What Does Matthew 13:1 Mean?
On that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat down beside the sea.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.THE KEY
The same verb carries Jesus out of the house and the sower out to sow, so the teacher’s departure already echoes the parable’s beginning.
THE MEANING
Jesus leaves the house and sits by the sea, crossing from an enclosed place to an open edge. The scene places you at a threshold, where the teaching that follows can meet people in the open.
THE ROOT
ἐξῆλθεν
exēlthen
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
To come or go; with the added sense of out, to go out.
English gives this movement as “went out,” while the Greek word belongs to a family that can describe coming, entering, passing by, or going out. Here Jesus crosses outward from the house; the same verb carries the sower outward in verse 3.
ALSO GROWS
eiserchomai: Enter, come in
εἰσέρχομαι
The same root describes crossing inward when the word for “into” is joined to it, showing how the direction of movement changes while the core action remains.
parerchomai: Pass by, pass along
παρέρχομαι
This branch uses the same movement root for passing alongside or beyond, adding another direction to the family that includes Jesus’s outward crossing.
THE PATTERN
A message moves outward from an enclosed setting into shared hearing.
And on the Sabbath we went out past the gate, beside a river, where prayer was customary. We sat down and spoke to the women who had come together there.Then the woman let go of her water jar, went away into the city, and said to the men.THE THREAD
And he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Look, a sower went out to sow.Matthew uses the same verb for Jesus going out of the house and for the sower going forth to sow. The setting begins to echo the parable: before seed is scattered, the one who teaches has already crossed outward.
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