Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 13:32 - 13:32
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
32. μικρότερον πάντων τῶν σπερμάτων. Not absolutely the least, but least in proportion to the plant that springs from the seed. Moreover the mustard seed was used proverbially of anything excessively minute.
κατασκηνοῖν ἐν τοῖς κλάδοις αὐτοῦ, i.e. settle for the purpose of rest or shelter or to eat the seeds, of which goldfinches and linnets are very fond. (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 473.) κατασκηνοῖν. Literally, dwell in tents. If we think of the leafy huts constructed for the feast of tabernacles the propriety of the word will be seen. The mustard plant does not grow to a very great height, so that St Luke’s expression ἐγένετο εἰς δένδρον [μέγα] must not be pressed. Dr Thomson (Land and Book) mentions as an exceptional instance that he found it on the plain of Akkar as tall as a horse and its rider.
κατασκηνοῖν. For the infinitive termination see Winer, p. 92. Cp. the contraction χρυσόει = χρυσοῖ, though in infin. generally χρυσόειν = χρυσοῦν, also the Pindaric forms ἔχοισιν for ἔχουσιν, &c. δίδοι for δίδου. (Donaldson’s Pindar, de Stilo Pindari, p. liv) and the Thessalian genitive form is -οι for -ου (Papillon, Compar. Phil. 112 note).