00400
 \\The rocky places\\ (\\ta petr“dˆ\\). In that limestone country ledges
 of rock often jut out with thin layers of soil upon the layers of
 rock. \\Straightway they sprang up\\ (\\euthe“s exaneteilen\\). "Shot up
 at once" (Moffatt). Double compound (\\ex\\, out of the ground, \\ana\\,
 up). Ingressive aorist of \\exanatell“\\.

00401
 \\The sun was risen\\ (\\hˆliou anateilantos\\). Genitive absolute. "The
 sun having sprung up" also, same verb except the absence of \\ex\\
 (\\anatell“, exanatell“\\).

00402
 \\The thorns grew up\\ (\\anebˆsan hai akanthai\\). Not "sprang up" as in
 verse
 # 5
 for a different verb occurs meaning "came up" out of the ground,
 the seeds of the thorns being already in the soil, "upon the
 thorns" (\\epi tas akanthas\\) rather than "among the thorns." But
 the thorns got a quick start as weeds somehow do and "choked
 them" (\\apepnixan auta\\, effective aorist of \\apopnig“\\), "choked
 them off" literally. Luke
 # Lu 8:33
 uses it of the hogs in the water. Who has not seen vegetables and
 flowers and corn made yellow by thorns and weeds till they sicken
 and die?

00403
 \\Yielded fruit\\ (\\edidou karpon\\). Change to imperfect tense of
 \\did“mi\\, to give, for it was continuous fruit-bearing. \\Some a\\
 \\hundredfold\\ (\\ho men hekaton\\). Variety, but fruit. This is the
 only kind that is worth while. The hundredfold is not an
 exaggeration (cf.
 # Ge 26:12
 Such instances are given by Wetstein for Greece, Italy, and
 Africa. Herodotus (i. 93) says that in Babylonia grain yielded
 two hundredfold and even to three hundredfold. This, of course,
 was due to irrigation as in the Nile Valley.

00404
 \\He that hath ears let him hear\\ (\\ho ech“n “ta akouet“\\), So also in
 # 11:15
 and
 # 13:43
 It is comforting to teachers and preachers to observe that even
 Jesus had to exhort people to listen and to understand his
 sayings, especially his parables. They will bear the closest
 thought and are often enigmatical.

00405
 \\Why speakest thou unto them in parables?\\ (\\dia ti en parabolais\\
 \\laleis autois\\). Already the disciples are puzzled over the
 meaning of this parable and the reason for giving them to the
 people. So they "came up" closer to Jesus and asked him. Jesus
 was used to questions and surpassed all teachers in his replies.

00406
 \\To know the mysteries\\ (\\gn“nai ta mustˆria\\). Second aorist active
 infinitive of \\gin“sk“\\. The word \\mustˆrion\\ is from \\mustˆs\\, one
 initiated, and that from \\mue“\\ (\\mu“\\), to close or shut (Latin,
 _mutus_). The mystery-religions of the east had all sorts of
 secrets and signs as secret societies do today. But those
 initiated knew them. So the disciples have been initiated into
 the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Paul will use it freely of
 the mystery once hidden, but now revealed, now made known in
 Christ
 # Ro 16:25; 1Co 2:7
 etc.). In
 # Php 4:12
 Paul says: "I have learned the secret or been initiated"
 (\\memuˆmai\\). So Jesus here explains that his parables are open to
 the disciples, but shut to the Pharisees with their hostile
 minds. In the Gospels \\mustˆrion\\ is used only here and in the
 parallel passages
 # Mr 4:11; Lu 8:10

00407
00408
 \\Because seeing\\ (\\hoti blepontes\\). In the parallel passages in
 # Mr 4:12
 and
 # Lu 8:10
 we find \\hina\\ with the subjunctive. This does not necessarily mean
 that in Mark and Luke \\hina=hoti\\ with the causal sense, though a
 few rare instances of such usage may be found in late Greek. For
 a discussion of the problem see my chapter on "The Causal Use of
 _Hina_"  in _Studies in Early Christianity_ (1928) edited by
 Prof. S.J. Case. Here in Matthew we have first "an adaptation of
 # Isa 6:9
 which is quoted in full in v.
 # 14
 " (McNeile). Thus Matthew presents "a striking paradox, 'though
 they see, they do not (really) see'" (McNeile). Cf.
 # Joh 9:41
 The idiom here in Matthew gives no trouble save in comparison
 with Mark and Luke which will be discussed in due turn. The form
 \\suniousin\\ is an omega verb form (\\suni“\\) rather than the \\mi\\
 verb (\\suniˆmi\\) as is common in the _Koin‚_.

