Matthew 13:19
13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one 1 comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; 2 this is the seed sown along the path.
Matthew 13:23
13:23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” 3
Matthew 13:27
13:27 So the slaves 4 of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’
Matthew 25:24
25:24 Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,
1 sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for Satan here: Mark 4:15 has “Satan,” while Luke 8:12 has “the devil.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.
2 sn The word of Jesus has the potential to save if it germinates in a person’s heart, something the devil is very much against.
3 tn The Greek is difficult to translate because it switches from a generic “he” to three people within this generic class (thus, something like: “Who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one instance a hundred times, in another, sixty times, in another, thirty times”).
4 tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.