Discovery BoxMatthew 13:19-23 
Context13:19 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
Matthew 13:38-43
Context13:38 The field is the world and the good seed are the people 11 of the kingdom. The weeds are the people 12 of the evil one, 13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 13:40 As 13 the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. 14 13:42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, 15 where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. 16 The one who has ears had better listen! 17
Matthew 13:47-48
Context13:47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea that caught all kinds of fish. 13:48 When it was full, they pulled it ashore, sat down, and put the good fish into containers and threw the bad away.
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”).
11 tn Grk “the sons of the kingdom.” This idiom refers to people who should properly be, or were traditionally regarded as, a part of God’s kingdom. L&N 11.13 translates the phrase: “people of God’s kingdom, God’s people.”
12 tn Grk “the sons of the evil one.” See the preceding note on the phrase “people of the kingdom” earlier in this verse, which is the opposite of this phrase. See also L&N 9.4; 11.13; 11.14.
13 tn Grk “Therefore as.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.
14 tn Grk “the ones who practice lawlessness.”
15 sn A quotation from Dan 3:6.
16 sn An allusion to Dan 12:3.
17 tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).
