13:33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with 9 three measures 10 of flour until all the dough had risen.” 11
21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner 12 who planted a vineyard. 13 He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then 14 he leased it to tenant farmers 15 and went on a journey.
1 tn Grk “having soldiers under me.”
2 sn I say to this one ‘Go’ and he goes. The illustrations highlight the view of authority the soldier sees in the word of one who has authority. Since the centurion was a commander of a hundred soldiers, he understood what it was both to command others and to be obeyed.
3 tn Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times… in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v. 1). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος) in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.
4 tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
5 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
6 tn The Greek word here is πόλις (polis), which can mean either “town” or “city.”
7 tn Grk “For truly (ἀμήν, amhn) I say to you.” Here γάρ (gar, “for”) has not been translated.
8 tn The Greek word here is πόλις (polis), which can mean either “town” or “city.” “Town” was chosen here to emphasize the extensive nature of the disciples’ ministry. The same word is translated earlier in the verse as “place.”
9 tn Grk “hid in.”
10 sn This measure was a saton, the Greek name for the Hebrew term “seah.” Three of these was a very large quantity of flour, since a saton is a little over 16 pounds (7 kg) of dry measure (or 13.13 liters). So this was over 47 lbs (21 kg) of flour total, enough to feed over a hundred people.
11 tn Grk “it was all leavened.”
sn The parable of the yeast and the dough teaches that the kingdom of God will start small but eventually grow to permeate everything. Jesus’ point was not to be deceived by its seemingly small start, the same point made in the parable of the mustard seed, which preceded this one.
12 tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.
13 sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.
14 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
15 sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.
16 tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.
17 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
18 sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in
19 tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”