Matthew 13:19

παντὸς ἀκούοντος, in the case of any one who hears, “for the classical ἐάν τις ἀκούσῃ ” (Camb. G. T.). It may be a case of interrupted construction, the sentence beginning with the intention to make the genitive dependent on an ἐκ τῆς καρδίας before ἁρπάζει (so Weiss). τὸν λόγον τῆς βασιλείας : the Sower, unlike the other parables in this chapter, contains no hint that it concerns the kingdom. But in Christ's discourses that almost went without saying. μὴ συνιέντος : “not taking it in,” a phrase which happily combines the physical fact of the parable with the figurative sense. ὁ πονηρός, the evil one, Satan, represented by the innocent birds of the parable. What a different use of the emblem from that in Matthew 6:26! ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ : we should hardly say of truth not understood that it had been sown in the heart. But heart is used in Scripture in a wide sense, as the seat of intellect as well as of feeling. The word in the case supposed is in the mind, as the seed is in the ground: on it, if not in it; in it as words, if not as truth. οὗτός ἐστιν, etc., this is he sown, etc., said of the man, not of the seed. Sign and thing signified identified, cf. “this is my body”. Properly, the seed sown, etc., represents the case of such a man. So throughout the interpretation.