Bible Study series: Luke 8:9-15. Are you hungry enough to dig into God’s word to mine its truths? Will you stay with your faith or walk away? Will you let Satan steal the word from your heart? Your soul is at stake.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 8:9-15
9 His disciples were asking him what this parable might mean. 10 He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To the rest I speak in parables, so that:
‘Seeing, they would not see,
And hearing, they would not understand’” [Is. 6:9-10].
11 “This is the meaning of the parable:
The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path: they heard it; then the devil comes and takes the word from their hearts, so that they might not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the rocky ground: they receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root; they believe for a time, but in the time of testing, they fall away. 14 The ones falling among the thorn bushes: they have heard, but as they go, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they do not produce mature fruit. 15 The ones in the good soil: after hearing the word with a truly good heart, they hold on to it and produce fruit by endurance.” (Luke 8:9-15)
Comments:
9-10:
The disciples, hanging out with Jesus, would come to know or should know what the mysteries of the kingdom of God are. In the NT, mysteries were never hidden away forever out of sight and out of hearing. That describes Greek mystery religions. In contrast, mysteries in the NT were meant to be revealed in Christ, but it takes spiritual insight to know their meaning. And here this parable is a mystery of the kingdom. It is about to be explicated.
Jesus’s teaching was not always direct. “Hey you! What kind of hearts do you have? Let me explain the different kinds!” Deeper followers need to dig deeper and think about the meaning of the elements in the story, like soils, seeds and birds, and so on. Then the flash might come. “Oh! I get it!” It might come—or not.
“mysteries”: modern translations say “secret.” The Greek noun is mystērion (pronounced moo-stay-ree-on or mee-stay-ree-on), and yes, we get our word mystery directly from it. It is used 28 times. Now let’s define the term.
In the Greco-Roman world, a mystērion is about mystery religions, “with their secrets teachings, religious and political in nature, concealed with many strange customs and ceremonies. The principal rites remain unknown because of a reluctance in antiquity to divulge things.” In other words, Greco-Roman mysteries were about concealment.
In contrast, in the NT, it will be about disclosure of God’s plan, revealed only in part in Bible prophecies, and now these mysteries were fulfilled and completely revealed in Christ. As God’s plan moves from one age to the next, this is called eschatology (the study or science of last things or a shift in ages that God ordains).
“it has been given”: the verb form is in the passive, so it reflects the divine passive, which is an understated way of saying that God is behind the scenes working and revealing the mysteries. But are the disciples “pre-tuned” or predisposed in their hearts and minds to receive the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom? Is. 6:9-10 say that God withholds the mysteries because the people are resistant to hearing it. Their heart comes first; then God reveals what he can to hard heart, but the people can’t grasp it.
“The ‘mysteries’ … do not refer to conundrums that the human intellect can puzzle over and eventually figure out, as if they were akin to discovering the double helix structure of DNA. They are the heavenly truths concealed from human understanding until they are made known through divine revelation (see Dan 2:28-30; 1 Cor 2:6-16 …). The passive voice it was given’ … implies that God is the agent who gives the secret. Knowing the mysteries has eschatological implications because they have been hidden for ages and are revealed to humans in God’s timing in the last age (Rom 16:25; Eph 3:9; Col 1:26)” (Garland, comments on 8:9-10).
Perfectly said.
The reason Jesus spoke in parables was so that the “rest,” the already-blind and the already-thick eared, may not get it. How hungry were they? Were they in the audience just to get a healing? To see a miracle? Or do they really want to understand the kingdom and join it? Then they have to do some self-reflection—not self-mediation on their navels and repeating aum!—but some careful thought. What do the soils mean? What is the seed? Who is the sower? What about the birds and thorn bushes?
God reads the hearts of everyone, in a divine “soul scan.” When he sees hunger for his ways, he sends enlightenment to their minds (see 1 Cor. 2:6-16; Eph. 1:17-18), and they understand the mysteries of the kingdom—if not every detail, but fresh horizons open up to them about God.
“seeing, they might not see”: it is the same word in Greek for both verbs of “seeing.”
