What Does Matthew 13:37 Mean?
And he answered and said to them, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
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 answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;THE KEY
The Son of Man is revealed by the good he sows, and Greek binds the sower’s act to the seed itself.
THE MEANING
The Son of Man is the one sowing what is good into the world. The image carries the promise of growth beyond the moment of planting. The language links the sower’s work with the seed that grows from it.
THE ROOT
σπείρων
speírōn
GROWS FROM
σπειρ-/σπερ-/σπορ-
The Greek word family of sowing and seed: to sow or scatter what is planted.
“the one who sows” in this verse is speírōn. English makes “sow” and “seed” sound like separate ideas; Greek keeps them in one word family. The Son of Man is identified by the act of sowing, bound in the language to the good seed he plants.
ALSO GROWS
spérma: Seed, what is sown.
σπέρμα
The seed shares the sower’s word family, joining the one who plants with what is planted.
diasporá: Scattering, dispersion.
διασπορά
This branch preserves the image of seed spread outward, illuminating the movement of sowing.
spóros: Seed, that which is sown.
σπόρος
This related form keeps the focus on what the act of sowing sets into the world.
THE PATTERN
What is sown carries the possibility of growth beyond its beginning.
And God said, "Let the earth sprout green growth, the seed-bearing plant, and the fruit tree making fruit after its kind, whose seed is in it, upon the earth." And it was so.Another parable he laid beside them, saying, The governance of the heavens is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.Truly, truly, I say to you. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.THE THREAD
Another parable he laid beside them, saying, The governance of the heavens is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.This verse uses the same Greek word family for sowing and seed, making the connection between the act and what is planted audible in the language. Matthew 13:37 then identifies the sower as the Son of Man.
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