XIII. (1, 2) THE SAME DAY... OUT OF THE HOUSE. — In St. Mark the parable of the Sower follows the appearance of the mother and the brethren, as in St. Matthew, but in St. Luke (Luke 8:4; Luke 8:19) the order is inverted. In this case the order of the first Gospel seems preferable, as giving a more... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SPAKE MANY THINGS UNTO THEM IN PARABLES. — This is the first occurrence of the word in St. Matthew’s Gospel, and it is clear from the question of the disciples in Matthew 13:10 that it was in some sense a new form of teaching to them. There had been illustrations and similitudes before, as in tha... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WAY SIDE — _i.e.,_ on the skirts of the broad path that crossed the field. Here the surface was hard and smooth, the grain lay on the surface, the pigeons and other birds that followed the sower reaped an immediate harvest.... [ Continue Reading ]
STONY PLACES. — Either ground in which stones and pebbles were mingled with the soil, or, more probably, where a thin stratum of earth covered the solid rock. Here, of course, growth was rapid through the very circumstance which was afterwards fatal.... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THEY HAD NO ROOT. — Or, as in Luke 8:6, “because they lacked moisture.” The growth had been over-rapid, and the presence of the underlying rock at once made the heat more intense, and deprived the plant of the conditions of resistance.... [ Continue Reading ]
AMONG THORNS. — Literally, _the thorns,_ so familiar to the husbandman. These were not visible at the time of sowing. The ground had been so far cleared, but the roots were left below the surface, and their growth and that of the grain went on simultaneously, and ended in the survival, not of the fi... [ Continue Reading ]
INTO GOOD GROUND. — Here also the Greek has the definite article, “_the_ good ground.” The different results imply that even here there were different degrees of fertility. The hundredfold return was, perhaps, a somewhat uncommon increase, but the narrative of Isaac’s tillage in Genesis 26:12 shows... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR. — The formula had been used, as we have seen before (comp. Note on Matthew 11:15). It was probably familiar in the schools of the Rabbis, when they were testing the ingenuity or progress of their scholars.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DISCIPLES CAME, AND SAID UNTO HIM. — They, it would seem, were with our Lord in the boat. The parable was ended, and then followed a pause, during which, unheard by the multitude on the shore, came their question and our Lord’s answer. WHY SPEAKEST THOU UNTO THEM IN PARABLES? — The wonder of th... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS GIVEN. — Better, _it has been given,_ as by the special act of God. TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES. — The Greek word, like “parable,” has passed into modern languages, and has suffered some change of meaning in the process. Strictly speaking, it does not mean, as we sometimes use it — when we speak, _e... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER HATH, TO HIM SHALL BE GIVEN. — The words have the ring of a proverb applicable, in its literal meaning, to the conditions of worldly prosperity. There fortune smiles on the fortunate, and nothing succeeds like success. Something like that law, our Lord tells His disciples, is to be found i... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THEY SEEING SEE NOT. — As the words stand in St. Matthew, they might mean that our Lord adopted the method of parables as a condescension to their infirmities, feeding them, as babes in knowledge, with milk, and not with meat. In St. Mark and St. Luke the reason given assumes a penal charact... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THEM IS FULFILLED. — The Greek verb expresses complete fulfilment, but the tense is that of a work still in progress. The prominence given to these words of Isaiah’s in the New Testament is very noticeable. Our Lord quotes them here, St. John in John 12:40. St. Paul cites them in Acts 28:26. The... [ Continue Reading ]
LEST AT ANY TIME THEY SHOULD SEE. — The words point to the obstinate, wilful ignorance which refuses to look on the truth, lest the look should lead to conviction, and conviction to conversion — the ignorance of those who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19).... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE YOUR EYES. — The words are spoken to the small company of disciples in the boat. They were not as the multitude. They might see but dimly, and be slow of heart to understand, but, at least, they had eyes that looked for light, and ears that were open to the divine voice.... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY PROPHETS AND RIGHTEOUS MEN. — The prophets of Israel were emphatically “men of desires.” They saw afar off the glory of the kingdom of the latter days. Each stood, as it were, on a Pisgah height, and looked on the vision of a land which he was not to enter. The words “have not seen them” seem t... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR YE THEREFORE. — The “ye” is emphatic. The interpretation which is withheld from others is given to _you. _... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN ANY ONE HEARETH THE WORD. — The explanation has become so familiar to us that it is hard to place ourselves in the position of those to whom it was the unveiling of new truths — the holding up a mirror in which they might see, it might be, their own likeness. Our interest in it may, perhaps, be... [ Continue Reading ]
