Why Jesus Spoke in Parables
The disciples asked the question outright — Matthew 13:10 — and Jesus answered it from Isaiah 6. One form of speech that reveals and conceals at once, and the text says both without blushing.
Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries.
Framework
The question the disciples asked
The same day the scribes said "he casteth out devils by Beelzebub" (Matt 12:24), Jesus "went out of the house, and sat by the sea side" (13:1), stepped into a boat, and changed the shape of his teaching. When the disciples came to him, their question was the one every reader has asked since: "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?" (13:10).
His answer holds two movements in a single breath. Revelation: "it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven… blessed are your eyes, for they see" (13:11, 16). Concealment: "but to them it is not given… therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not" (13:11, 13) — and then he quotes Isaiah 6:9–10 in full, with the fulfillment formula (13:14–15). This page sets the two texts face to face and lets the confrontation do the teaching.
Framework summary drawn from the parables-why research brief (2026-07-22): Scripture KJV (PD); quotation rows per atlas lens 02.
Isaiah's commission, quoted five times
Isaiah 6:9–10 is not a proof-text plucked once. It is quoted or directly taken up in all four Gospels and Acts: Matthew 13:14–15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:39–41 — where John adds, "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him" — and Acts 28:26–27, Paul's last recorded scene. The New Testament reaches for this one passage whenever the word of God meets ears that will not hear.
Isaiah's own scene bounds the hardening: the prophet asks "Lord, how long?" and is answered "Until the cities be wasted" (6:11) — and the chapter's last clause plants a survivor: "the holy seed shall be the substance thereof" (6:13). Whether the parable's veil is judgment, mercy with a horizon, or both, is the contested question the page keeps behind a labeled door — with the Greek data (Mark's hina, "that," against Matthew's hoti, "because") displayed rather than resolved.
Sources: the research brief §1.5, §4.1–4.2; positions of Chrysostom (Homilies on Matthew 45, PD), Calvin (Harmony, 1555, PD), Trench (Notes on the Parables, 1841, PD) paraphrased with attribution; Jeremias (1954/1972) cite-only.
Where the founder plants his flag
In the dispensational reading the founder holds, Matthew 13 is a turning point: after the rejection of Matthew 12, Jesus unveils the interim form of the kingdom in mystery. That reading is presented first-class below, with the inaugurated-kingdom reading steelmanned beside it. Pastor Marc's own commentary on the chapter will be planted here.
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The question, asked in the text
The disciples asked it first: “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?” (Matt 13:10). Jesus’ answer is the only place in the Gospels where he explains his own teaching method — and it faces two directions at once. To the disciples: “it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (13:11). Of the crowd: “therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not” (13:13). Then he reaches back seven centuries and quotes Isaiah’s commission, word for word.
This page sets the two texts on facing pages — Matthew’s answer beside Isaiah’s commission — because the confrontation is the argument. Everything else here is apparatus around that spread.
The scene
A boat for a pulpit
Matthew 13 facing Isaiah 6The facing pages
Jesus does not paraphrase Isaiah; Matthew records the citation in full, with the fulfillment formula — “in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias” (13:14). Read the columns line against line: the waxed-gross heart, the heavy ears, the closed eyes — and the healing both texts hold at the end of the sentence.
The answer
Matthew 13:13–15
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes… and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Matthew 13:13–15, KJV. Matthew’s conjunction is hoti — “becausethey seeing see not.”
The commission
Isaiah 6:9–10
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isaiah 6:9–10, KJV — from the commission scene (Isa 6:1–13), the year king Uzziah died. Mark’s parallel keeps Isaiah’s purpose-grammar: hina, “thatseeing they may see, and not perceive” (Mark 4:12).
