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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 13:31 - 13:32
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_13:31-32
31He presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; 32and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."
Mat_13:31-32 The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast and Mat_13:31-33, are parallel. They are repeated in Mar_4:30-32 and Luk_13:18-19. Those who respond to the gospel seem small and insignificant, but they are part of a spiritual kingdom which will ultimately fill the earth.
Mat_13:32 "so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches" The capitalization in the NASB assumes this is a quote from Daniel (Mat_4:11-12). This would make the phrase a way of asserting how large the mustard seed plant became, here a symbol for the extent of the Messianic kingdom of the eschaton.
NASB "pecks"
NKJV, NRSV,
NJB " measures"
TEV " bushel"
This Greek term saton translated the Hebrew unit of measurement seah. It's exact volume is uncertain, but it was a large amount (parallel to the large tree).
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