Luke 8:12

ἀκούσαντες אBL and most edd.

12. οἱ δὲ παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν. The prepositions are used with accurate variety, παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν, ἐπὶ τῆς πέτρας, εἰς τὰς�, ἐν τῇ καλῇ γῇ. The word σπαρέντες must be understood from σπόρος. The seed is (grammatically) identified with those into whose hearts it is sown. More definitely the phrase would have been ‘The seed sown by the wayside indicates the moral condition of those who, &c.’ Notice the intensity of thought which identifies the scattered seeds with those in whose hearts they are sown. “The way is the heart beaten and dried by the passage of evil thoughts.” H. de S. Victore. These are hearers who are hardened—either beaten flat (i) by lifeless familiarity—heartless formalists, Pharisaic theologians, and insincere professors; or (ii) by perversity and indifference, the habit and custom of a worldly and dissolute life.

ὁ διάβολος. The Accuser or Slanderer. St Mark has “the wicked one,” St Matthew, “Satan.”

αἴρει. ‘Snatches,’ Matthew 13:19.—It is done in a moment; by a smile at the end of the sermon; by a silly criticism at the church door; by foolish gossip on the way home. These are “the fowls of the air” whom the Evil One uses in this task.

ἀπὸ τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, not as in A.V[176], “out of their hearts,” for the prep. is not ἐκ but ἀπό, “from their heart.” The seed had not sunk in; it only lay on the surface.

[176] A.V. Authorised Version.

ἵνα μὴ πιστεύσαντες σωθῶσιν. ‘That they may not by believing be saved.’ “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip,” or rather “drift away from them,” Hebrews 2:1.