What Does Matthew 13:23 Mean?
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.
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
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.THE KEY
The word becomes fruitful when hearing becomes understanding, when what you hear is brought together within you.
THE MEANING
The word reaches a receptive place in you: you hear it, and its meaning comes together until you understand. What grows from that reception becomes visible as fruit, though the harvest does not come in one fixed measure; thirty, sixty, and a hundred are all real fruitfulness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fruitfulness has only one acceptable measure: thirtyfold remains fruit beside sixty and a hundred.
THE ROOT
συνιείς
synieis
GROWS FROM
συνίημι, from σύν (syn, together) + ἵημι (hiēmi, put or send)
Bring together; comprehend by joining the parts.
“understandeth” in this verse is synieis. The Greek word for understanding carries the sense of things being brought together. The verse shows hearing becoming fruitful as the word’s meaning comes together within the hearer.
ALSO GROWS
synesis: Understanding, discernment
σύνεσις
This related word names understanding as a joining of what has been heard.
synetos: Discerning, intelligent
συνετός
This related word describes the grasp that can bring the pieces together.
καρποφορεῖ
karpophorei
GROWS FROM
καρπός
karpos
Fruit, produce, yield.
“beareth fruit” in this verse is karpophorei. The verse describes more than receiving a seed: reception comes to have a visible yield. The same fruit-root also names the opposite condition, making the contrast between fruitfulness and barrenness clear.
ALSO GROWS
karpos: Fruit, produce
καρπός
The fruit is the visible result of the word taking root and growing.
akarpos: Fruitless, unfruitful
ἄκαρπος
This related word names the absence of the yield that this verse describes.
THE PATTERN
The word received inwardly and held close to life becomes visible as fruit.
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.But his delight is in the instruction of the LORD; and over his instruction he murmurs day and night. And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.THE THREAD
When anyone hears the word of the governance and does not put it together, then the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown beside the road.Matthew 13:19 uses the same Greek verb for understanding, συνίημι (syniēmi), but describes what happens when the word is heard without its meaning coming together. Here, that understanding is the hinge between a seed remaining exposed and a life that bears fruit.
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