I like what Wessel and Strauss say in their commentary on Mark’s Gospel in the parallel passage: Isaiah is the background, and in his ministry he was commanded to preach, even though it would do no good. God had already pronounced his judgment on ancient Israel (Wessel and Strauss, p. 756). And so it is with Jesus’s ministry. He was called to proclaim the good news, but judgment is coming, for Jesus was destined to be rejected by the Jerusalem establishment and then judgement would fall.
This was the last generation to be offered the Messiah, and they will fail–certainly the Jerusalem establishment will fail. So why would God speak to them clearly when their hearts are determined to reject him.
I add: Only those who were hungry and perceptive would escape judgment. Many people followed him during his ministry, but would they be insightful and perceptive enough to grasp the gospel told through parables? We know that thousands converted to the Messiah after Pentecost (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; 21:20). They were the insightful and perceptive ones.
Paul quotes Is. 6:9-10 more fully in Acts 28:26-27. The gospel will go to Gentiles, Paul says, because they will listen and understand.
11:
For how this parable might apply to this question, please see my post here:
Parable of the Sower: Eternal Security or Possible Apostasy?
For a discussion on the theological dispute about once saved, always saved and possible apostasy, see:
Remaining a Christian or Falling Away?
Possible Apostasy or Eternal Security?
In this section we have to get a little more technical than I like because of the disputes.
Before we begin, here is a quick summary.
A.. First soil / heart: Packed down as hard as a footpath.
B.. Second soil / heart: rocky ground so roots don’t go down deep.
C.. Third soil / heart: thorn bushes can grow there, which choke out good growth.
D.. Fourth soil / heart: truly good heart so the word can grow and produce mature fruit.
We now know the seed is the word of God in the parable. This word explains the kingdom of God and its power to transform people’s hearts, if their hearts are receptive. There is no “done deal,” except for those who persevere (endure or hang in there).
12:
First soil / heart: the packed-down path or road. The seeds never even got a chance to put down roots before people trampled on them and birds ate them.
“the devil”: He is the (collective) birds. He can read people’s heart well enough that he can steal the word from it. No, his reading hearts does not make him omniscient; it just means he can read hearts! He can certainly read it well enough to snatch the word from your heart.
Don’t let the devil rob you of the good word planted in you. “Is this really real? Is the word true?” You can ask those questions but go to someone who is more mature than you to get answers.
Matthew’s version says that the hearers did not understand it, so the word did not hold; therefore, the devil could steal it.
“heard”: this is aorist (past) tense participle, so the person heard the word. But did it enter his heart and stay there? Apparently not, for the devil stole it.
“so that they might not believe and be saved”: in the Greek syntax (sentence structure), the negation “not” applies to both “believe” and “saved.” We must have saving faith by trusting in Jesus and his finished work on the cross.
True acronym:
F-A-I-T-H = Forsaking All, I Trust Him.
However, the person does not believe and is not saved.
Word Study on Faith and Faithfulness
What Is the Work of Salvation?
13:
Second soil / heart: rocky ground; it is literally “on the rock,” but the context says it is better to see it as rocky soil or ground. People can receive the word with joy when they hear it. But the rocky soil prevents the roots from going deep enough for them to soak up the moisture. What is the moisture? Jesus does not tell us, so the interpretation is open-ended: more word, fellowship, the Spirit, and water baptism. All of them?
Scorching sunlight (= trials and temptations) is implied in this verse.
“they believe for a time”: the noun here is kairos (pronounced kye-ross and is used 85 times), which speaks more of a quality time than quantity. BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon, defines the noun as follows: (1) a point of time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise chronology. (a) Generally a welcome time or difficult time … fruitful times; (b) a moment or period as especially appropriate the right, proper, favorable time … at the right time; (2) a defined period for an event, definite, fixed time (e.g. period of fasting or mourning in accord with the changes in season), in due time (Gal. 6:9); (3) a period characterized by some aspect of special crisis, time; (a) generally the present time (Rom. 13:11; 12:11); (b) One of the chief terms relating to the endtime … the time of crisis, the last times.
All of this stand in a mild contrast—not a sharp contrast—from chronos. Greek has another word for time: chronos (pronounced khro-noss), which measures one day, one week or one month after another.
