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Matthew13:18–23

The Parable of the Sower Explained

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Matthew 13:18–23 — The Parable of the Sower Explained. 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.

18

Consider, then, the parable of the sower:

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Hymeis akousate oun tēn parabolēn tou speirantos

Word by word7 · parsed
ὙμεῖςHymeisvvvG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
σύ: thou, ye (emphatic nominative) The pronoun is grammatically unnecessary and therefore rhetorically loaded. Everything in the unit turns on it: the same seed, the same sound, four outcomes, and the difference is located in the hearer, not in the sowing. Ellicott reads it as the counterpart to the withholding of v. 13.
ἀκούσατεakousateConsiderG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
ἀκούω: to hear Aorist imperative: a single decisive act of hearing, not a habit. Benson counts this as the fourth summons to attention in one discourse (Mark's “Hearken, behold,” then “who hath ears to hear, let him hear,” then this). The verb recurs in every soil below as a present participle (ἀκούων), so the imperative here and the participles there are the same word: hearing is not the variable, understanding is.
οὖνounthenG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
Inferential particle, drawing the command out of the privilege just granted.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
παραβολὴνparabolēnparableG3850
√ παραβολή — a similitude ("parable"), iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
παραβολή: a similitude, parable Literally a throwing alongside. Matthew alone records this verse; Barnes observes that Mark's added rebuke (“Know ye not this parable?”) marks it as one of the simplest, given with its key so the disciples could learn the method for the rest.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σπείραντοςspeirantossowerG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
σπείρω: to scatter, sow The participle, not a noun. The explanation never names the sower, and Ellicott notes that the identification is held back until the parable of the Tares names him the Son of Man. Poole takes it from Mark: the sower is the preacher, “Christ in the first place, then all who derive from him as his ministers.”
19

When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Pantos akouontos ton logon tēs basileias kai mē synientos ho ponēros erchetai kai harpazei to esparmenon en tē autou kardia houtos estin ho spareis para tēn hodon

Word by word27 · parsed
ΠαντὸςPantosWhen anyoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
πᾶς: all, every one Παντὸς ἀκούοντος is a genitive absolute: “while anyone is hearing.” The construction leaves the sentence without a stated subject until ὁ πονηρὸς arrives, so the grammar itself enacts the ambush. Benson notes the parable “only concerns the hearers of the gospel”; the man who never comes within earshot is judged elsewhere.
ἀκούοντοςakouontoshearsG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonmessageG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγος: something said, word The seed is defined by the interpretation itself, and Poole draws the identification from Luke 8:11, “The seed is the word of God.” λόγος occurs in every one of the four soils in this unit, four times over: the constant against which the variable soils are measured.
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
βασιλείαςbasileiaskingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
βασιλεία: royalty, kingdom Genitive of content: the word whose subject is the reign. Gill unpacks it as treating “of the king Messiah, of his person, office, and grace; and of his kingdom.” Matthew's phrase “the word of the kingdom” is unique to him here; Mark and Luke say simply “the word.”
καὶkaibutG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὴmē{does} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
συνιέντοςsynientosunderstand [it]G4920
√ συνίημι — to put together, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
συνίημι: to put together, comprehend The pivot of the whole explanation. It appears twice in this unit and nowhere else in it: negated here (μὴ συνιέντος) and affirmed at v. 23 (συνιείς). Everything between the two is a study in what happens to a word that is heard but never assembled. Geneva's gloss is careful: the sowing “is referred to as hearing without understanding,” for whether or not the seed is received, the sower sows to the heart.
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
πονηρὸςponērosevil oneG4190
√ πονηρός — hurtful, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
πονηρός: hurtful, evil (the evil one) Articular and personal. Ellicott finds it strange that the many birds of the parable should stand for the Tempter in his unity, and answers that everything which makes men forget the truth is doing the enemy's work. Gill records the Jewish usage in which Samael is called simply “the wicked.”
ἔρχεταιerchetaicomesG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἁρπάζειharpazeisnatches awayG726
√ ἁρπάζω — to seize (in various applications)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἁρπάζω: to seize, carry off Present tense, iterative: this is what he does, every time, at once. Mark adds εὐθύς. Henry's image is blunt: Satan “is the great thief of sermons, and will be sure to rob us of the word, if we take not care to keep it.”
τὸtowhatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐσπαρμένονesparmenonwas sownG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Singular
σπείρω: to sow (perfect participle) The perfect insists the word really was there. Gill presses the preposition instead: the word “only fell ‘upon’, not ‘into’ his heart,” and so was never covered, never rooted, and lay open to the first beak.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ 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 PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καρδίᾳkardiaheartG2588
√ καρδία — the heart, iNounDative Feminine Singular
καρδία: the heart Poole takes καρδία here as the whole soul with its faculties, so that a word can enter the imaginative or notional power and still never reach the will. Gill narrows it further to memory, citing Luke 2:51 for that sense. Both are reading against the obvious objection: how was it sown in his heart if the devil could take it?
οὗτόςhoutosThisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhothe [seed]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σπαρείςspareissownG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
παρὰparaalongG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδὸνhodonpathG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδός: a road, way Not a field edge but a trodden path through the field. Gill: the heart “is like the common and beaten road, that is trodden down by everyone, and is not susceptible of the seed.” Ellicott reads the hardening as the work of routine, “the wear and tear of daily life.”
20

