Luke 8:12

Luke 8:12

10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the¹ mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that
^a‘Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.’

The Parable of the Sower Explained

11 ^a“Now the parable is this: The seed is the ^bword of God.

12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of¹ temptation fall away.

14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, ^ariches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with ^apatience.

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

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Those by the wayside (oi para thn odon). As in Mark 4:15; Matthew 13:19 so here the people who hear the word = the seed are discussed by metonymy.

The devil (o diabolov). The slanderer. Here Mark 4:15 has Satan.

From their heart (apo thv kardiav autwn). Here Mark has "in them." It is the devil's business to snatch up the seed from the heart before it sprouts and takes root. Every preacher knows how successful the devil is with his auditors. Matthew 13:19 has it "sown in the heart."

That they may not believe and be saved (ina mh pisteusantev swqwsin). Peculiar to Luke. Negative purpose with aorist active participle and first aorist (ingressive) passive subjunctive. Many reasons are offered today for the failure of preachers to win souls. Here is the main one, the activity of the devil during and after the preaching of the sermon. No wonder then that the sower must have good seed and sow wisely, for even then he can only win partial success.

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Luke 8:12:**

Mark 4:15
Luke 8:4

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Luke 8:13 >>

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