ANON WITH JOY RECEIVETH IT. — The second type of character stands in marked contrast with the first. Rapid change, strong emotion, a quicker show of conversion than in the case where it is more real. — such results, it need hardly be said, come under the notice of every earnest preacher. In proporti... [ Continue Reading ]
YET HATH HE NOT ROOT IN HIMSELF. — The “root” is obviously the conviction which ripens into a purpose and strikes its fibres deep down into reason, conscience, and will. TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION. — It is hardly necessary, or indeed possible, to draw any sharp line of demarcation between the two.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS. — See Note on Matthew 13:19. Here there is no over-rapid growth, and there is some depth of earth. The character is not one that wastes its strength in vague emotions, but has the capacity for sustained effort. The evil here is, that while there is streng... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD, AND UNDER-STANDETH IT. — The process is not merely an intellectual one. He takes it in, discerns its meaning. The phrases in the other Gospels express the same thing, “hear the word and receive it_”_ (Mark), “in an honest and good heart” hear and retain it (Luke). Even here... [ Continue Reading ]
ANOTHER PARABLE. — The explanation of the parable of the Sower had been given apparently in the boat in which our Lord sat with His disciples. Then, again addressing Himself to the multitude on the shore, He spake the parables of the Tares, the Mustard Seed, and the Leaven; then, dismissing the mult... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS ENEMY CAME AND SOWED TARES. — The act described was then — and still is — a common form of Eastern malice or revenge. It easily escaped detection. It inflicted both loss and trouble. The “enemy” had the satisfaction of brooding for weeks or months over the prospect of the injury he had inflicted... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE SAID, NAY. — Prior to the interpretation the householder of the parable is clearly intended to be a pattern of patient wisdom. He knows that he can defeat the malice of his foe, but he will choose his own time and plan. While both wheat and tares were green, men might mistake between the two;... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE TO A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED. — The two parables that follow are left without an explanation, as though to train the disciples in the art of interpreting for themselves. And, so far as we can judge, they seem to have been equal to the task. They ask for the meaning of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LEAST OF ALL SEEDS. — The description is, of course, popular, and need not be pressed with micro scopical exactness. THE GREATEST AMONG HERBS. — More literally, _greater than the herbs_ — _i.e.,_ belonging to a higher order of vegetation.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO LEAVEN. — The parable sets forth the working of the Church of Christ on the world, but not in the same way as that of the Mustard Seed. There the growth was outward, measured by the extension of the Church, dependent on its missionary efforts. Here the working is f... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHOUT A PARABLE SPAKE HE NOT UNTO THEM. — The words are, of course, limited by the context to this occasion, but it is noticeable from this time forward that parables are the dominant element in His teaching to the multitude, and that the mysteries of the kingdom are reserved for the more esoteric... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES. — The quotation illustrates, much in the same way as those in 8:17, 12:17, St. Matthew’s peculiar way of dealing with the prophetic language of the Old Testament. He found the word “parable” at the opening of a Psalm (Psalms 78:2). The Psalm itself was in no sense p... [ Continue Reading ]
