What Does Matthew 13:36 Mean?
Then Jesus let the crowd go and went into the house; and his learners came to him, saying, Make plain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
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
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.THE KEY
A parable is truth set beside you, and the disciples’ question asks Jesus to show what the comparison makes visible.
THE MEANING
You can hear an image before you can see what it reveals. Here, understanding includes coming close with an honest question, so the meaning carried beside the story can come into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that understanding must be immediate: the disciples themselves ask Jesus to make the parable clear.
THE ROOT
παραβολή
parabolē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
To throw or cast; joined with παρά (beside), it gives the sense of placing one thing alongside another.
The word translated “parable” carries the motion of setting one thing beside another. The disciples ask Jesus to make clear how the story stands alongside what it reveals.
ALSO GROWS
paraballō: To place beside; to compare.
παραβάλλω
This compound makes the parable’s comparison visible: one thing is placed alongside another.
symballō: To bring together; to compare.
συμβάλλω
The same root can bring things together, echoing the disciples’ request to see how the story and its meaning fit.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁע
To deliver, bringing one out of constriction into spaciousness.
The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, Jesus) carries the Hebrew name Yeshua, rooted in deliverance. Here the disciples come to the one whose name bears that nature, and the hidden meaning of the parable is brought into view.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuʿah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun shares the root of Yeshua’s name, linking the name to the act of bringing out.
môšîaʿ: Deliverer; one who brings out.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This word shares the same root consonants and expresses the nature carried in the name Yeshua.
μαθηταί
mathētai
GROWS FROM
μαθ-
Learning; acquiring understanding through instruction.
The word translated “disciples” belongs to the family of learning. Their request to have the parable explained shows learners still opening to what they do not yet see.
ALSO GROWS
mathēma: A lesson; something learned.
μάθημα
The meaning they ask Jesus to declare becomes a lesson they can take in.
mathēteuō: To learn as a pupil; to make a disciple.
μαθητεύω
Their question embodies the learner’s posture carried by the word “disciples.”
THE PATTERN
What first arrives as an image opens when a learner draws near and asks for its meaning.
And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.Indeed, if you call out for discernment, and give your voice to discernment.His disciples said to him, Look, now you speak in full voice, and you speak no saying.THE THREAD
But without a parable he did not speak to them. Privately, to his own disciples, he untied all things.Mark shows the same movement: the image is spoken, the learners draw near, and Jesus explains it to them. Matthew’s request is the hinge between hearing the parable and seeing what it reveals.
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