Matthew 13:3

Bible in Basic English (1941)

And he gave them teaching in the form of a story, saying, A man went out to put seed in the earth;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς, λέγων, Ἰδού, ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων τοῦ σπείρειν·

Transliteration

And elalēsen to them polla in parabolais, legōn, Idou, exēlthen the speirōn tou speirein;

Grammar Details

• *elalēsen*: aorist, 3rd singular - spoke/said
• *autois*: dative, masculine, plural - to them
• *polla*: accusative, neuter, plural - many things
• *en*: preposition + dative - in/with
• *parabolais*: dative, feminine, plural - parables
• *legōn*: present participle, nominative, masculine, singular - saying
• *Idou*: imperative - behold/look
• *exēlthen*: aorist, 3rd singular - went out
• *speirōn*: present participle, nominative, masculine, singular - sower/one who sows
• *tou speirein*: genitive article + present infinitive - to sow/for sowing [purpose]

Word Meanings

• *elalēsen*: spoke/said/talked
• *parabolais*: parables/similitudes/analogies
• *Idou*: behold/look/see
• *speirōn*: sower/one who sows/seeder
• *tou speirein*: to sow/for the purpose of sowing

Referenced Verses

• Mark 4:2-9 : 2 And he gave them teaching about a number of things in the form of stories, and said to them in his teaching, Give ear: 3 A man went out to put seed in the earth: 4 And while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside, and the birds came and took it for food. 5 And some went on the stones, where it had not much earth; and it came up straight away, because the earth was not deep: 6 And when the sun was high, it was burned; and because it had no root, it became dry and dead. 7 And some went among the thorns, and the thorns came up, and it had no room for growth and gave no fruit. 8 And some, falling on good earth, gave fruit, coming up and increasing, and giving thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much. 9 And he said to them, Whoever has ears, let him give ear.
• Mark 4:13 : 13 And he said to them, If you are not clear about this story, how will you be clear about the others?
• Mark 4:33 : 33 And with a number of such stories he gave them his teaching, as they were able to take it:
• Matt 13:34-35 : 34 All these things Jesus said to the people in the form of stories; and without a story he said nothing to them: 35 That it might come true which was said by the prophet, Opening my mouth, I will give out stories; I will give knowledge of things kept secret from before all time.
• Matt 13:53 : 53 And when Jesus had come to the end of these stories he went away from there.
• Matt 13:10-13 : 10 And the disciples came and said to him, Why do you say things to them in the form of stories? 11 And he said to them in answer, To you is given the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12 Because whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have more; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 For this reason I put things into the form of stories; because they see without seeing, and give ear without hearing, and the sense is not clear to them.
• John 16:25 : 25 All this I have said to you in veiled language: but the time is coming when I will no longer say things in veiled language but will give you knowledge of the Father clearly.
• Matt 22:1 : 1 And Jesus, talking to them again in stories, said:
• Matt 24:32 : 32 Now take an example from the fig-tree: when her branch has become soft and puts out its leaves, you are certain that the summer is near;
• Mark 3:23 : 23 And turning to them, he said to them in the form of a story, How is it possible for Satan to put out Satan?
• Mark 12:1 : 1 And he gave them teaching in the form of stories. A man had a vine-garden planted, and put a wall about it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and put up a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country.
• Mark 12:12 : 12 And they made attempts to take him; but they were in fear of the people, because they saw that the story was against them; and they went away from him.
• Luke 8:5-8 : 5 A man went out to put in seed, and while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside and it was crushed under foot, and was taken by the birds of heaven. 6 And some went on the rock, and when it came up it became dry and dead because it had no water. 7 And some went among thorns, and the thorns came up with it and it had no room for growth. 8 And some falling on good earth, came up and gave fruit a hundred times as much. And with these words he said in a loud voice, He who has ears, let him give ear.
• Luke 8:10 : 10 And he said, To you is given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to the others, they are given in stories, so that seeing, they may not see, and though they give hearing, the sense will not be clear to them.
• Luke 12:41 : 41 And Peter said to him, Lord, are these words said to us only, or to all men?
• Judg 9:8-9 : 8 One day the trees went out to make a king for themselves; and they said to the olive-tree, Be king over us. 9 But the olive-tree said to them, Am I to give up my wealth of oil, by which men give honour to God, and go waving over the trees? 10 Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king over us. 11 But the fig-tree said to them, Am I to give up my sweet taste and my good fruit and go waving over the trees? 12 Then the trees said to the vine, You come and be king over us. 13 But the vine said to them, Am I to give up my wine, which makes glad God and men, to go waving over the trees? 14 Then all the trees said to the thorn, You come and be king over us. 15 And the thorn said to the trees, If it is truly your desire to make me your king, then come and put your faith in my shade; and if not, may fire come out of the thorn, burning up the cedars of Lebanon. 16 So now, if you have done truly and uprightly in making Abimelech king, and if you have done well to Jerubbaal and his house in reward for the work of his hands; 17 (For my father made war for you, and put his life in danger, and made you free from the hands of Midian; 18 And you have gone against my father's family this day, and have put to death his sons, even seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant-wife, king over the townsmen of Shechem because he is your brother;) 19 If then you have done what is true and upright to Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in Abimelech, and may he have joy in you; 20 But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for the destruction of Abimelech.