One commission, five hearingsThe reception
Isaiah 6:9–10 is quoted or directly taken up in all four Gospels and Acts — the passage the New Testament reaches for whenever the word of God meets ears that will not hear. Every row is checkable at its verse.
| Passage | The text (KJV) | Who speaks, and where |
|---|---|---|
| Matt 13:14–15 | By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. | Jesus, answering the disciples' question — the only citation with the full fulfillment formula. |
| Mark 4:12 | That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand. | The same scene in Mark — with the Greek hina (“that”), the purpose-clause the debate turns on. |
| Luke 8:10 | Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see. | Luke's compressed form of the same answer. |
| John 12:39–41 | He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart… These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. | The evangelist's verdict on the unbelief of the crowds — and John's claim that Isaiah's throne-room vision was a vision of Christ. |
| Acts 28:26–27 | Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. | Paul's last recorded scene, to the synagogue leaders at Rome — the NT's final citation of the commission. |
Revelation and concealment, in one chapterBoth at once
The chapter refuses to choose. The concealment texts are real: “to them it is not given… from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (13:11–12). And the revelation texts are just as real: “blessed are your eyes, for they see… many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see” (13:16–17). Twenty verses later Matthew quotes Psalm 78:2 to say the parables utter“things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (13:34–35) — the same form that veils the unreceptive discloses buried treasure to the listening.
The Greek word itself carries the double motion: parabolē (from paraballō, “to cast alongside”) is a comparison laid beside a truth — beside it, so that seeing it still takes ears to hear. In the New Testament the word belongs to the Synoptics (with two uses in Hebrews); John’s Gospel uses paroimia instead. The Hebrew field behind it is mashal— proverb, byword, dark saying — the very word of Psalm 78:2.
Word data: Strong’s/Thayer (PD), resident lexicon — see the word doors below. Quotation rows: the site’s OT-in-NT ledger (atlas lens 02).
Contested
◈Does the parable conceal by design — or describe a dullness already there?contested · three readings and a framework question, none adjudicated
The judicial reading
Mark’s hina (“thatseeing they may see, and not perceive”) keeps the grammar of Isaiah’s commission, where hardening is the appointed effect of the prophet’s word. On this reading the same word that illumines the disciples judicially blinds hearts already set against it — Calvin reads the passage this way in his Harmony.
John Calvin· Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, on Matt 13 (1555, PD) — paraphrase
The responsibility reading
Matthew’s hoti (“because they seeing see not”) locates the cause in the hearers. Chrysostom presses this: the dullness was self-inflicted before the parable ever met it, and the vivid story-form was chosen to stir attention, not to shut anyone out.
John Chrysostom· Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Hom. 45 (4th c., PD) — paraphrase
The double office — and the philologist’s caution
Trench’s classic statement holds both faces without softening either: the parable has a double office, revealing truth to the receptive while veiling it from the hostile. Jeremias added a caution from the Aramaic: one underlying particle could yield both Mark’s “that” and Matthew’s “because,” so the Greek fork may translate a single ambiguous original.
Richard Chenevix Trench· Notes on the Parables of Our Lord (1841, PD) — paraphrase
Joachim Jeremias· The Parables of Jesus (SCM, ET 1954/1972) — cite-only
The framework question — what turned at Matthew 13?
In the dispensational reading the founder holds, Matthew 13 follows the rejection of Matthew 12 as a turning point: Jesus unveils the “mysteries” — the previously unrevealed interim form of the kingdom between rejection and return. The inaugurated reading answers that the mystery is the kingdom genuinely present in advance of its consummation — not postponed but inaugurated. Both cited; neither adjudicated here.
Alva J. McClain· The Greatness of the Kingdom (Moody, 1959) — cite-only
Stanley D. Toussaint· Behold the King (Multnomah, 1980) — cite-only
George Eldon Ladd· The Presence of the Future (Eerdmans, 1974) — cite-only
Isaiah’s own “How long?” (6:11–13) bounds the hardening and ends with a holy seed — data both sides must carry. No confidence badges; the founder’s flag is noted and the alternatives are cited at strength.
Scripture’s own cross-lightsWhy these links
“Without a parable spake he not unto them” (Matt 13:34)
I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old. (Psalm 78:2)
Matthew quotes this line as fulfilled (13:35): the parable also UTTERS “things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Concealment and disclosure stand in the same chapter.
“Blessed are your eyes, for they see” (Matt 13:16)
And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see. (Luke 10:23–24)
Luke marks the saying as spoken privately — the two-audience structure of the parable day, corroborated from another Gospel.
“Lord, how long?” (Isa 6:11)
Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant… so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. (Isaiah 6:11–13)
Isaiah's own question bounds the hardening: it runs to a horizon, and a seed survives it. Whatever the veil is, the chapter that decrees it also plants a survivor.
Hear the whole day for yourself
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