The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew13:1–9

The Parable of the Sower

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Matthew 13:1–9 — The Parable of the Sower. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

En ekeinē tē hēmera ho Iēsous exelthōn tēs oikias ekathēto para tēn thalassan

Word by word13 · parsed
ἘνEnG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐκείνῃekeinēThatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
τῇtē[same]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἡμέρᾳhēmeradayG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Singular
hēmera: day The dative of time ties this teaching to the day just narrated. Pulpit reasons that since Matthew 12:46-50 and this section already stand in the same relative position in Mark, the day is the day his mother and brothers sought to speak with him. Ellicott reads the whole turn to parables as an answer to that day's pressure: the Pharisaic malice, the plots, the absence of support where he might have looked for it.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐξελθὼνexelthōnwent outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
exerchomai: to issue, go out The first of two goings-out in this unit. Jesus goes out of the house (v. 1) and then the sower goes out to sow (v. 3, ἐξῆλθεν, same lexeme G1831). Matthew lets the narrative frame and the parable share one verb, so the storyteller is walking the story's own road as he tells it.
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
οἰκίαςoikiashouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐκάθητοekathēto[and] satG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
kathēmai: to sit Imperfect, and so a settled, continuing posture, not a single act. Gill weighs the options honestly: he sat "either as weary, and for his refreshment, or in order to preach"; Mark's "he began again to teach by the sea side" decides it. Cambridge names the sitting as the teacher's chair: the rabbi sits, the hearers stand (v. 2).
παρὰparabyG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
para: near, alongside Preposition of nearness, recurring at v. 4.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassanseaG2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
thalassa: the sea The Sea of Galilee, called the Sea of Tiberias by Barnes and by Gill. The lake is not scenery: by v. 2 it becomes the pulpit, putting water between the teacher and the press of the crowd.
2

Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai polloi ochloi synēchthēsan pros auton hōste auton embanta eis ploion kathēsthai kai pas ho ochlos heistēkei epi ton aigialon

Word by word20 · parsed
καὶkai[Such]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολλοίpolloilargeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
συνήχθησανsynēchthēsangatheredG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
synagō: to lead together, gather The verb behind synagōgē. A congregation assembles on a beach, passively drawn, and is taught from a boat. Henry draws the pastoral point from the improvised setting: in the outward circumstances of worship we are "not to covet that which is stately, but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us."
πρὸςprosaroundG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὥστεhōstethatG5620
√ ὥστε — so too, iConjunction
αὐτὸνautonHeG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐμβάνταembantagot intoG1684
√ ἐμβαίνω — to walk on, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
embainō: to step in, embark Aorist participle, subordinate again to the sitting. Benson takes it for "A small vessel on the lake, which, it seems, constantly waited upon him while he was on the coast," citing Mark 3:9, and Pulpit records the same suggestion as the reason the Received Text inserted the article. Gill is more cautious: "perhaps this ship was no other than an open boat." JFB reads the whole scene as autopsy: "no doubt from the pen of an eye-witness."
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
πλοῖονploiona boatG4143
√ πλοῖον — a sailer, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
καθῆσθαιkathēsthai[and] sat downG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
kathēmai: to sit Present infinitive, the same lexeme as v. 1 (G2521). He sat in the house, he sat by the sea, he sits in the boat. Gill records the convention: the doctor sits, the hearers stand.
καὶkaiwhileG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πᾶςpasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ὄχλοςochlospeopleG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Singular
εἱστήκειheistēkeistoodG2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbPluperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
histēmi: to stand Pluperfect, functioning as an imperfect: they had taken their stand and were still standing there. Pulpit reads endurance in the tense, the crowd disregarding fatigue for the length of the discourse. Against that patient standing, v. 9's "let him hear" lands as a demand they have already half answered with their bodies.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
αἰγιαλὸνaigialonshoreG123
√ αἰγιαλός — a beach (on which the waves dash)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
aigialos: a beach on which the waves dash A rare word, only six verses in the New Testament. Pulpit infers from it that this stretch at least was sand or pebble, and counts the precision as a mark of an eyewitness.
3

