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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
13:1-53 Mysteries of the Messianic Kingdom Revealed in Parables. This is the third of Jesus' five major discourses (see Introduction: Key Themes; Literary Features), called the Parabolic Discourse because of its collection of parables.
13:1-23 The Opening of the Parabolic Discourse. Jesus gives the parable of the sower and soils (vv. 3b-9), explains his purpose in speaking in parables (vv. 10-17), then interprets the parable (vv. 18-23).
13:1-2 sat beside the sea. The Sea of Galilee. Sitting was the typical posture for teachers. Local tradition locates this discourse at the "Cove of the Parables," a natural horseshoe-shaped amphitheater whose environmental acoustics could have carried Jesus' voice over
13:3 Parables are Jesus' means of communicating truth through a narrative analogy in order to teach a moral or spiritual lesson. His parables produce very different results in different people: they hide truth from the "crowd" (v. 2; see note on 5:2), while they communicate truth to the disciples.
13:4-7 seeds fell along the path. As seed was scattered in all directions while the farmer walked up and down the field, some would fall accidentally on the hard paths that surrounded the field. rocky ground. The terrain in Palestine was uneven and rocky, covered by a thin layer of soil. among thorns. Competing for nutrients from the soil, weeds choke out the good plants, which are then unable to reach maturity and bear fruit.
13:8 hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Typical agricultural yields ranged from about fivefold to fifteenfold, with a tenfold return considered a good crop, though some historical reports tell of extraordinary yields up to a hundredfold (one is in Gen. 26:12).
13:10-11 secrets (plural of Gk. mystērion, "mystery, secret"). The mysteries of how the kingdom of heaven would operate are revealed to the disciples but withheld from the spiritually unresponsive crowd. In particular, these secrets of the kingdom of heaven explained its partial and preliminary manifestations in Jesus' day as it was breaking into the world in advance of its full and final appearing at the end of the age.
13:12-13 seeing they do not see. God sovereignly uses the parables to either harden a person's heart so that he or she will be unable to respond (v. 15), or to elicit the positive response of coming to Jesus, asking for an explanation, and accepting his message (cf. v. 10).
13:18 Hear then the parable of the sower. Jesus explains the parable in response to the disciples' receptive hearts that lead them to ask him for clarification (cf. v. 10). (For additional notes on the parable of the sower, see Luke 8:11-15.)
13:19 The seed in the parable (vv. 3-9) represents the word of the kingdom (i.e., "the gospel of the kingdom," cf. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14). All of Jesus' "seeds" are good, so the emphasis is on the various types of soil (13:19-23). The evil one is Satan, the devil (see note on 4:1). sown along the path. Hearts that are hardened, like the scribes and Pharisees.
13:20-23 Sown on rocky ground depicts a heart that is immediately receptive, but hardened, so that the gospel never takes root and thus fails to bear fruit. The seed sown among thorns likewise is unfruitful, choked out by a heart weighed down with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. The good soil depicts the heart that has been prepared to receive the gospel, yielding an abundant harvest according to individual potential.