The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho spareis epi ta petrōdē houtos estin ho akouōn ton logon kai euthys lambanōn auton meta charas

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoThe [seed]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σπαρείςspareissownG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
σπείρω: to sow (aorist passive participle, masculine) The man is “the sown one.” Matthew repeats this masculine participle at the head of v. 20, v. 22 and v. 23, so all three later soils are described the same way and Ellicott's literal rendering holds throughout: “this man it is that is (the seed) sown by the way side.”
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
πετρώδης: rock-like A rare word, four verses in the whole New Testament, and every one of them is this parable in Matthew or Mark. The rock is not the obstacle on the surface but the floor beneath: nothing can go down, so everything must go up fast.
οὗτόςhoutosG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhothe [one who]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούωνakouōnhearsG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὐθὺςeuthysat onceG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
εὐθέως: directly, immediately The word that frames the whole second soil. Its first use is the glory of this hearer and its second use is his ruin. Ellicott's formulation is exact: “The rapidity of the renegade matches that of the convert.”
λαμβάνωνlambanōnreceivesG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
λαμβάνω: to take, receive Gill grants this hearer a real assent: he “believes it historically, makes a profession of his faith in it, and holds it for a while.” The verb is not a pretense; it is a genuine taking that has nowhere to put what it takes.
αὐτόνautonitG846
√ 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
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
χαρᾶςcharasjoyG5479
√ χαρά — cheerfulness, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
χαρά: cheerfulness, joy Joy is never condemned in this parable; it is simply not evidence. Barnes traces the mechanism: relief of anxiety from any cause produces a kind of peace, and the man mistakes the subsiding of fear for pardon. The good soil at v. 23 is not marked by joy but by understanding and fruit.
21

But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

alla de echei en heautō ouk rhizan estin proskairos de thlipseōs ē diōgmou genomenēs dia ton logon euthys skandalizetai

Word by word19 · parsed
ἀλλὰallaButG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
δὲdesinceG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἔχειecheihe hasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐνen. . .G1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἑαυτῷheautō. . .G1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οὐκouknoG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ῥίζανrhizanrootG4491
√ ῥίζα — a "root" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ῥίζα: a root The one diagnostic word of this soil. The commentators divide on what it names, and the division is doctrinal, not lexical: Ellicott makes it settled conviction, Poole makes it the implanted principle of grace which conviction is merely the product of, Gill says flatly “Nor in Christ.” The noun itself says only that whatever holds a plant down was absent.
ἐστινestinhe remainsG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πρόσκαιρόςproskairosfor only a seasonG4340
√ πρόσκαιρος — for the occasion only, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
πρόσκαιρος: for the occasion only, temporary A rare adjective, four verses in the New Testament, and the other three are luminous: the unseen things are eternal while the seen are πρόσκαιρα (2 Cor 4:18), and Moses refused the πρόσκαιρον enjoyment of sin (Heb 11:25). Matthew applies to a man the adjective Paul and Hebrews apply to the world he could not let go of.
δὲde[When]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
θλίψεωςthlipseōstroubleG2347
√ θλῖψις — pressure (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
θλῖψις: pressure Literally pressure or crushing. Gill reads it as the lighter weight, “revilings and reproaches of men, loss of character, and trade,” with διωγμός as the public and violent thing.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
διωγμοῦdiōgmoupersecutionG1375
√ διωγμός — persecutionNounGenitive Masculine Singular
διωγμός: persecution Cambridge hears a forecast here of the days when “the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12), and names concrete casualties: Judas, for whom the prospect of the cross took all enthusiasm away, and possibly Mark at Perga.
γενομένηςgenomenēscomesG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Participle MiddleGenitive Feminine Singular
διὰdiabecause ofG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
εὐθὺςeuthysvvvG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
σκανδαλίζεταιskandalizetaihe quickly falls awayG4624
√ σκανδαλίζω — to entrap, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
σκανδαλίζω: to entrap, put a stumbling-block before Present tense, middle or passive: it happens to him, and it happens now. Matthew has used the verb already at 5:29 and will use it of Peter at 16:23 and of all the disciples at 26:31, so the parable's worst-case hearer is described with the word Jesus later applies to his own friends. Poole makes the two causes explicit: one internal (no root), one external (persecution), “the former is the great cause of the latter.”
22