And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai elalēsen autois polla en parabolais legōn Idou ho speirōn exēlthen tou speirein

Word by word13 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐλάλησενelalēsenHe toldG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
laleō: to talk, utter Aorist, summarizing a whole session of teaching. Pulpit notes that of these "many things" only a few are recorded here (compare vv. 34, 51).
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
πολλὰpollamany thingsG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
παραβολαῖςparabolaisparablesG3850
√ παραβολή — a similitude ("parable"), iNounDative Feminine Plural
parabolē: a similitude, comparison Ellicott marks this as the word's first occurrence in Matthew, and observes from the disciples' question in v. 10 that the form was in some sense new to them. Barnes lists the purposes soberly, including the fourth: to conceal from one part of the audience truths intended for others. Benson and Poole both warn that a parable is not given to inform us of a matter of fact but of a spiritual truth to which it bears proportion.
λέγωνlegōnsayingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἸδοὺIdouG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: lo! behold! An aorist imperative frozen into an attention-marker, dropped by BSB. Gill records Mark's stronger doubling, "hearken, behold!"
ὁhovvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σπείρωνspeirōnA farmerG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
speirō: to scatter, sow The lexeme that carries the unit and its interpretation (Matthew 13:18-23, where the Verifier confirms the same G4687). Gill identifies the sower as the Son of Man from Matthew 13:37, and Henry says plainly: "The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers." Gill also reads the going out as the incarnation, the sower leaving his own house for his field.
ἐξῆλθενexēlthenwent outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
σπείρεινspeireinto sow his seedG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
speirō: to sow Present infinitive of purpose, repeating the participle of index 9: the sower sows, which is all the parable says he is for.
4

And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai en auton tō speirein men ha epesen para tēn hodon kai ta peteina elthonta katephagen auta

Word by word17 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνenasG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτὸνautonhe wasG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
σπείρεινspeireinsowingG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
ἃhasome [seed]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Plural
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
piptō: to fall The seed is not placed; it falls. Ellicott pictures the path realistically: "the surface was hard and smooth, the grain lay on the surface." Gill adds the agricultural detail from the Talmud, distinguishing the falling of the hand from the falling of the oxen when seed is carried in a holed cart.
παρὰparaalongG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδόνhodonpathG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
hodos: a road Ellicott places it "on the skirts of the broad path that crossed the field"; Cambridge, "along the narrow footpath dividing one field from another"; Pulpit judges from παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν that it ran for some distance through the field. Gill connects it to the corn-field paths Jesus and the disciples had walked in Matthew 12:1. The hardness is a history of traffic, not a defect of manufacture.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
πετεινὰpeteinabirdsG4071
√ πετεινόν — a flying animal, iNounNominative Neuter Plural
peteinon: a flying creature, bird Gill reads the birds as the devils, "so called, because their habitation is in the air," citing the power of the air, and notes they "often mix themselves in religious assemblies." Henry's version is blunter: Satan "is the great thief of sermons." Matthew 13:19 supplies the interpretation the parable itself withholds here.
ἐλθόνταelthontacameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Plural
κατέφαγενkatephagen[and] devouredG2719
√ κατεσθίω — to eat down, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
katesthiō: to eat down, devour A compound of completion. Whatever lies unburied on the road is not damaged but gone.
αὐτάautaitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
5

Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Alla epesen epi ta petrōdē hopou ouk eichen pollēn gēn kai exaneteilen eutheōs dia gēs to echein mē bathos

