What Does Matthew 13:18 Mean?
Therefore hear and respond to the parable of the sower.
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
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.THE KEY
A parable is a story cast alongside your life, where the way you receive the word comes into view.
THE MEANING
Jesus addresses you as a hearer now: the sower’s story is placed beside your present life. As its image meets you, the different ways of receiving the word become visible.
THE ROOT
ἀκούσατε
akousate
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω
akouō
to hear, listen, or give heed
“hear and respond” in this verse is akousate. English “hear” can sound like taking in noise; this Greek word family also carries hearing that attends and responds. The command opens the parable as something to receive, not a sound that simply passes by.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing; a report
ἀκοή
It shows the same root can name both the act of hearing and what is heard.
hypakouō: to hear under; to obey or respond
ὑπακούω
This related verb makes visible how hearing can carry into a response.
παραβολή
parabolē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
to throw or place
The Greek word pictures something placed alongside something else. The parable sets the sower’s image beside the hearer’s life, so the comparison reveals how the word is received.
ALSO GROWS
paraballō: to place beside; to compare
παραβάλλω
Its “place beside” sense makes the parable’s image concrete: the story stands alongside the listener.
emballō: to put or throw in
ἐμβάλλω
It shares the core sense of placing or casting, which is carried into the image of the parable.
σπείραντος
speirantos
GROWS FROM
σπείρω
speirō
to sow or scatter seed
The sower is named by the act of sowing. The same word family reaches into seed and scattering, keeping the focus on how seed is spread into different ground.
ALSO GROWS
spora: sowing; seed
σπορά
It links the sower’s action directly to what is sown.
diaspora: scattering; dispersion
διασπορά
It carries the same sowing root into the image of seed being spread out.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats hearing as the beginning of reception, which becomes response, understanding, and fruit.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Watch, then, how you hear and respond, for whoever has, to them will be given, and whoever has not, even what they seem to have will be lifted away from them.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
But the one sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and puts it together, who also bears fruit and brings forth, one a hundredfold, another sixty, another thirty.The Greek form ἀκούει (akouei), “he hears,” is from the same verb ἀκούω (akouō), “to hear,” as “Hear” in this verse. The next verse shows what this hearing bears: understanding and fruit.
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