Matthew 13


Matthew 13 is the thirteenth chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament section of the Christian Bible. Verses 3 to 52 of this chapter form the third of the Five Discourses of Matthew, called the Parabolic Discourse, based on the parables of the Kingdom.

Description

Matthew 13 presents eight parables and two explanations of his parables. At the end of the chapter, Jesus is rejected by the people of his hometown, Nazareth.
The chapter contains the following parables, in respective order:
  1. Parable of the Sower
  2. Parable of the Tares
  3. Parable of the Mustard Seed
  4. Parable of the Leaven
  5. Parable of the Hidden Treasure
  6. Parable of the Pearl
  7. Parable of Drawing in the Net
  8. Parable of Scribe
The following explanations of the first two parables are included:
  1. Explanation of the Parable of the Sower
  2. Explanation of the Parable of the Tares
The four first parables "were spoken in presence of the multitude, and the other four again within the circle of the disciples". German liberal Protestant theologian David Strauss thought this chapter was "overwhelming with parables". At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus sits in a ship or a boat on the Sea of Galilee and addresses the crowd who stand on the shore or the beach. The Textus Receptus has inserted the definite article, suggesting that there was a boat kept waiting for him, but other texts do not include the definite article and the Pulpit Commentary therefore argues that it was "wrongly inserted".

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 58 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
This chapter can be grouped :