Word by word20 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἌλλαAllaSomeG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
πετρώδηpetrōdērocky groundG4075
√ πετρώδης — rock-like, iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
petrōdēs: rock-like The soil's problem is not what it lacks on top but what it hides underneath. Gill cites the rabbinic category of a place fit only for quarrying and "not fit for sowing," and reads it of a heart where "the natural hardness of their hearts continues."
ὅπουhopouwhereG3699
√ ὅπου — what(-ever) where, iAdverb
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
εἶχενeichenit did not haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πολλήνpollēnmuchG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēnsoilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξανέτειλενexaneteilenIt sprang upG1816
√ ἐξανατέλλω — to start up out of the ground, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exanatellō: to start up out of the ground Aorist, and paired with εὐθέως. Speed here is a symptom, not a virtue: Cambridge explains the mechanism, the sun warming the shallow rock beneath. Ellicott states the irony exactly: growth was rapid "through the very circumstance which was afterwards fatal."
εὐθέωςeutheōsquicklyG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
eutheōs: straightway The adverb of haste that Mark loves; here it indicts.
διὰdiabecauseG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
γῆςgēsthe soilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἔχεινecheinwasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Infinitive Active
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
βάθοςbathosshallowG899
√ βάθος — profundity, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
bathos: profundity, depth The word is depth itself, and its absence is the whole verdict on this soil. Gill lists what such hearers do have: slight convictions, some light and speculative notions, outward expressions of delight, "some show of grace, and a form of godliness, but no real heart work." Henry's parallel judgment is that hypocrites "often get the start of true Christians in the shows of profession."
6

But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hēliou anateilantos ekaumatisthē kai exēranthē dia to echein mē rhizan

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἡλίουhēliou[when the] sunG2246
√ ἥλιος — perhaps akin to the alternate of G138 (αἱρέομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀνατείλαντοςanateilantosroseG393
√ ἀνατέλλω — to (cause to) ariseVerbAorist Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
anatellō: to cause to arise Rare, nine verses. The Verifier finds the same lexeme with ἥλιος and ξηραίνω in James 1:11, where the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the grass: the same three-word picture, applied there to the rich man's fading.
ἐκαυματίσθηekaumatisthē[the seedlings] were scorchedG2739
√ καυματίζω — to burnVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
kaumatizō: to burn, scorch Four verses in the whole New Testament: here, Mark 4:6, and Revelation 16:8-9, where men are scorched by the fourth bowl and blaspheme rather than repent. The rare verb links a seedling's death in a parable to the day when heat itself becomes judgment, though nothing in Matthew's text claims that link; it is the lexicon, not the evangelist, that draws the line.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξηράνθηexēranthēthey witheredG3583
√ ξηραίνω — to desiccateVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
xērainō: to desiccate The passive of drying out. Pulpit reaches for John 15:6, where the branch that does not abide is cast out and withers, and the same verdict falls on what has no living connection.
διὰdiabecauseG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἔχεινecheinthey hadG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Infinitive Active
μὴmēnoG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ῥίζανrhizanrootG4491
√ ῥίζα — a "root" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
rhiza: a root The one word the parable will not let the shallow soil have, and Matthew 13:21 makes the application: he has no root in himself and endures only a while. Gill insists at length that this is not the fall of a real saint but the exposure of one who was never rooted; the reading is Reformed and contested, and the text of v. 6 itself says only that there was no root.
7

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Alla epesen epi tas akanthas kai hai akanthai anebēsan kai epnixan auta

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἌλλαAllaOther [seed]G243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπὶepiamongG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἀκάνθαςakanthasthornsG173
√ ἄκανθα — a thornNounAccusative Feminine Plural
akantha: a thorn Ellicott's key observation is timing: "These were not visible at the time of sowing. The ground had been so far cleared, but the roots were left below the surface." The thorn field and the rocky field share one defect, a hidden underground reality that the surface does not disclose. Gill notes the rabbinic phrase for a field cleared of thorns, which this field was not.
καὶkaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αἱhaivvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
ἄκανθαιakanthai[which]G173
√ ἄκανθα — a thornNounNominative Feminine Plural
ἀνέβησανanebēsangrew upG305
√ ἀναβαίνω — to go up (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
anabainō: to go up Plain ascent, and the thorns do it on their own: Gill observes they grow "naturally, being neither sown nor planted; either before the seed, or, at least, as soon." That is the asymmetry the verb quietly records. The seed had to be carried, scattered and buried by a sower who went out for the purpose; the thorns required nothing and still outgrew it. Benson makes the timing the point, that weeds "do not usually appear immediately when the corn is sown" but thrive faster once they come, so the field looks promising for a season before the competition declares itself.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔπνιξανepnixanchokedG4155
√ πνίγω — to wheeze, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
pnigō: to wheeze, throttle Death by slow constriction rather than by heat. Matthew 13:22 names the two hands doing the strangling, the worry of this age and the deceitfulness of riches. Henry, reading the same figure, notes that riches "cannot be said to deceive us unless we put our trust in them, then they choke the good seed," and Gill ties the thorn to the curse of Genesis 3 by way of Hebrews 6:8.
αὐτάauta[the seedlings]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
8

Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Alla epesen epi tēn kalēn tēn gēn kai edidou karpon men ho hekaton de ho hexēkonta de ho triakonta

Word by word20 · parsed
δὲdeStillG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἌλλαAllaother [seed]G243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
καλὴνkalēngoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
kalos: fair, good, worthy The adjective of fitness and beauty, not of chemistry. Henry guards it against perfectionism: "Christ does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but none that could hinder its fruitfulness." Matthew 13:23 supplies the definition the parable withholds: this is the one who hears and understands.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēnsoilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδίδουedidouproducedG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
didōmi: to give Imperfect, durative. The fruitful soil does not deliver once; it keeps giving. Pulpit's note that effort is not implied is exact: the verb is give, not make.
καρπόνkarpona cropG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
karpos: fruit as plucked The single test the parable applies. Henry: "What distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. By this true Christians are distinguished from hypocrites." Every other soil produced something (a meal for birds, a fast green blade, a struggle with thorns); only this one produced fruit.
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἑκατὸνhekatona hundredfoldG1540
√ ἑκατόν — a hundredAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
hekaton: a hundred Ellicott judges a hundredfold "perhaps, a somewhat uncommon increase" but documents it from Isaac's harvest at Genesis 26:12; Gill adds Pliny on Byzacium and a rabbinic report of three hundred measures from one. Cambridge attributes the range to the kind of grain. So the top number is extraordinary but not fabulous, which keeps the parable inside the world its hearers farmed.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἑξήκονταhexēkontasixtyfoldG1835
√ ἑξήκοντα — sixtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
δὲde[or]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
τριάκονταtriakontathirtyfoldG5144
√ τριάκοντα — thirtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
triakonta: thirty The smallest figure, and in Matthew the last word of the harvest. Gill: the increases mark "the different degrees of fruitfulness in gracious souls." Thirtyfold is still thirty times what was sown.
9

He who has ears, let him hear.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ho echōn ōta akouetō

Word by word4 · parsed
ὉHoHe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἔχωνechōnhasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
echō: to hold, have The unit's quiet hinge. The rocky soil did not have (εἶχεν, v. 5) much soil and did not have (ἔχειν, v. 6) root; the last verse turns the same verb positive and makes possession the condition of the command.
ὦταōtaearsG3775
√ οὖς — the ear (physically or mentally)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
ous: the ear, physical or mental Ellicott notes the formula had been used before (Matthew 11:15) and was probably familiar in the rabbinic schools as a test of a scholar's progress. Barnes calls it proverbial. Its placement here, after a story with no explanation attached, converts the crowd from audience into soil: the parable is the seed, and the hearing is the test.
ἀκουέτωakouetōlet him hearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
akouō: to hear Present imperative, third person. The verb governs the whole chapter that follows, where hearing without understanding is the charge (Matthew 13:13-15) and hearing with understanding is the good soil (Matthew 13:23). Poole reads the line as the closing formula of the discourse, left standing over a story Jesus deliberately did not explain in public, "leaving the generality of the hearers to study out his meaning."