The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho spareis eis tas akanthas houtos estin ho akouōn ton logon kai hē merimna tou toutou aiōnos kai hē apatē tou ploutou sympnigei ton logon kai ginetai akarpos

Word by word29 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoThe [seed]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σπαρείςspareissownG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisamongG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἀκάνθαςakanthasthornsG173
√ ἄκανθα — a thornNounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἄκανθα: a thorn Eleven verses in the New Testament, and Matthew uses the word again for the crown pressed on Christ's head (27:29). Henry hears the older echo: “Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse.” What chokes the word in this soil is the ground's curse growing back.
οὗτόςhoutosG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhothe [one who]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούωνakouōnhearsG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaibutG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
μέριμναmerimnaworriesG3308
√ μέριμνα — solicitudeNounNominative Feminine Singular
μέριμνα: solicitude, anxious care Not labour and not poverty, but the divided mind. Ellicott's diagnosis of this soil is precise: “while there is strength of purpose, there is not unity of spirit.” Benson widens the application against the obvious reading, noting these anxious cares “most beset the poor, but not them only,” since the middling ranks and the rich are harassed by them too.
τοῦtouofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
τούτουtoutouthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Singular
αἰῶνοςaiōnoslifeG165
√ αἰών — properly, an ageNounGenitive Masculine Singular
αἰών: properly, an age The temporal horizon of the third soil. The man is not wicked; he is simply living inside one age and budgeting for it. Set beside πρόσκαιρος at v. 21, the middle two soils fail by the same clock.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἀπάτηapatēdeceitfulnessG539
√ ἀπάτη — delusionNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἀπάτη: delusion, deceit Benson's gloss is the sharpest in the brief: riches are “deceitful indeed! for they promise much, but perform little; offer themselves to many, but give themselves to few.” Barnes presses the same point pastorally, that wealth promises to satisfy and, once gained, leaves the same appetite intact.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
πλούτουploutouof wealthG4149
√ πλοῦτος — wealth (as fulness), iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
συμπνίγειsympnigeichokeG4846
√ συμπνίγω — to strangle completely, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
συμπνίγω: to strangle completely A rare compound (5 verses). Mark uses it of these same thorns (4:7) and Luke of the crowd that pressed Jesus until he could scarcely move (8:42). The word does not describe uprooting or poisoning: the plant is left alive and simply denied air and light. Poole lists the means exactly, thorns “shadowing the blade when it comes up, and keeping off the warmth of the sun, and drawing the fatness of the ground from it.”
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γίνεταιginetaiit becomesG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ἄκαρποςakarposunfruitfulG175
√ ἄκαρπος — barren (literally or figuratively)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἄκαρπος: barren, without fruit The verdict is a negation of the word that will govern v. 23 (καρποφορεῖ). Note the verb: γίνεται, “it becomes.” This soil is not born barren; it turns barren. Luke's phrase, which Benson and Ellicott both cite, is that such men bring no fruit to perfection.
23

But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and produces a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho spareis epi tēn kalēn gēn houtos estin ho akouōn ton logon kai synieis hos dē karpophorei kai poiei men ho hekaton de ho hexēkonta de ho triakonta