00409
 \\Is fulfilled\\ (\\anaplˆroutai\\). Aoristic present passive indicative.
 Here Jesus points out the fulfilment and not with Matthew's usual
 formula (\\hina\\ or \\hop“s pl“rˆthˆi to rhˆthen\\ (see
 # 1:22
 The verb \\anaplˆro“\\ occurs nowhere else in the Gospels, but occurs
 in the Pauline Epistles. It means to fill up like a cup, to fill
 another's place
 # 1Co 14:16
 to fill up what is lacking
 # Php 2:30
 Here it means that the prophecy of Isaiah is fully satisfied in
 the conduct of the Pharisees and Jesus himself points it out.
 Note two ways of reproducing the Hebrew idiom (infinitive
 absolute), one by \\akoˆi\\ the other by \\blepontes\\. Note also the
 strong negative \\ou mˆ\\ with aorist subjunctive.

00410
 \\Is waxed gross\\ (\\epachunthˆ\\). Aorist passive tense. From \\pachus\\,
 thick, fat, stout. Made callous or dull -- even fatty
 degeneration of the heart. \\Dull of hearing\\ (\\tois “sin bare“s\\
 \\ˆkousan\\). Another aorist. Literally, "They heard (or hear)
 heavily with their ears." The hard of hearing are usually
 sensitive. \\Their eyes they have closed\\ (\\tous ophthalmous aut“n\\
 \\ekammusan\\). The epic and vernacular verb \\kammu“\\ is from \\katamu“\\
 (to shut down). We say shut up of the mouth, but the eyes really
 shut down. The Hebrew verb in
 # Isa 6:10
 means to smear over. The eyes can be smeared with wax or cataract
 and thus closed. "Sealing up the eyes was an oriental punishment"
 (Vincent). See
 # Isa 29:10; 44:18
 \\Lest\\ (\\mˆpote\\). This negative purpose as a judgment is left in the
 quotation from Isaiah. It is a solemn thought for all who read or
 hear the word of God. \\And I should heal them\\ (\\kai iasomai\\
 \\autous\\). Here the LXX changes to the future indicative rather
 than the aorist subjunctive as before.

00411
 \\Blessed are your eyes\\ (\\hum“n de makarioi hoi ophthalmoi\\). A
 beatitude for the disciples in contrast with the Pharisees. Note
 position of "Happy" here also as in the Beatitudes in
 # Mt 5

00412
00413
 \\Hear then ye the parable\\ (\\humeis oun akousate tˆn parabolˆn\\).
 Jesus has given in
 # 13:13
 one reason for his use of parables, the condemnation which the
 Pharisees have brought on themselves by their spiritual dulness:
 "Therefore I speak to them in parables" (\\dia touto en parab“lais\\
 \\antois lal“\\). He can go on preaching the mysteries of the kingdom
 without their comprehending what he is saying, but he is anxious
 that the disciples really get personal knowledge (\\gn“nai\\, verse
 # 11
 of these same mysteries. So he explains in detail what he means
 to teach by the Parable of the Sower. He appeals to them (note
 position of \\h–meis\\) to listen as he explains.

00414
 \\When anyone heareth\\ (\\pantos akouontos\\). Genitive absolute and
 present participle, "while everyone is listening and not
 comprehending" (\\mˆ sunientos\\), "not putting together" or "not
 grasping." Perhaps at that very moment Jesus observed a puzzled
 look on some faces.

