of men, and used to illustrate the things of God. As this is the first time the term occurs in this history, and as we shall frequently meet with it hereafter, it may not be improper to make the following general observations, applicable, more or less, to all our Lords parables. 1st. It is not necessary to a parable that the matter contained, or things related in it, should be true in fact. For parables are not spoken to inform us in matters of fact, but in some spiritual truths, to which they bear some proportion. This we see in Jothams parable of the trees going to choose themselves a king, Jdg 9:7 to Jdg 15:2 d. It is not necessary that all the actions of men, mentioned in a parable, should be morally just and good. The actions of the unjust steward, Luk 16:1-8, were not Song of Solomon 3 dly. For the right understanding of a parable, our great care must be to attend to the main scope of it; or to what our Lord had chiefly in view, and designed to teach by it. 4th. This may be learned, either from his general or more particular explication of it; or from what hath been termed the pro-parabola, or preface to the parable; or the epi-parabola, or conclusion of it. 5th. It is not to be expected that all the particular actions or things represented in a parable, should be answered by something in the explication. Lastly, Though the scope of the parable be the main thing we are to attend to, yet it may collaterally inform us in several other things also. This way of teaching, extremely common in the eastern countries, and much used by our Lord, was particularly calculated to draw and fix the attention of mankind; to excite the inquiry of such as were well disposed, and to lead them to a serious examination and diligent searching after the truth veiled under such emblems; to teach, in a manner the most natural, beautiful, and instructive, by common and familiar objects, the most divine and important doctrines, and give clearer ideas of them than could have been otherwise attained; to cause divine truths to make a more deep and lasting impression on mens minds, and to be better remembered. Our Lords parables were particularly adapted to produce this last-mentioned effect, being generally taken from those objects about which his hearers were daily employed, or which daily came under their observation. Add to this, he taught by parables, that he might convey in a manner the least offensive some very ungrateful and unpalatable truths, such as the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles. It must be observed, also, as we learn from Mat 13:11-15, that, by an awful mixture of justice and mercy, our Lord intended hereby to throw a veil over some of the mysteries of his kingdom, and to conceal from the proud and careless those truths which, if they understood, he foresaw they would only abuse to their greater condemnation.
In this chapter our Lord delivers seven parables, directing the four former, as being of general concern, to all the people; the three latter, to his disciples. He begins with the parable of a sower who cast his seed on four different kinds of ground, only one of which brought forth fruit, not because of any difference in the seed wherewith the others were sown, or any defect in the cultivation of them, but because of other reasons specified in the parable. And these were designed to represent four classes of hearers of the word of God, only one of which bears fruit to his glory; not because a different doctrine is declared to the others, or less labour bestowed upon them, but because of the hinderances of fruitfulness spoken of in the explanation of the parable. How exquisitely proper was this parable to be an introduction to all the rest! inasmuch as in it our Lord shows us why, when the same sower, he himself, or any messenger of his, always sows the same seed, it does not always produce the same effect.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2. Parables addressed to the multitudes 13:3b-33
Jesus spoke four parables to the multitudes and provided some instruction about how to interpret them to His disciples.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The parable of the soils 13:3b-9 (cf. Mar 4:3-9; Luk 8:5-8)
The first parable is an introduction to those that follow, and the last one is a conclusion and application of the whole series. [Note: Stanley D. Toussaint, "The Introductory and Concluding Parables of Matthew Thirteen," Bibliotheca Sacra 121:484 (October-December 1964):351-55.]
"Modern interpretation of the parable has increasingly recognized this implication of the literary form of this particular parable, over against the dogmatic assertion of earlier NT scholarship, following Adolf Jülicher, that a parable has only a single point and that all the rest is mere narrative scenery, which must not be ’allegorized’ to determine what each detail means. In this cast the way the story is constructed demands that the detail be noticed, and to interpret those details individually is not arbitrary ’allegorization’ but a responsible recognition of the way Jesus constructed the story." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 503.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The focus in the first parable is on the soils rather than on the sower. Some seeds fell beside the path that was hard from traffic (Mat 13:4). They lay on the surface where birds saw them and devoured them before they could germinate. Other seeds fell where the topsoil was thin (Mat 13:5-6). Their roots could not penetrate the limestone underneath to obtain necessary moisture from the subsoil. When the hot weather set in, the seeds germinated quickly but did not have the necessary resources to sustain continued growth. Consequently they died. A third group of seeds fell among the thorns that grew along the edges of the field (Mat 13:7). These thorn bushes robbed the young plants of light and nourishment, so they died too.
"The figure marks a new beginning. To labor in God’s vineyard (Israel, Isa 5:1-7) is one thing; to go forth sowing the seed of the Word in a field which is the world, quite another (cp. Mat 10:5)." [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 1013.]