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The house left, the water taken — 13:1-2

Matthew gives one main verb to the opening scene and it is not a verb of motion: ἐκάθητο, imperfect, "he was sitting." The leaving of the house is a participle hung on it. Cambridge identifies the posture flatly: sitting is "The usual position of a Jewish teacher," and Gill records that the convention had the doctor sit and the hearers stand, which is exactly what v. 2 then describes with its pluperfect εἱστήκει. Pulpit reads endurance in that tense, a crowd that had taken its stand and stayed. Ellicott supplies the day's back-story from chapter 12, the Pharisaic malice and the plots, and argues that these drove the Lord to a form of teaching "better also as a test of character"; that is Ellicott's reconstruction of motive, offered as inference, and we flag it as such. What the text itself says is smaller and stranger: the crowd is συνήχθησαν, a passive, gathered rather than gathering, and so large that the teacher must put water between himself and it. Henry takes the improvised pulpit as an instruction in worship, not to covet what is stately "but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us." JFB, with a different instinct, hears an eyewitness: "How graphic this picture!"

ii. Parable: the comparison thrown alongside — 13:3

Ellicott marks παραβολαῖς as the word's first appearance in Matthew and notes that the disciples' question at v. 10 shows the form was new to them; he traces the Greek term to the Septuagint's rendering of Hebrew mashal. Cambridge draws the boundary: parables "differ from fables in being pictures of possible occurrences." Benson and Poole, independently, give nearly identical rules of reading, and both insist that the main scope of a parable, not its incidental furniture, is what instructs. Barnes lists four purposes, including the one modern readers flinch at, to conceal from part of the audience what was meant for others. Then the Greek itself: ἐξῆλθεν stands first in the clause, and Pulpit reads the fronting as attention drawn "not so much to the sower himself as to his action." Ellicott and Pulpit both hold the article, the sower, against BSB's "A farmer": Ellicott's sower is "the man whose form and work were so familiar ... to the peasants of Galilee," which is how an article can be both definite and anonymous.

iii. Four falls, one verb — 13:4-7

The structure is carried by a single repeated verb, ἔπεσεν, falling four times over four grounds, and Matthew keeps the seeds plural where Mark and Luke have one collective, which Pulpit notices: "the seeds are, so to speak, each singled out." The three failures fail differently and the vocabulary is precise about it. On the road the loss is instant and total: κατέφαγεν, eaten down. Ellicott has the picture, hard smooth surface, grain lying on top, birds already following the sower; Gill identifies the birds from Matthew 13:19 as the evil one's, and Henry says Satan "is the great thief of sermons." On rock the loss is fast and hot: Ellicott's mordant sentence is that growth was rapid "through the very circumstance which was afterwards fatal," and Cambridge supplies the physics, sun on thin soil warming the rock beneath. Pulpit hears the Greek turning on itself, the seedling's ἐξανέτειλεν answered by the sun's ἀνατείλαντος: "It can hardly be accidental." Among thorns the loss is slow: Ellicott notes the thorns were invisible at sowing time, their roots left under a field that looked cleared, and that the ears "were slowly strangled till they died away." Two of the three failures, then, are failures of what is underground and unseen at the moment of sowing. That is the parable's anatomy, and it is why the verdict cannot be delivered on the day.

iv. The good soil, and the command over it — 13:8-9

Ellicott holds the article here too, "the good ground," and the doubled attributive τὴν καλὴν τὴν γῆν presses on the adjective. καλός is Strong's "fair, good, honest, meet, well, worthy": Gill's "good, honest hearted hearers" is a fair gloss of a word that is not merely agricultural. The yield verb is ἐδίδου, imperfect: it kept giving, and Pulpit notes that Matthew's choice of give over Luke's make means "effort is not implied." Ellicott documents the hundredfold from Isaac at Genesis 26:12 and Gill adds Pliny and the rabbis, so the number is extraordinary without being fantastic. Barnes then puts up a fence we have tried to respect: "Parables are designed to teach some general truth, and the circumstances should not be pressed too much in explaining them," which forbids reading the three-to-one ratio of failure as a census. And the close is a command, third person present imperative, ἀκουέτω, over a story left publicly unexplained. Poole: our Saviour left "the generality of the hearers to study out his meaning." Pulpit sees that the formula is not merely an appendix but "in itself a summary of the chief lesson of the parable." Gill splits the hearing in two, external and internal, which is the whole difference between the four soils.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read the parable as a defence of the Sower rather than as a taxonomy of hearers. Four times Matthew writes the same verb, ἔπεσεν, and never once writes that the sower stopped, changed his aim, or sowed less. He walks the same field, scatters at the same rate, over road and rock and thorn and good soil alike. If the parable were about method, that is incompetence; because it is about the word, it is generosity. Note also what the failures have in common: on the road the problem is what has been walked over it, on the rock what lies under it, among thorns what was left rooting below a surface that looked cleared. Only the first failure is visible on the day of sowing. So the parable is not a tool for sorting the crowd on the beach, and Barnes is right to forbid pressing the proportions; the sole test it gives is καρπός, fruit, and fruit arrives late. Which means the honest use of this parable is self-examination and patience, not diagnosis of the person next to you. Gill and Henry both hear the failures as descriptions of heart, and Matthew 13:19-23 backs them; where we hesitate to follow Gill is in his certainty that the rocky ground was never a real saint, because v. 6 states only that there was no root, and the burden of proof for the rest lies on a doctrine brought in from elsewhere. And the last word is not a verdict but an imperative in the present tense: keep hearing. The line that follows is ours, not Scripture, and carries no authority of its own.