• 2 Sam 12:1-7 : 1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to him and said, There were two men in the same town: one a man of great wealth, and the other a poor man. 2 The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds; 3 But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come. 5 And David was full of wrath against that man; and he said to Nathan, By the living Lord, death is the right punishment for the man who has done this: 6 And he will have to give back four times the value of the lamb, because he has done this and because he had no pity. 7 And Nathan said to David, You are that man. The Lord God of Israel says, I made you king over Israel, putting holy oil on you, and I kept you safe from the hands of Saul;
• Ps 49:4 : 4 I will put my teaching into a story; I will make my dark sayings clear with music.
• Ps 78:2 : 2 Opening my mouth I will give out a story, even the dark sayings of old times;
• Isa 5:1-7 : 1 Let me make a song about my loved one, a song of love for his vine-garden. My loved one had a vine-garden on a fertile hill: 2 And after working the earth of it with a spade, he took away its stones, and put in it a very special vine; and he put up a watchtower in the middle of it, hollowing out in the rock a place for the grape-crushing; and he was hoping that it would give the best grapes, but it gave common grapes. 3 And now, you people of Jerusalem and you men of Judah, be the judges between me and my vine-garden. 4 Is there anything which might have been done for my vine-garden which I have not done? why then, when I was hoping for the best grapes did it give me common grapes? 5 And now, this is what I will do to my vine-garden: I will take away the circle of thorns round it, and it will be burned up; its wall will be broken down and the beasts of the field will go through it; 6 And I will make it waste; its branches will not be touched with the knife, or the earth worked with the spade; but blackberries and thorns will come up in it: and I will give orders to the clouds not to send rain on it. 7 For the vine-garden of the Lord of armies is the people of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of his delight: and he was looking for upright judging, and there was blood; for righteousness, and there was a cry for help.
• Ezek 17:2 : 2 Son of man, give out a dark saying, and make a comparison for the children of Israel,
• Ezek 20:49 : 49 Then I said, Ah, Lord! they say of me, Is he not a maker of stories?
• Ezek 24:3-9 : 3 And make a comparison for this uncontrolled people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Put on the cooking-pot, put it on the fire and put water in it: 4 And get the bits together, the fat tail, every good part, the leg and the top part of it: make it full of the best bones. 5 Take the best of the flock, put much wood under it: see that its bits are boiling well; let the bones be cooked inside it. 6 For this is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood, the cooking-pot which is unclean inside, which has never been made clean! take out its bits; its fate is still to come on it. 7 For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered with dust; 8 In order that it might make wrath come up to give punishment, she has put her blood on the open rock, so that it may not be covered. 9 For this cause the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood! and I will make great the burning mass. 10 Put on much wood, heating up the fire, boiling the flesh well, and making the soup thick, and let the bones be burned. 11 And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may become soft and her waste be completely taken away. 12 I have made myself tired to no purpose: still all the waste which is in her has not come out, it has an evil smell. 13 As for your unclean purpose: because I have been attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose my passion on you in full measure. 14 I the Lord have said the word and I will do it; I will not go back or have mercy, and my purpose will not be changed; in the measure of your ways and of your evil doings you will be judged, says the Lord.
• Mic 2:4 : 4 In that day this saying will be said about you, and this song of grief will be made: The heritage of my people is measured out, and there is no one to give it back; those who have made us prisoners have taken our fields from us, and complete destruction has come to us.
• Hab 2:6 : 6 Will not all these take up a word of shame against him and a bitter saying against him, and say, A curse on him who goes on taking what is not his and is weighted down with the property of debtors!
• Luke 15:3-7 : 3 And he made a story for them, saying, 4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of them gets loose and goes away, will not let the ninety-nine be in the waste land by themselves, and go after the wandering one, till he sees where it is? 5 And when he has got it again, he takes it in his arms with joy. 6 And when he gets back to his house, he sends for his neighbours and friends, saying to them, Be glad with me, for I have got back my sheep which had gone away. 7 I say to you that even so there will be more joy in heaven when one sinner is turned away from his wrongdoing, than for ninety-nine good men, who have no need of a change of heart.