Word by word29 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHothe [seed]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σπαρείςspareissownG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine 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
καλός: fair, good, noble Ellicott presses a hard question the parable raises and does not answer: what made the ground good? He notes that theologians “may speak of ‘prevenient grace’” and leaves it there. Benson answers it without hesitation: “a heart, not honest and good by nature, but made such by grace.” The adjective itself makes no claim about origin.
γῆνgēnsoilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆ: soil, earth A common noun (223 verses) doing uncommon work. Within Matthew 13 it moves: at v. 5 and v. 8 it is literal ground, here it is a hearer, and at v. 38 the field is said to be the world. Note that the masculine οὗτός immediately following refuses to let the soil remain a metaphor, exactly as at vv. 19, 20 and 22. Ellicott draws the consequence that the parable lets us “recognise the possible existence of ‘an honest and good heart’ ... prior to the preaching of the word,” which is why he says the preacher's task is to look such people out.
οὗτόςhoutosG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhothe [one who]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούωνakouōnhearsG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkai[and]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνιείςsynieisunderstands [it]G4920
√ συνίημι — to put together, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
συνίημι: to put together, comprehend The hinge of the unit, and the answer to v. 19. Ellicott is careful that “the process is not merely an intellectual one. He takes it in, discerns its meaning,” and matches it to Mark's “receive it” and Luke's “in an honest and good heart.” Poole assembles the full sequence from the three Gospels: hearing, understanding or believing, keeping, bearing fruit, bearing fruit with patience.
ὃςhos[He]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
δὴdēindeedG1211
√ δή — a particle of emphasis or explicitnessParticle
δή: a particle of emphasis or explicitness Small and rare, and it does real work: it separates this relative clause from the three verdicts above by insisting that here, at last, the thing actually happens.
καρποφορεῖkarpophoreibears fruitG2592
√ καρποφορέω — to be fertile (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καρποφορέω: to be fruitful Present indicative: an ongoing yield, not a single harvest. Henry's observation guards the note from perfectionism: “Christ does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but none that could hinder its fruitfulness.” Gill adds from Luke that the fruit is borne with patience, “in all seasons, in old age, and even unto death.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ποιεῖpoieiproduces a cropG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἑκατὸνhekatona hundredfoldG1540
√ ἑκατόν — a hundredAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἑκατόν: a hundred The three numbers descend, a hundred then sixty then thirty, reversing the ascending order of Mark 4:8. Pulpit quotes Bengel's arithmetic of grace on the gap: “100 longius absunt a 60, quam 60 a 30. Habenti dabitur.” Poole's pastoral conclusion is the necessary counterweight: a soul may be good in Christ's own judgment “though it doth not bring forth fruit in the same proportion with others.”
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἑξήκονταhexēkontasixtyfoldG1835
√ ἑξήκοντα — sixtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
δὲdeorG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
τριάκονταtriakontathirtyfoldG5144
√ τριάκοντα — thirtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural

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 emphatic ὑμεῖς: a fourth call to hear — 13:18

The verse opens with a pronoun Greek does not require. Ὑμεῖς sits in front of a second person plural imperative that already says “ye,” and Ellicott takes the whole point of the verse from that redundancy: “The ‘ye’ is emphatic. The interpretation which is withheld from others is given to you.” Pulpit agrees on grammatical grounds, preferring the Revised Version's “hear ye then” because it “leaves more room for the rightful emphasis on ye ( ὑμεῖς ),” and adds that οὖν means the hearing is commanded “in accordance with the privileges that have been given you.” Benson counts the summonses: Mark's “Hearken, behold,” then “who hath ears to hear, let him hear,” and now, “proceeding to the explanation of it, he calls for attention the fourth time.” Barnes, reasoning from Mark's rebuke rather than from Matthew, judges this the simplest of the parables, explained so that the disciples “might understand the general principles of interpreting others.” Poole states the aim of the explanation plainly: to show “the different effects which the word of God preached hath upon men's hearts, and the reasons of that difference.” ⚙ Note what the Greek does not do: it does not name the sower. σπείραντος is only a participle, “the one who sowed,” and Ellicott observes that the naming waits for the parable of the Tares.

ii. The word that was really there: ἐσπαρμένον and ἁρπάζει — 13:19

Matthew builds the first soil on two participles of one root. The word in the heart is ἐσπαρμένον, a perfect: it stands sown. Then the man is σπαρείς, an aorist: he is classified. Between them stands ἁρπάζει, the verb of plunder, which Pulpit glosses “seizeth for himself.” The failure that admits the thief is μὴ συνιέντος, and the commentators agree it is not a deficiency of intellect: Ellicott calls the fault “moral rather than intellectual,” and Benson offers that the participle “may with equal propriety be rendered considereth it not,” comparing meditation to harrowing the seed under. Gill locates the same failure in a preposition: the word “only fell ‘upon’, not ‘into’ his heart.” Geneva's marginal note (a) protects the sower from the verdict: whether or not the seed is received, “he that sows, sows to the heart.” Ellicott raises the puzzle of the many birds standing for one Tempter and answers that everything which makes men forget the truth is, in very deed, doing the enemy's work. ⚙ The grammar of the sentence stages the theft: Παντὸς ἀκούοντος is a genitive absolute with no main subject, so the sentence itself has nothing standing in it until ὁ πονηρὸς arrives.

