What Does Matthew 13:22 Mean?
And the one sown among thorns is the one who hears the word; and the care of this age and the deceit of riches choke the word, and he becomes without fruit.
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
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.THE KEY
The thorns do not take away the seed; they choke its ability to bear fruit.
THE MEANING
The word is received in you, yet the concerns of this age and the deception of riches can crowd it until it bears no fruit. Receiving the word is real, and fruitlessness can still grow alongside it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that receiving the word means its fruit is already assured dissolves here: the seed can be present while its growth is choked.
THE ROOT
συμπνίγει
sympnigei
GROWS FROM
πνιγ-
pnig-
to choke or smother
“choke” in this verse is sympnigei. The verb pictures the word being pressed in and suffocated by what grows around it. The seed remains received, but the surrounding growth closes in on its fruitfulness.
ALSO GROWS
pnigō: to choke or suffocate
πνίγω
This is the underlying verb stem carried into the verse’s image of the word being choked.
sympnigō: to choke or press in together
συμπνίγω
This is the verb used here; it makes the choking feel like pressure from surrounding growth.
ἄκαρπος
akarpos
GROWS FROM
καρπ-
karp-
fruit or produce
“without fruit” in this verse is akarpos. “Unfruitful” still carries the word for fruit: ἄκαρπος (akarpos) is formed from καρπός (karpos), fruit, with a negating prefix. The verse describes not a missing seed but a seed whose growth does not reach its fruit.
ALSO GROWS
karpos: fruit or produce
καρπός
This is the fruit named within “unfruitful,” showing what the choking prevents.
karpophoreō: to bear fruit
καρποφορέω
This verb grows from the same fruit-root and gives the positive counterpart to the condition in the verse.
THE PATTERN
What is received can remain present while surrounding growth prevents it from bearing fruit.
And look, all of it had come up with thorns, nettles had covered its face, and its stone wall was torn down.And some fell among thorns, and the thorns climbed up and choked them.Those who fell among the thorns are the ones who hear, and as they go on their way, they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to ripeness.THE THREAD
Those who fell among the thorns are the ones who hear, and as they go on their way, they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to ripeness.Luke uses συμπνίγονται (sympnigontai, “are choked”), from the same root as Matthew’s συμπνίγει (sympnigei, “chokes”). It adds the pleasures of this life to the cares and riches, and shows the result as fruit that never reaches completion.
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