The sower's hand never slows for the road, the rock, or the thorns; the only place the story hurries is the ground that dies.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same field told three times: the Synoptic sowing verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 4:4-8 and Luke 8:5 carry the parable in substantially the same Greek, and the Verifier confirms lexeme overlap verse by verse, including the rare καυματίζω and ῥίζα at Mark 4:6 against Matthew 13:6. The differences are small and real, and the commentators log them: Pulpit notes Matthew singles the seeds out as plurals where Mark and Luke take them collectively; Ellicott cites Luke 8:6's "because they lacked moisture" beside Matthew's "no root"; Pulpit notes Mark's numbers ascend where Matthew's descend, and Luke keeps only the hundredfold. Poole judges the variations immaterial "being they are in the parable."

Mark 4:4 · Mark 4:5 · Mark 4:6 · Mark 4:7 · Mark 4:8 · Luke 8:5

basis: Verifier: Mark 4:6 shares G2739 καυματίζω (in 4 vv, rare), G4491 ῥίζα (in 16 vv), G393 ἀνατέλλω (in 9 vv); Mark 4:5 shares G4098 πίπτω (in 86 vv) and G4183 πολύς; Mark 4:4 and Luke 8:5 share G4687 σπείρω (in 42 vv) and G3844 παρά. Greek to Greek, and the rare shared καυματίζω carries the tier.

The Lord's own reading of his own seed verbal / quotation: confirmed

The parable in this unit is left unexplained in public; the explanation comes privately at Matthew 13:18-23, and the Verifier confirms the lexical tie through σπείρω at 13:20 and 13:23, with εὐθέως at 13:20 picking up v. 5's haste. This is the one authority that outranks every commentator here, and it is what licenses Gill to name the birds as the evil one, Henry to read the thorns as worldly care, and Gill again to identify the sower from 13:37 as the Son of Man.

Matthew 13:19 · Matthew 13:20 · Matthew 13:23 · Matthew 13:37

basis: Verifier: Matthew 13:23 shares G4687 σπείρω (in 42 vv) twice with this unit plus G3303 μέν; Matthew 13:20 shares G4687 σπείρω twice plus G2112 εὐθέως (in 86 vv). Same book, same discourse, same speaker; Greek to Greek.

Scorched: a verb the New Testament uses four times verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἐκαυματίσθη (G2739) occurs in only four verses: Matthew 13:6, Mark 4:6, and Revelation 16:8-9, where the fourth bowl gives the sun power to scorch men with fire and they blaspheme the name of God and do not repent. Both places are heat on what has no defence; both end in no fruit. We claim no citation and no authorial intent: the commentators here do not draw this line, and Matthew shows no awareness of the Apocalypse. What is confirmed is that the same rare verb names the fate of the rootless seedling and the fate of the unrepentant under judgment.