iii. Two uses of one adverb: εὐθὺς at both ends — 13:20, 13:21

The second soil is bracketed by εὐθὺς, once for the joy and once for the collapse. Cambridge supplies the lexical fact that the Authorized Version hid behind two different idioms: “anon ] = immediately; the same Greek word is translated by and by in the next verse.” Ellicott draws the conclusion: “The rapidity of the renegade matches that of the convert.” Benson corrects the soil itself to “rocky, places, where the bed of earth was very shallow,” and the rare adjective πετρώδη (four verses in the New Testament) supports him: the problem is a floor, not a scatter of stones. What is missing is ῥίζαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, and here the voices divide by theology. Ellicott makes the root “the conviction which ripens into a purpose.” Poole calls that conviction merely “the product of this root,” which is rather “a principle of grace in a heart truly touched with the love of God and of his truth.” Gill says the man has no root “in himself; Nor in Christ.” Benson, from the other tradition, credits even this man's joy to “the preventing grace of God.” On the joy itself, Barnes is coldly observant: the subsiding of fear produces its own peace, and so “they have only to imagine, therefore, that their sins are forgiven, to produce a certain kind of peace and joy.” The final verb is σκανδαλίζεται, which Barnes correctly defines as “Stumbles or falls, for this is the meaning of the word ‘offend’ in the New Testament.” Cambridge names the casualties: “The prospect of the cross took all enthusiasm away from Judas.”

iv. A single strangling grip: μέριμνα and ἀπάτη — 13:22

The third soil fails by a slower method. συμπνίγει is a singular verb under a double subject: anxiety and deceit throttle as one hand. The rare compound (five verses) means to strangle completely, and Poole describes the mechanics without metaphor, thorns “shadowing the blade when it comes up, and keeping off the warmth of the sun, and drawing the fatness of the ground from it.” Ellicott diagnoses the man rather than the weeds: “while there is strength of purpose, there is not unity of spirit. The man is double-minded, and would fain serve two masters.” Benson protests against reading this as a parable about the rich only, noting the cares “most beset the poor, but not them only,” and then turns on riches themselves: “deceitful indeed! for they promise much, but perform little; offer themselves to many, but give themselves to few.” Henry supplies the older frame, that “Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse,” and the necessary qualification, that riches “cannot be said to deceive us unless we put our trust in them.” Pulpit adds the textual detail: the critical text reads simply τοῦ αἰῶνος, “of the age,” omitting τούτου. ⚙ Two of the three failing soils are defeated by a clock: the second man is πρόσκαιρος, the third is choked by the care of the αἰών.

v. συνιείς, and the arithmetic of grace — 13:23

The unit closes by reversing the word that opened it. μὴ συνιέντος at v. 19 becomes συνιείς here, and everything between is a study in hearing that never assembles. Ellicott insists “The process is not merely an intellectual one. He takes it in, discerns its meaning,” and harmonises Mark's “receive it” and Luke's “in an honest and good heart.” Poole numbers the whole sequence from the three Gospels: hearing, understanding or believing, keeping, bearing fruit, and bearing fruit with patience. On the origin of the good ground the sources genuinely differ in temperature. Ellicott raises the question and leaves it standing, noting only that theologians “may speak of ‘prevenient grace’”; Pulpit states the problem, says “this lay in a difference already existing within this good ground,” and then declines it, remarking that “Prevenient grace is not always to be insisted upon in practical exhortation”; Benson answers flatly that this is “a heart, not honest and good by nature, but made such by grace”; Gill agrees, “which no man naturally has... this is the work of God.” On the descending numbers Pulpit quotes Bengel: “100 longius absunt a 60, quam 60 a 30. Habenti dabitur.” Against any despair that arithmetic might breed, Poole: a soul may be honest and good in Christ's own judgment “though it doth not bring forth fruit in the same proportion with others,” and Henry: the good ground is not the ground without stones or thorns, but the ground with “none that could hinder its fruitfulness.” Ellicott ends by hearing an old prophet behind the whole parable, Jeremiah's “break up the fallow ground and sow not among thorns.”

vi. What the parable does not say — 13:18 to 13:23

⚙ Two silences are worth naming, and one of them a commentator names first. Ellicott observes that the four classes “seem to assume that their characters are fixed, incapable of change,” which would leave preaching with nothing to do but sort, and he answers that the parable “represents the phenomena of the spiritual life only partially”: the soil may be improved, and “it is the work of every preacher and teacher to prepare the soil as well as to sow the seed.” The second silence is the sower. The explanation identifies the seed (v. 19, the word of the kingdom), the thief (the evil one), the weeds and the soils, and never the man with the bag. Ellicott suggests the omission was deliberate, since the disciples “too were in their turn to be sowers as well as reapers.” ⚙ I record both as the tool's reading and neither as a certainty: the text of these six verses states the four outcomes and withholds their cause.

