What Does Matthew 13:13 Mean in the King James?
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The barrier is not lack of exposure: what the eyes and ears take in never comes together as understanding.
THE MEANING
You can see and hear words without their meaning coming together in you. The senses receive, but understanding does not follow. The verse names the gap between contact with something and perceiving what it means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that seeing or hearing something is the same as understanding it.
THE ROOT
συνίουσιν
syniousin
GROWS FROM
συνίημι
syniēmi
To bring or put together; hence, to understand by joining what has been perceived.
“understand” in this verse is syniousin. The Greek verb for understanding carries the sense of bringing things together. The eyes and ears are working, but what they receive does not join into comprehension.
ALSO GROWS
synesis: Understanding, discernment.
σύνεσις
This related word names the comprehension missing when seeing and hearing remain unjoined.
synetos: Discerning, able to understand.
συνετός
This related word describes someone able to gather what is perceived into understanding.
THE PATTERN
Eyes and ears can register what is present while understanding fails to gather its meaning.
Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?THE THREAD
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 hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.Here, “understand” is συνῶσιν (synōsin), from the same Greek root συνίημι (syniēmi) as “understand” in verse 13. The verse names the heart as the place where seeing and hearing come together into perception.
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