Revelation 16:8 · Revelation 16:9

basis: Verifier: shared G2739 καυματίζω (in 4 vv, rare) at both Revelation 16:8 and 16:9, with G2246 ἥλιος (in 32 vv) also shared at 16:8. Greek to Greek, rare lexeme. Verbal link only: no quotation and no dependence is claimed in either direction.

The sun rises, the grass withers: James on the same three words verbal / quotation: confirmed

James 1:11 puts ἀνατέλλω, ἥλιος and ξηραίνω in one sentence, exactly the trio of Matthew 13:6, and applies it to the rich man fading in the midst of his pursuits. Matthew 13:22 will name the deceitfulness of riches as the thorn rather than the sun, so the two passages cross rather than duplicate; but the picture of a sun that rises and dries out what looked alive is common property, and James's so also will the rich man fade away is the same verdict given to a different soil.

James 1:11

basis: Verifier: shared G393 ἀνατέλλω (in 9 vv, rare), G2246 ἥλιος (in 32 vv), G3583 ξηραίνω (in 15 vv). Greek to Greek, three shared lexemes of which one is rare. The shared vocabulary is confirmed; the application differs, and no literary dependence is asserted.

Sow not among thorns structural / thematic: confirmed

Jeremiah 4:3 tells Judah to break up the fallow ground and not sow among thorns, which is the parable's third soil stated as a command centuries before it was told as a story. Both Gill and Pulpit reach for the verse at Matthew 13:7, Pulpit noting that thorns "were sure to be close by" and Gill citing Jeremiah directly. The prophet addresses the field's owner and tells him to prepare the ground; the parable addresses everyone and asks what kind of ground they are.

Jeremiah 4:3

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition and no verbal tier can apply. The basis is the shared agricultural figure of seed among thorns, and the recorded citation of Jeremiah 4:3 at this verse by both Gill and Pulpit.

A hundredfold in the same year: Isaac in Gerar structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott anchors the parable's top number in Genesis 26:12, where Isaac sowed in the land and reaped a hundredfold in the same year, and the LORD blessed him; he suggests the episode "had probably helped to make it the standard of a more than usually prosperous harvest." Gill cites the same verse, adding Pliny on Byzacium and a rabbinic report. The point of the cross-reference is restraint: the hundredfold is a remembered blessing in Israel's own story, not an impossible figure invented for effect.

Genesis 26:12

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and the link cannot be tiered verbal. The basis is the shared hundredfold yield formula, recorded by Ellicott, Gill and Pulpit at Matthew 13:8.

Thorns, and the end that is burning structural / thematic: confirmed

Henry and Gill both close the thorn soil with Hebrews 6:8, the ground that bears thorns and thistles, is rejected, is near to being cursed, and whose end is burning. Henry: worldly cares "are entangling, vexing, scratching, and their end is to be burned, Heb 6:8." The connection is real in the commentators and the imagery is shared, but Matthew's v. 7 says only that the thorns choked the seed. The fire is Hebrews' contribution.

Hebrews 6:8

basis: No Verifier-computed lexeme match was returned for this pair, so no verbal claim is made. The recorded basis is the shared figure of thorn-bearing ground under curse, cited at this verse by Henry and by Gill independently.

The beach where the word is heard structural / thematic: confirmed

αἰγιαλός (G123), the wave-dashed beach of v. 2, is a rare word, and Acts 27:39 is one of only six New Testament verses that use it: Paul's crew sighting a bay with a beach onto which they hope to drive the ship. We record the link modestly and without theological weight. It is topography, not typology, and its value is that it confirms the concreteness Pulpit claims for the detail: the evangelist names a specific kind of shore, sand or pebble, the way a witness would.

Acts 27:39

basis: Verifier: shared G123 αἰγιαλός (in 6 vv, rare) plus G4143 πλοῖον (in 62 vv) and G2250 ἡμέρα. Greek to Greek and lexically real, but deliberately not tiered verbal: the shared rare noun is an item of setting with no shared claim, motif or quotation, so the honest tier is the lower one.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Sower is the Son of Man ancient/widely-held

⚙ The article Ellicott and Pulpit defend, the sower rather than a farmer, is what makes the identification possible at all. Jesus supplies it himself at Matthew 13:37, and Gill draws the line: by the sower "is meant the Son of Man ... which is Jesus Christ himself," adding that he is called the sower "by way of eminency." Henry reaches the same conclusion by a wider route: "The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers." Both then widen it to preachers without losing the first referent, which is the apostolic pattern: the ministers sow because the Lord sows through them. The reading is ancient and near-universal in the commentators gathered here.