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

⚙ Fallible reading, offered to be tested. Read strictly, these six verses hold one constant and one variable. The constant is λόγος, which occurs in all four soils and is never said to differ in quality, quantity, or power. The variable is not hearing either: ἀκούων is predicated of all four men identically. The single word that separates the last soil from the first is συνίημι, denied at v. 19 and granted at v. 23, and the two middle soils are each destroyed by a clock, the one πρόσκαιρος and the other choked by the care of the αἰών. So the parable is not, in the first place, about sincerity or effort. It is about whether a hearer puts together what he has heard and keeps doing so through time. That yields a hard and an easy consequence together. The hard one: joy proves nothing (v. 20 has joy and no root), and neither does depth of engagement (v. 22 has both and still yields nothing), so the only stated evidence is fruit that continues. The easy one: the quantity of fruit is explicitly allowed to vary threefold and all three yields stand equally under the verdict “good soil,” which Poole read exactly so. On the question the text refuses, why one soil was καλή, I will not manufacture an answer from these verses. Ellicott left it open, Pulpit set it aside, Benson and Gill answered it from elsewhere in Scripture, and the parable itself simply says the ground was noble and the yield was real. ⚙ Where the text is silent I take the silence to be the teaching: the command in v. 18 is to hear, not to first establish which soil one is.

Joy is not evidence and depth is not evidence; the only evidence this parable names is fruit that keeps coming. (⚙ tool's reading, not a verse)

⚙

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.

συμπνίγω: the word throttled, and the crowd that throttled Christ verbal / quotation: confirmed

The verb of the third soil, συμπνίγει (G4846), is a rare compound: five verses in the whole New Testament. Mark uses it of these same thorns (4:7), and Luke uses it of the multitude that pressed so close around Jesus on the way to Jairus's house that they nearly crushed him (8:42). The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme in both pairs, and Mark 4:7 shares ἄκανθα (G173) as well. ⚙ The word does not mean uproot or poison: Poole's description of the mechanism fits it exactly, the blade is shaded, the sun kept off, the fatness of the ground drawn away. The plant is left alive and denied air. The overlap with Luke 8:42 is lexical, and I press it no further than that.

Mark 4:7 · Luke 8:42

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4846 συμπνίγω (in 5 vv, rare) with both Mark 4:7 and Luke 8:42; Mark 4:7 additionally shares G173 ἄκανθα (in 11 vv). All Greek to Greek, so the shared Strong's numbers are a genuine verbal link.

πρόσκαιρος: the adjective Matthew applies to a man verbal / quotation: confirmed

πρόσκαιρός (G4340), “for the occasion only,” occurs in four verses of the New Testament. Paul uses it of the visible world: the things which are seen are πρόσκαιρα, the unseen eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). Hebrews uses it of what Moses turned down, the πρόσκαιρον enjoyment of sin (11:25). The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme in both. ⚙ The force of the link is that Matthew applies to a person the adjective the other two apply to a thing: the second hearer has taken the character of what he refused to let go of. Note that the word here is a predicate, not an adverb of duration; the Greek does not say he lasts a while, it says he is temporary.

2 Corinthians 4:18 · Hebrews 11:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4340 πρόσκαιρος (in 4 vv, rare) with 2 Corinthians 4:18 and Hebrews 11:25. The Hebrews 11:25 pair also shares G2228 ἤ (in 276 vv), a common particle that carries no weight and is disregarded. No quotation is claimed, only the rare lexeme.

πετρώδης: the parable and its explanation, and Mark's parallel verbal / quotation: confirmed

πετρώδη (G4075), “rock-like,” occurs in four verses and every one of them is this parable: Matthew 13:5 and 13:20, Mark 4:5 and 4:16. The Verifier also records εὐθέως (G2112) shared with Matthew 13:5 and Mark 4:5, the same adverb that brackets vv. 20 and 21. ⚙ The link is simply the pairing of parable and interpretation across the synoptics, but the lexical distribution is worth noting: the word for this soil exists in Scripture only to describe this failure. Benson's correction, “into stony, rather, rocky, places,” is carrying the lexical sense correctly.

Matthew 13:5 · Mark 4:5

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4075 πετρώδης (in 4 vv, rare) and G2112 εὐθέως (in 86 vv) with both Matthew 13:5 and Mark 4:5. Greek to Greek within the synoptic tradition.

