Luke 13:19 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Luke 13:19
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι)) · noun — nominative singular masculine
took
λαβὼνlabōn
G2983
while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent · verb — second aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
and cast
ἔβαλενebalen
G906
to throw (in various applications · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
into
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
his
ἑαυτοῦ,he'autou
G1438
him- (her- · reflexive pronoun
garden
κῆπονkēpon
G2779
a garden · noun — accusative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
it grew
ηὔξησενēuxēsen
G837
to grow ("wax") · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
waxed
ἐγένετοegeneto
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — second aorist middle deponent indicative, 3rd person singular
a great
μέγα,mega
G3173
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — accusative singular neuter
tree
δένδρονdendron
G1186
a tree · noun — accusative singular neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
the fowls
πετεινὰpeteina
G4071
a flying animal · noun — nominative plural neuter
of the air
οὐρανοῦouranou
G3772
the sky · noun — genitive singular masculine
lodged
κατεσκήνωσενkateskēnōsen
G2681
to camp down · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
the branches
κλάδοιςkladois
G2798
a twig or bough (as if broken off) · noun — dative plural masculine
of it
αὐτοῦ.¶autou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 4:12 The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the f…
Ezekiel 17:22-24 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his youn…
Daniel 2:44-45 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left t…
Daniel 4:21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose br…
Zechariah 2:11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know…
Matthew 13:31-32 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his…
Mark 4:31-32 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to estab…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Luke 13:18-22
Here is, I. The gospel's progress foretold in two parables, which we had before, Mat 13:31-33. The kingdom of the Messiah is the kingdom of God, for it advances his glory; this kingdom was yet a mystery, and people were generally in the dark, and under mistakes, about it. Now, when we would describe a thing to those that are strangers to it, we choose to do it by similitudes. "Such a person you know not, but I will tell you whom he is like;" so Christ undertakes here to show what the kingdom of God is like (Luk 13:18): "Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? Luk 13:20. It will be quite another thing from what you expect, and will operate, and gain its point, in quite another manner." 1.…
MISCELLANEOUS TEACHINGS. (Luk 13:18-30)
mustard seed . . . leaven--(See on Mar 4:30-32). The parable of "the Leaven" sets forth, perhaps, rather the inward growth of the kingdom, while "the Mustard Seed" seems to point chiefly to the outward. It being a woman's work to knead, it seems a refinement to say that "the woman" here represents the Church, as the instrument of depositing the leaven. Nor does it yield much satisfaction to understand the "three measures of meal" of that threefold division of our nature into "spirit, soul, and body," (alluded to in Th1 5:23) or of the threefold partition of the world among the three sons of Noah (Gen 10:32), as some do. It yields more real satisfactio…
The kingdom - is like a grain of mustard seed - See on Mat 13:31 (note).
John Gill on Luke 13:19
It is like a grain of mustard seed,.... Both for its smallness at first, and its after increase; wherefore both the Evangelists Matthew and Mark observe, that it "is the least of all seed": which is true of the ministry of the Gospel, of the Gospel church state, and of the grace of God in the hearts of his people:
which a man took and cast into his garden; the Ethiopic version renders it, "and sowed in his field", as in Matthew 13:31 though mustard used to be sowed in gardens as well as in fields. (x) Says R. Simeon ben Chelphetha, I have one stalk of mustard seed, , "in my garden": so (y) Buxtorf translates it. And by the place in the text, where this seed is cast, may be meant, either the…
The Church Fathers
A man took it and planted it in his garden. The man is Christ, the garden is His Church, always to be cultivated by His teachings and gifted with His gifts. It is well said that the same man who planted the seed also took it, because indeed the gifts which He bestowed on us with the Father from divinity, He also took with us from humanity, whence it is said, 'He received gifts among men.' And elsewhere Peter said, 'And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.'"
Now the man, is Christ, the garden, His Church, to be cultivated by His discipline. He is well said to have taken the grain, because the gifts which He together with the Father gave to us from His divinity, He took from His humanity. But the preaching of the Gospel grew and was disseminated throughout the whole world. It grows also in the mind of every believer, for no one is suddenly made perfect. But in its growth, not like the grass, (which soon withers,) but it rises up like the trees. The branches of this tree are the manifold doctrines, on which the chaste souls, soaring upwards on the wings of virtue, build and repose.
The mode of His love and His instruction we have shown as we could. Wherefore He Himself, declaring Himself very beautifully, likened Himself to a grain of mustard-seed; and pointed out the spirituality of the word that is sown, and the productiveness of its nature, and the magnificence and conspicuousness of the power of the word; and besides, intimated that the pungency and the purifying virtue of punishment are profitable on account of its sharpness. By the little grain, as it is figuratively called, He bestows salvation on all humanity abundantly. Honey, being very sweet, generates bile, as goodness begets contempt, which is the cause of sinning. But mustard lessens bile, that is, anger, and stops inflammation, that is, pride. From which Word springs the true health of the soul, and its eternal happy temperament.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Mustard — A plant of the genus sinapis, a pod-bearing, shrub-like plant, growing wild, and also cultivated in gardens. The little round seeds were an emblem of any small insignificant object. It is not…
Gospel · .A mustard seed — .A mustard seed
Kingdom Of Heaven · .To a gra — .To a gra
Parables · Parables of christ: Mustard-seed — Parables of christ: Mustard-seed
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Luke 13:18-22
Matthew 13:31-35
Mark 4:26-34
Luke 13:18-22
31. He delivered another parable to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard, which a man took and sowed in his field: 32. Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown up, it is the largest among herbs, [220] and becometh a tree, so that the fowls of heaven come and make their nests among its branches. 33. He spake another parable to them: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid among three measures of meal, till the whole was leavenened. 34. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes, and without a parable he spoke nothing to them. 35. That it might be…