 \\Cometh the evil one and snatcheth away\\ (\\erchetai ho ponˆros kai\\
 \\harpazei\\). The birds pick up the seeds while the sower sows. The
 devil is busy with his job of snatching or seizing like a bandit
 or rogue the word of the kingdom before it has time even to
 sprout. How quickly after the sermon the impression is gone.
 "This is he" (\\houtos estin\\). Matthew, like Mark, speaks of the
 people who hear the words as the seed itself. That creates some
 confusion in this condensed form of what Jesus actually said, but
 the real point is clear. \\The seed sown in his heart\\ (\\to\\
 \\esparmenon en tˆi kardiƒi autou\\, perfect passive participle of
 \\speir“\\, to sow) and "the man sown by the wayside" (\\ho para tˆn\\
 \\hodon spareis\\, aorist passive participle, along the wayside) are
 identified. The seed in the heart is not of itself responsible,
 but the man who lets the devil snatch it away.

00415
00416
 \\Yet hath he not root in himself\\ (\\ouk echei de rhizan en heaut“i\\).
 Cf.
 # Col 2:7
 and
 # Eph 3:18
 \\erriz“memoi\\. Stability like a tree. Here the man has a mushroom
 growth and "endureth for a while" (\\proskairos\\), temporary, quick
 to sprout, quick to stumble (\\skandalizetai\\). What a picture of
 some converts in our modern revivals. They drop away overnight
 because they did not have the root of the matter in them. This
 man does not last or hold out.

 \\Tribulation\\ (\\thlipse“s\\). From \\thlib“\\, to press, to oppress, to
 squeeze (cf.
 # 7:14
 The English word is from the Latin _tribulum_, the roller used by
 the Romans for pressing wheat. Cf. our "steam roller" Trench
 (_Synonyms of the N.T._, pp. 202-4): "When, according to the
 ancient law of England, those who wilfully refused to plead, had
 heavy weights placed on their breasts, and were pressed and
 crushed to death, this was literally \\thlipsis\\." The iron cage was
 \\stenoch“ria\\.

00417
 \\Choke the word\\ (\\sunpnigei ton logon\\). We had \\apepnixan\\ (choked
 off) in
 # 13:7
 Here it is \\sunpnigei\\ (choke together), historical present and
 singular with both subjects lumped together. "Lust for money and
 care go together and between them spoil many an earnest religious
 nature" (Bruce), "thorns" indeed. The thorns flourish and the
 character sickens and dies, choked to death for lack of spiritual
 food, air, sunshine.

00418
 \\Verily beareth fruit\\ (\\dˆ karpophorei\\). Who in reality (\\dˆ\\) does
 bear fruit (cf.
 # Mt 7:16-20
 The fruit reveals the character of the tree and the value of the
 straw for wheat. Some grain must come else it is only chaff,
 straw, worthless. The first three classes have no fruit and so
 show that they are unfruitful soil, unsaved souls and lives.
 There is variety in those who do bear fruit, but they have some
 fruit. The lesson of the parable as explained by Jesus is
 precisely this, the variety in the results of the seed sown
 according to the soil on which it falls. Every teacher and
 preacher knows how true this is. It is the teacher's task as the
 sower to sow the right seed, the word of the kingdom. The soil
 determines the outcome. There are critics today who scout this
 interpretation of the parable by Jesus as too allegorical with
 too much detail and probably not that really given by Jesus since
 modern scholars are not agreed on the main point of the parable.
 But the average Christian sees the point all right. This parable
 was not meant to explain all the problems of human life.

00419
 \\Set he before them\\ (\\parethˆken\\). So again in
 # 13:31
 He placed another parable beside (\\para\\) the one already given and
 explained. The same verb (\\paratheinai\\) occurs in
 # Lu 9:16
 \\Is likened\\ (\\h“moi“thˆ\\). Timeless aorist passive and a common way
 of introducing these parables of the kingdom where a comparison
 is drawn
 # 18:23; 22:2; 25:1
 The case of \\anthr“p“i\\ is associative instrumental.