A hundred, sixty, thirty: the same three numbers, in reverse verbal / quotation: confirmed

The unit's last three words, ἑκατὸν, ἑξήκοντα, τριάκοντα (G1540, G1835, G5144), repeat the yields of the parable proper at Matthew 13:8, and Mark 4:8 carries the same pair of the less common numerals. ⚙ The order descends in Matthew and ascends in Mark, which is a real difference and not a textual problem; nothing in the brief settles why. Pulpit preserves Bengel's reading of the gaps, that a hundred stands further from sixty than sixty from thirty, “Habenti dabitur.” Poole's counterweight stands in the same breath: unequal yield does not unmake good ground.

Matthew 13:8 · Mark 4:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5144 τριάκοντα (in 11 vv) and G1835 ἑξήκοντα (in 9 vv) with Matthew 13:8 and Mark 4:8; Matthew 13:8 also shares G3303 μέν (in 180 vv, common) and Mark 4:8 shares G1093 γῆ (in 223 vv, common), neither of which carries weight. The numerals are uncommon enough to bear the tier.

The triple tradition: Mark 4 and Luke 8 alongside this explanation structural / thematic: confirmed

The Verifier's strongest-scoring candidates for this unit are the parallel interpretations: Mark 4:15 to 4:20 and Luke 8:14. ⚙ But their computed bases are the commonest words in the New Testament, λόγος (318 verses), ἀκούω (398 verses), σπείρω (42 verses), and shared vocabulary of that frequency proves nothing by itself. I therefore record this link structurally rather than verbally: the basis is that these are the same pericope, told by the other two synoptists, and every commentator in the brief works from all three at once. Poole takes the identification of the seed from Luke 8:11 and the identification of the sower from Mark 4:14; Ellicott takes “in an honest and good heart” from Luke; Benson and Gill take the “lusts of other things” and the “pleasures of this life” from Mark and Luke respectively. None of that is in Matthew's text.

Mark 4:15 · Mark 4:19 · Mark 4:20 · Luke 8:14

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3056 λόγος (in 318 vv), G191 ἀκούω (in 398 vv), G4687 σπείρω (in 42 vv) across Mark 4:15 to 4:20 and Luke 8:14. Deliberately downgraded from verbal: the lexemes are too common to establish a quotation, and the real basis is that these are the synoptic parallels to the same discourse.

Fallow ground and thorns: Jeremiah behind the parable structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott, commenting on this verse, hears an older text under the whole parable: the hearers are to “break up the fallow ground and sow not among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3), “the words of an old prophet, which might almost seem to have suggested the parable itself.” ⚙ The two failing images of this unit, ground trodden hard and ground full of thorns, are exactly the two the prophet names, and the remedy he commands is a working of the soil, which is what Ellicott elsewhere says preachers must do. This link cannot be tiered verbal: Matthew is Greek and Jeremiah is Hebrew, so there is no shared Strong's number to compute, and the Verifier offered no basis for the pair. The recorded basis is Ellicott's own citation and the shared pair of images.

Jeremiah 4:3

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and a verbal tier is excluded on principle. The basis is the named source: Ellicott cites Jeremiah 4:3 at Matthew 13:23, plus the shared motif pair of unbroken ground and thorns. No quotation is claimed and the Verifier computed no lexical link.

Thorns burned: Matthew Henry's cross-reference to Hebrews 6 flagged: verify source

Henry, writing on the thorny ground, closes the image with a citation: worldly cares “are entangling, vexing, scratching, and their end is to be burned, Heb 6:8.” ⚙ The passage there does describe ground that drinks the rain and bears thorns, and is rejected and near to cursing. But I did not find this pair among the Verifier's computed candidates, so I have no lexical basis to record, and I have not run the check myself. I flag it: the connection is Henry's, it is plausible and old, and it is unverified here.

Hebrews 6:8

basis: No Verifier-computed shared lexeme for this pair; the link rests solely on Matthew Henry's own marginal citation at Matthew 13:22 (“their end is to be burned, Heb 6:8”). Provenance of the association is a single commentator, and the lexical overlap is unverified. Downgraded deliberately rather than asserted.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The sower unnamed here, named in the next parable ancient/widely-held

The explanation identifies the seed, the thief, the weeds and the four soils, and never identifies the man who sowed. Ellicott notices the omission and gives the canonical answer: “The interpretation is given in the parable of the Tares (‘the Sower of the good seed is the Son of Man’),” and suggests the silence was pedagogical, since the disciples “too were in their turn to be sowers as well as reapers.” Poole says the same from Mark: “the sower is the preacher, Christ in the first place, then all who derive from him as his ministers.” Henry states it without qualification: “The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers.” ⚙ Grammatically the point holds: σπείραντος is a participle, a man defined by an act already done, and Matthew supplies his name eighteen verses later. This is the plain and long-held reading, recorded here by Ellicott, Poole and Henry alike.