Matthew 13:37 · Mark 4:14

Went out: the going forth of the sower as the coming of the Son ancient/widely-held

⚙ Matthew uses one verb, ἐξέρχομαι (G1831), for Jesus leaving the house in v. 1 and for the sower going out in v. 3. Gill takes the parable's verb theologically: the 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." Note the register: Gill says may intend, and we keep his caution. What the Greek supplies is not proof but a resonance Matthew arranged, a teacher who has just gone out of a house telling of a sower who goes out; and Gill extends the going into the present, Christ going forth still "in his ministers, and by his Spirit, in the preaching of the Gospel."

Matthew 13:3 · Matthew 13:37

The seed that has to go into the ground novel

⚙ Offered as our own reading, and marked novel as applied to this parable. Every soil in the story is judged by whether the seed can get under its surface, and the two slow deaths, rock and thorn, are failures of what lies below the visible line. The parable therefore stakes everything on burial: nothing here bears fruit that has not first gone down out of sight. John 12:24 states the principle in the same agricultural figure and applies it to Christ himself, the grain of wheat that must fall into the earth and die or remain alone. We do not claim Matthew intends that; the commentators in this brief do not make the connection, and the parable's own explanation at Matthew 13:18-23 reads the seed as the word, not as the Son. What we do claim is that the two figures are governed by one logic, and that the Sower of v. 3 will himself go into the ground before the hundredfold of v. 8 arrives.

John 12:24 · Matthew 13:8

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Two places in this unit turn on the critical text and both are recorded by the commentators, not by us. At v. 2 Pulpit and JFB both judge the article before πλοῖον to be a wrong insertion in the Received Text (JFB: "the article in the received text lacks authority"), while Cambridge notes that the received Greek reads "the ship or boat" and Pulpit observes the article would suggest the particular boat kept waiting for him. The interlinear this brief uses has εἰς πλοῖον without the article. At v. 9 Pulpit notes that the Revised Version omits the infinitive "to hear" after "ears," and our interlinear likewise shows only ὦτα with no ἀκούειν; the BSB rendering "He who has ears" follows the shorter text.

Sources. Henry's entry in this brief is a single block covering 13:1-23 and is repeated at every verse; we have therefore used it sparingly and only where its content is specific to the verse in hand. Geneva's entries at vv. 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are the verse text alone with no note, so Geneva is quoted once, from its substantive gloss at v. 2. JFB's entry is likewise repeated verbatim at vv. 3 through 9 and is quoted only at v. 2, where it is verse-specific. Poole at vv. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 reads only "See Poole on Matthew 13:9"; his substantive note is quoted from 13:3 and 13:9. Three entries are capped in this brief, all of them at 13:3 (Benson, Poole and Gill); no quotation above is taken from a capped region, and we did not need the remainders for anything claimed here.

What is uncertain. Ellicott's account of why Jesus turned to parables on this day is a reconstruction of motive from chapter 12 and is presented as such. Gill's argument at v. 6 that the rocky ground was never a genuine believer is a doctrinal position imported into the verse; v. 6 says only that there was no root. Gill's reading of the thorns' end as everlasting fire comes from Hebrews 6:8, not from Matthew 13:7. Our own christological third entry is marked novel and rests on a figure from John, not on anything Matthew or the commentators here assert. The three cross-Testament threads (Genesis 26:12, Jeremiah 4:3) and the Hebrews 6:8 thread carry no Verifier lexeme basis, either because the languages differ or because no match was returned, and all are tiered structural for that reason. The Acts 27:39 thread has a genuine rare shared lexeme but is deliberately tiered below verbal, because a shared noun of setting is not a shared claim.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)