00420
 \\While men slept\\ (\\en t“i katheudein tous anthr“pous\\). Same use of
 the articular present infinitive with \\en\\ and the accusative as in
 # 13:4
 \\Sowed tares also\\ (\\epespeiren ta zizania\\). Literally "sowed upon,"
 "resowed" (Moffatt). The enemy deliberately sowed "the darnel"
 (\\zizania\\ is not "tares," but "darnel," a bastard wheat) over
 (\\epi\\) the wheat, "in the midst of the wheat." This bearded
 darnel, _lolium temulentum_, is common in Palestine and resembles
 wheat except that the grains are black. In its earlier stages it
 is indistinguishable from the wheat stalks so that it has to
 remain till near the harvest. Modern farmers are gaining more
 skill in weeding it out.

00421
 \\Then appeared also\\ (\\tote ephanˆ kai\\). The darnel became plain
 (\\ephanˆ\\, second aorist passive, effective aorist of \\phain“\\ to
 show) by harvest.

00422
00423
00424
 \\Ye root up the wheat with them\\ (\\ekriz“sˆte hama autois ton\\
 \\siton\\). Literally, "root out." Easy to do with the roots of wheat
 and darnel intermingled in the field. So \\sullegontes\\ is not
 "gather up," but "gather together," here and verses
 # 28
 and
 # 30
 Note other compound verbs here, "grow together" (\\sunauxanesthai\\),
 "burn up" (\\katakausai\\, burn down or completely), "bring together"
 (\\sunagete\\).

00425
 \\My barn\\ (\\tˆn apothˆkˆn mou\\). See already
 # 3:12; 6:26
 Granary, storehouse, place for putting things away.

00426
 \\Is like\\ (\\homoia estin\\). Adjective for comparison with associative
 instrumental as in
 # 13:13,44,45,47,52
 \\Grain of mustard seed\\ (\\kokk“i sinape“s\\). Single grain in contrast
 with the collective \\sperma\\
 # 17:20
 \\Took and sowed\\ (\\lab“n espeiren\\). Vernacular phrasing like Hebrew
 and all conversational style. In _Koin‚_.

00427
 \\A tree\\ (\\dendron\\). "Not in nature, but in size" (Bruce). "An
 excusable exaggeration in popular discourse."

00428
 \\Is like unto leaven\\ (\\homoia estin zumˆi\\). In its pervasive power.
 Curiously enough some people deny that Jesus here likens the
 expanding power of the Kingdom of heaven to leaven, because, they
 say, leaven is the symbol of corruption. But the language of
 Jesus is not to be explained away by such exegetical jugglery.
 The devil is called like a lion by Peter
 # 1Pe 5:8
 and Jesus in Revelation is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
 # Re 5:5
 The leaven permeates all the "wheaten meal" (\\aleurou\\) till the
 whole is leavened. There is nothing in the "three measures,"
 merely a common amount to bake. Dr. T.R. Glover in his _Jesus of
 History_ suggests that Jesus used to notice his mother using that
 amount of wheat flour in baking bread. To find the Trinity here
 is, of course, quite beside the mark. The word for leaven, \\zumˆ\\,
 is from \\ze“\\, to boil, to seethe, and so pervasive fermentation.

00429
00430
 \\I will utter\\ (\\ereuxomai\\). To cast forth like a river, to gurgle,
 to disgorge, the passion of a prophet. From
 # Ps 19:2; 78:2
 The Psalmist claims to be able to utter "things hidden from the
 foundation of the world" and Matthew applies this language to the
 words of Jesus. Certain it is that the life and teaching of Jesus
 throw a flood of light on the purposes of God long kept hidden
 (\\kekrummena\\).

00431
 \\Explain unto us\\ (\\diasaphˆson hˆmin\\). Also in
 # 18:31
 "Make thoroughly clear right now" (aorist tense of urgency). The
 disciples waited till Jesus left the crowds and got into the
 house to ask help on this parable. Jesus had opened up the
 Parable of the Sower and now they pick out this one, passing by
 the mustard seed and the leaven.