Matthew 13:37 · Mark 4:14

Root in himself: the one thing the second hearer lacked ancient/widely-held

The verdict on the second soil is οὐκ ἔχει ῥίζαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, and Gill's first move is to refuse the reflexive as a resting place: “Yet hath he not root in himself, ... Nor in Christ.” Poole reaches the same conclusion by another road, identifying the root not with resolve but with “a principle of grace in a heart truly touched with the love of God and of his truth,” which he equates with what “the apostle calls the seed of God.” ⚙ Paul's word for the believer's security is the cognate verb: rooted (ἐρριζωμένοι, from ῥιζόω) and built up in him (Colossians 2:7), and Christ's own image is the branch that cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides (John 15:4). I record the relation between ῥίζα and ῥιζόω as a lexical family resemblance, not as a Verifier-computed link, because the Verifier did not compute this pair. The theological point does not rest on the etymology: what the second hearer lacked was not stamina but union, and the text names its absence rather than its supply.

Colossians 2:7 · John 15:4

The grain that goes into the ground and the hundredfold novel

⚙ This is the tool's own reading and I mark it as such. Matthew's unit ends with seed in καλὴν γῆν yielding a hundred. John records Jesus saying that unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it abides alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit (John 12:24), and applying it to his own hour. Paul makes the same harvest the ground of the resurrection: Christ the firstfruits of them that slept (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). ⚙ So the parable's final image, a sown thing that yields far more than was put in, is the image Jesus himself later chose for his death. None of the commentators in this brief draws that line at Matthew 13:23; Ellicott's christological note here is about the sower, not the seed. I therefore mark this reading novel, offer it to be tested, and do not build any claim about this unit's meaning upon it.

John 12:24 · 1 Corinthians 15:20

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)
  • 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. The BSB base text is followed throughout. One variant is recorded in the sources: at v. 22 Pulpit notes the critical text reads τοῦ αἰῶνος alone, “omitting the τούτου of the Received Text,” so the familiar “this world” rests on a reading the Revisers did not follow. BSB renders the phrase “this life,” which departs from the lexical sense of αἰών (properly, an age) in either reading; the note at v. 22 index 17 flags this.

Grammar. Four times in this unit Matthew writes a masculine participle where the sense wants a neuter (ὁ σπαρείς, “the man sown,” at vv. 19, 20, 22, 23). Ellicott says our translators “try, unsuccessfully, to combine the parable with its interpretation”; Pulpit defends the masculine as deliberate. BSB regularises it to “The seed sown ... is the one who hears.” Readers should know the smoothing is there.

Sources. Ten commentators are attached to this passage in the brief; nine are cited. JFB is not, and the reason should be stated: the JFB entry reproduced at every verse of this unit is the note on Matthew 13:17 followed by the introduction to the parable of the Tares, and contains nothing on vv. 18 to 23. Citing it would have misrepresented what Jamieson, Fausset and Brown wrote about these verses. Henry's entry is likewise a single block on Matthew 13:1 to 23 reprinted at each verse, so his one citation here is placed where it actually touches the text. Several Geneva entries are the bare verse text with no gloss; the one substantive marginal note (at v. 19) is cited. The Benson entries at 13:19 and 13:22 are capped in the brief and were not fetched in full, so his argument may extend past what is quoted here.

Threads. Every Verifier candidate offered for this unit is a New Testament verse, so the Greek-to-Greek shared lexemes are usable as verbal bases. Where the computed basis was a high-frequency word (λόγος in 318 verses, ἀκούω in 398), the thread was deliberately downgraded to structural even though the synoptic parallel is certain. The Jeremiah 4:3 thread is cross-Testament and therefore cannot be tiered verbal on principle; it rests on Ellicott's citation. The Hebrews 6:8 thread rests on Henry's citation alone, with no computed lexical basis, and is flagged accordingly.

What is uncertain. The parable does not say why one soil was καλή, and the sources in this brief disagree about whether the question may even be asked here: Ellicott raises it and leaves it, Pulpit sets it aside as unsuitable for exhortation, Benson and Gill answer it from Ezekiel 36:26 and from doctrine rather than from this text. The synthesis above reports that disagreement and does not resolve it. The descending order of the three yields in Matthew against the ascending order in Mark is noted and not explained; nothing in the brief accounts for it.

✦ = 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)