Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Hear then ye the parable of the sower.
`Ye, therefore, hear ye the simile of the sower:
Ye, therefore, hear the parable of the sower.
Matthew — The Gospel of the promised King. Five discourses punctuate the narrative; roughly sixty-five Old Testament citations bind the story to the prophets.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches8
And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
Now this is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Then His disciples asked Him what this parable meant.
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, where it was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
Voices4
(Verse 19.) Everyone who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it. By saying this beforehand, he exhorts us to listen more attentively to what is being said. He comes, the wicked one, and snatches away what was sown in his heart; this is the one who was sown along the path.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew, 420patristic
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. That is, the interpretation of the parable; for they had heard the parable before, and had desired an explanation of it; which, though not mentioned by Matthew, is, by the other evangelists, Mar 4:10, Luk 8:9 and since it was given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, therefore Christ calls upon them to attend unto, and hear, so as to understand the spiritual meaning of this parable. Mark relates, that he moreover said to his disciples at this time, "know ye not this parable?"
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)reformed
See also Mar 4:13-20; Luk 8:11-15. Hear ye, therefore, the parable of the sower. That is, hear the explanation or the spiritual meaning of the narrative given before. Mark adds Mar 4:13, Know ye not this parable? And how, then, shall ye know all parables? By which it seems that the Saviour regarded this as one of the simplest and plainest of the parables, and gave an explanation of it that they might understand the general principles of interpreting others.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical
Others fell into good ground, and it is pity but that good seed should always meet with good soil, and then there is no loss; such are good hearers of the word,
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