00432
00433
 \\The field is the world\\ (\\ho de agros estin ho kosmos\\). The article
 with both "field" and "world" in Greek means that subject and
 predicate are coextensive and so interchangeable. It is extremely
 important to understand that both the good seed and the darnel
 (tares) are sown in the world, not in the Kingdom, not in the
 church. The separation comes at the consummation of the age
 (\\sunteleia ai“nos\\,
 # 39
 the harvest time. They all grow together in the field (the
 world).

00434
00435
00436
 \\Out of his kingdom\\ (\\ek tˆs basileias autou\\). Out from the midst
 of the kingdom, because in every city the good and the bad are
 scattered and mixed together. Cf. \\ek mesou t“n dikai“n\\ in
 # 13:49
 "from the midst of the righteous." What this means is that, just
 as the wheat and the darnel are mixed together in the field till
 the separation at harvest, so the evil are mixed with the good in
 the world (the field). Jesus does not mean to say that these
 "stumbling-blocks" (\\ta skandala\\) are actually in the Kingdom of
 heaven and really members of the Kingdom. They are simply mixed
 in the field with the wheat and God leaves them in the world till
 the separation comes. Their destiny is "the furnace of fire" (\\tˆn\\
 \\kaminon tou puros\\).

00437
00438
 \\Shine forth\\ (\\eklampsousin\\). Shine out as the sun comes from
 behind a cloud (Vincent) and drive away the darkness after the
 separation has come (cf.
 # Da 12:3

00439
 \\And hid\\ (\\kai ekrupsen\\). Not necessarily bad morality. "He may
 have hid it to prevent it being stolen, or to prevent himself
 from being anticipated in buying a field" (Plummer). But if it
 was a piece of sharp practice, that is not the point of the
 parable. That is, the enormous wealth of the Kingdom for which
 any sacrifice, all that one has, is not too great a price to pay.

00440
00441
 \\He went and sold\\ (\\apelth“n pepraken\\). Rather eagerly and vividly
 told thus, "He has gone off and sold." The present perfect
 indicative, the dramatic perfect of vivid picture. Then he bought
 it. Present perfect, imperfect, aorist tenses together for lively
 action. \\Empor“i\\ is a merchant, one who goes in and out, travels
 like a drummer.

00442
 \\A net\\ (\\sagˆnˆi\\). Drag-net. Latin, _sagena_, English, seine. The
 ends were stretched out and drawn together. Only example of the
 word in the N.T. Just as the field is the world, so the drag-net
 catches all the fish that are in the sea. The separation comes
 afterwards. Vincent pertinently quotes Homer's _Odyssey_ (xxii.
 384-389) where the slain suitors in the halls of Ulysses are
 likened to fishes on the shore caught by nets with myriad meshes.

00443
 \\Vessels\\ (\\aggˆ\\). Here only in the N.T. In
 # Mt 25:4
 we have \\aggeia\\.

00444
00445
00446
00447
 \\Made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven\\ (\\matheteutheis tˆi\\
 \\basileiƒi t“n ouran“n\\). First aorist passive participle. The verb
 is transitive in
 # 28:19
 Here a scribe is made a learner to the kingdom. "The mere scribe,
 Rabbinical in spirit, produces only the old and stale. The
 disciple of the kingdom like the Master, is always fresh-minded,
 yet knows how to value all old spiritual treasures of Holy Writ,
 or Christian tradition" (Bruce). So he uses things fresh (\\kaina\\)
 and ancient (\\palaia\\). "He hurls forth" (\\ekballei\\) both sorts.

00448
00449
 \\Is not this the carpenter's son?\\ (\\ouch houtos estin ho tou\\
 \\tekt“nos huios?\\). The well-known, the leading, or even for a time
 the only carpenter in Nazareth till Jesus took the place of
 Joseph as the carpenter. What the people of Nazareth could not
 comprehend was how one with the origin and environment of Jesus
 here in Nazareth could possess the wisdom which he appeared to
 have in his teaching (\\edidasken\\). That has often puzzled people
 how a boy whom they knew could become the man he apparently is
 after leaving them. They knew Joseph, Mary, the brothers (four of
 them named) and sisters (names not given). Jesus passed here as
 the son of Joseph and these were younger brothers and sisters
 (half brothers and sisters technically).