The time in this verse does not allow for a real conversion. Or maybe it does.
“believe”: see v. 12 for more comments.
So the hearers believe (present tense), but in the time (kairos again) of testing or temptation they fall away. “Fall away” could be translated more literally as “stand away” or “stand apart.” It is easy to imagine that the hearers, receivers and believers walk away or stand away from the word after they go through temptation or testing.
“testing”: it can be translated in one context as “test, trial” (to see what is in a person) in another context as “temptation, enticement” (to sin) in another context. As noted, scorching sunlight (peirasmos) is implied. God is not tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any one (towards evil) (Jas. 1:13). But we are tempted by our own human sin nature (Jas. 1:14). So how should we translate it here? Matthew’s and Mark’s versions have “tribulation or persecution.” Luke chose the broader and more ambiguous term to let readers know that they will go through testing by trials and persecution and through temptation by Satan. Be prepared for trials and temptations.
14:
Third soil / heart: the thorn bushes grow there. In v. 7 the thorn bushes grow with the seed and choke it. Here the thorn bushes are explained as the anxieties, riches and pleasure of life—and these things choke the word. The people heard it, and they produce fruit, but it does not mature. No, money and certain pleasure are not bad in themselves, but too often they do choke out our relationship with God.
“produce mature (fruit)”: “Fruit” is implied in the context of the parable because of the grain and v. 15. The verb is in the present tense, implying that if the word had not been choked out, the fruit would have grown to maturity; one has to keep going to maturity (v. 15). So the picture is that the hearer produces some fruit, but then the entire plant gets choked out by the anxieties, riches, and pleasures of life. Those three things can be modified by the word life, or only pleasures is modified by it. It is better to see the entire package as modified by life.
“life”: it is the noun bios (pronounced bee-oss), and, yes, we get our nouns biology and biosphere from it. In NT Greek the noun meant “life, everyday life, livelihood, property, worldly goods.” (In ancient Greek science, it could mean biological life.) In the NT, it has the connotation of a moral or immoral lifestyle built into it, since the authors were deeply concerned with our relationship with God and then how that works out in our morals and behavior.
15:
Fourth soil / heart: “truly good heart”; it is literally “fine and good heart,” but the grammarians teach us that the combination of words is a doublet, used to intensify one idea. So it just means “truly good heart.” However, many translations have separated the one idea as two different adjectives: “honest and good heart” (KJV, NAS, NET); “good and honest heart” (CEV, NCV); “noble and good heart” (NIV, NKJV); “good-hearted” (NLT); “good-hearts” (MSG). You can interpret the one-idea doublet in that way, if you wish.
“after they heard”: this another past participle (aorist), and it is temporal (“after they heard”), say the grammarians.
Matthew’s version says that the hearers understand the word, so it can take hold in their hearts.
“hold on”: it is in the present tense, so you keep holding on firmly to the word, implying that it is possible to let it go, as the other three soils-hearts imply. It means in this context “to hold on (tight).”
“produce fruit”: it is in the present tense—you keep producing fruit. It is a compound verb. Here it is in contrast to the ones who do not produce mature fruit (v. 14).
“endurance”: it is the noun hupomonē (pronounced hoo-poh-moh-nay), and it literally means to “stay under.” When you go through times of testing or temptation, you have to stay under the Lord’s guidance and strength. It takes “perseverance, endurance, patience, fortitude, steadfastness” (all translations of the noun) to live life in Christ, all the way to the end, until the day you die. The Lord is looking for those who will keeping going, even when life is difficult and full of trials, persecutions and testing or temptations.
For the quarrel between professional theologians over “once save, always saved” and the possibility of walking away from salvation, again see my posts:
Remaining a Christian or Falling Away?
Possible Apostasy or Eternal Security?
For how this parable might apply to this question, please see my post here:
Parable of the Sower: Eternal Security or Possible Apostasy?
GrowApp for Luke 8:9-15
1. Read 1 Cor. 2:6-16 and Eph. 1:17-18. How hungry is your heart to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God?
2. After an honest assessment of your own soul, which soil best describes you? Are you willing to pray for grace to be good soil, where the word of God can take root and grow?
RELATED
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3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
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