DECLARE UNTO US THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD. — The question was asked privately, probably in the house of Peter, _to_ which our Lord had retired with the disciples after the listening crowd upon the beach had been dismissed. It implies that the disciples had thought over the parable, and h... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT SOWETH THE GOOD SEED IS THE SON OF MAN. — Primarily, we must remember that the parable refers to the kingdom of heaven — _i.e.,_ to that new order of things which the Christ came to establish, and which is conveniently described as the Church which owns Him as its Lord. It offers, accordingl... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TARES ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED ONE. — It was, perhaps, natural that theologians, who saw in heresy the greatest of all evils, should identify the tares with heretics. So far as heresy rises from the spirit of self-will, or antagonism to righteousness, we may admit that they are included in... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ENEMY THAT SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL. — Here, as in the parable of the Sower, there is the most distinct recognition of a personal power of evil, the enemy of God thwarting His work. It will be noticed that our Lord, as if training His disciples gradually in the art of the interpreter, gives rathe... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS ANGELS... HIS KINGDOM. — The vision of One who stood before men outwardly as the carpenter’s son stretches forward to the far future, and sees that the angels of God and the kingdom are alike His. ALL THINGS THAT OFFEND. — Literally, _all stumbling-blocks;_ the word being explained by the claus... [ Continue Reading ]
INTO A FURNACE OF FIRE. — Better, _the furnace_ — _i.e.,_ that of Gehenna, in which there will be _“the_ wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (See Notes on Matthew 8:12.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN. — The imagery is so natural that we hardly need to look for any reference to older teaching, yet we can hardly help remembering the path of the just that “shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18), and yet more, as connected more clo... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO TREASURE HID IN A FIELD. — Probably no parable in the whole series came more home to the imagination of the disciples than this. Every village had its story of men who had become suddenly rich by finding some hidden hoard that had been hastily concealed in time of... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE UNTO A MERCHANT MAN, SEEKING GOODLY PEARLS. — Here again the illustration would commend itself to the thoughts of the fishermen of Galilee. The caprices of luxury in the Roman empire had given a prominence to pearls, as an article of commerce, which they had never had before, and have probably... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO A NET. — The net in this case is not the hand-net of Matthew 4:18, but the _sagenè,_ or great drag-net, which drew in a larger haul of fishes. The day’s teaching in the method of parables ends, as it were, in an easy lesson, which the former experience of the disci... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE YE UNDERSTOOD ALL THESE THINGS? — The verb is the same as that used in the parable of the Sower. An intellectual apprehension of the truth, which is also spiritual, is the condition of the growth in wisdom which enables the disciple to become in due course a teacher. There was doubtless in the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE EVERY SCRIBE WHICH IS INSTRUCTED UNTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. — The verse is interesting as one of the very few passages in which our Lord compares His own work and that of the Apostles after Him to that of the scribes of the Jewish schools. That He was so regarded during His ministry — tha... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE WAS COME INTO HIS OWN COUNTRY. — The visit to Nazareth, here recorded in almost-identical terms with Mark 6:1, has so many points of resemblance with the narrative of Luke 4:16 that many critics have supposed it to be a less complete account of the same fact. On this assumption, the narrativ... [ Continue Reading ]
IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER’S SON? — In St. Mark, the question appears in the form, “Is not this the carpenter?” and it is, of course, in the nature of things probable that He both helped in the workshop during Joseph’s life, and assisted the “brethren” to carry on the work after his death. Justin Mar... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WERE OFFENDED IN HIM. — The word is used in the same sense as in Matthew 11:6. They could not reconcile the new wisdom and the claim which the teaching implied with the obscurity and commonness of the earlier life, and so they did not believe. A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOUR... The words in St... [ Continue Reading ]
HE DID NOT MANY MIGHTY WORKS THERE. — In St. Mark the language is stronger, “He _could_ do no mighty works there.” The wonder-working power was not absolute and unconditioned, but depended on the faith of those who came to Him. Without that, the will and the power were alike thwarted. St. Mark adds,... [ Continue Reading ]