Matthew 13:19-23

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. 13:20 The ³  seed sown on rocky ground ⁴  is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 13:21 But he has no root in himself and does not endure; ⁵  when ⁶  trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. 13:22 The ⁷  seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth ⁸  choke the word, ⁹  so it produces nothing. 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.” ¹⁰ 

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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 Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁴ tn Grk “The one sown on rocky ground, this is the one.” The next two statements like this one have this same syntactical structure.

⁵ tn Grk “is temporary.”

⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁸ tn Grk “the deceitfulness of riches.” Cf. BDAG 99 s.v. ἀπάτη 1, “the seduction which comes from wealth.”

⁹ sn That is, their concern for spiritual things is crowded out by material things.

¹⁰ 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”).