What Does Matthew 13:38 Mean in the King James?
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
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 field is shared, but the seed carries its source into the life that grows.
THE MEANING
The world around you is a shared field where two origins take form. The good seed appears as children shaped by God’s governance; the tares belong to the wicked one’s line. Their nearness in one field does not make their source one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that everything growing in the same world has the same source.
THE ROOT
σπέρμα
sperma
GROWS FROM
σπερ-/σπορ- (sper-/spor-)
The Greek seed-and-sowing word family: seed, sowing, and what is brought forth to grow.
Here “seed” names people by their origin, not just something planted in soil. The word gathers source and future growth together: what takes shape in the field carries the character of its seed.
ALSO GROWS
speirō: to sow
σπείρω
Sowing brings the seed into the field, where its source becomes visible in what grows.
spora: sowing; seed
σπορά
This related seed word appears in 1 Peter 1:23, where the seed’s quality distinguishes what perishes from what endures.
sporos: seed; what is sown
σπόρος
This form keeps the focus on what is cast into the ground and becomes the next growth.
κόσμος
kosmos
GROWS FROM
κοσμ-
kosm-
Order, arrangement, or adornment.
English “world” can sound like a mere location; kosmos can also name an ordered arrangement. The verse places both lineages within that shared order, so visible proximity does not establish shared origin.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: to arrange; to adorn
κοσμέω
This verb carries the sense of putting things into order, adding depth to “world” as an ordered field.
kosmios: orderly; well-arranged
κόσμιος
This related word preserves the root’s sense of arrangement within a world where distinct sources coexist.
THE PATTERN
The life that grows reveals the source it carries.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.THE THREAD
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.Peter uses the same Greek seed-and-sowing word family to distinguish what decays from what endures. That opens Matthew’s image further: the seed names an origin that shapes the life taking form in the field.
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