Bible Study series: Matthew 13:34-35. The hidden things are now being revealed to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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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: Matthew 13:34-35
34 Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds and apart from parables he did not say anything, 35 so that the word spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying,
“I shall open my mouth in parables, and I shall proclaim hidden things from the foundation (of the world).” [Ps. 78:2] (Matthew 13:34-35)
Comments:
34-35:
Throughout his Gospel, Matthew is careful to distinguish between disciples and crowds and religious leaders.
The Sermon on the Mount was spoken before disciples (Matt. 5:1), and even in this three-chapter sermon (5-7), he deployed illustrations, like good and bad trees. A careful search from this sermon to Matt. 13 shows that he never proclaimed a major teaching, but he did many miracles and Matthew uses summaries. And even his brief teachings in that span of Scripture used illustrations or mini-parables (e.g. 8:10-12; 20; 9:14-17, 37; 10:26-33, 34, 38; 11:7-19).
Further, a careful search from Matt. 13 to the end of the Gospel reveals that in all his teachings or discourses to the crowds Jesus used only parables or short illustrations. The other pericopes are about miracles or the Mount of Transfiguration before three disciples (Matt. 17:1-13). It is true that he called the people to him and taught them about clean and unclean foods, but he used an illustration (15:10-11), and then the disciples pulled him aside to ask for an explanation (vv. 12-20). It is true that he straightforwardly taught his disciples about forgiving others, but these were his disciples, not the crowds (18:15-20). It is true that when Pharisees came to him and asked about divorce, he told them straightforwardly about it, but this is not to the crowds, but religious leaders and disciples (19:1-12). It is true that he straightforwardly taught the Sadducees about the resurrection and marriage in the Next Age, but they were religious leaders, not the crowds (22:23-33). He denounced the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in front of the crowds and disciples, but this is not a teaching; it is a rebuke, and even in this long discourse he used quick illustrations (23:1-36). He spoke of the Coming of the Lord, but this discourse was delivered to his disciples (Matt. 24), and he inserted an illustration about a fig tree (vv. 32-35). His discourse about Final Judgment used the illustration of the sheep and the goats (25:31-46). The rest of the Gospel (26-28) is all about action, from another plot to kill Jesus and his anointing at Bethany to his ascension. In those three chapters he spoke no teaching to the crowds.
Therefore, Matthew’s words here in 13:34-35 about Jesus teaching the crowds only in parables are literally fulfilled, according to the purpose of his Gospel.
However, this is a generalization, because in Luke’s Gospel he does not make such a sharp division (e.g. the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:17-19). Sometimes the crowds did hear direct teaching. Thus, “apart from parables he did not say anything” is a Semitic way of saying he emphasized parables over direct discourse. Yet Matthew accomplished his literary purposes by distinguishing the disciples from the religious leaders and the crowds.
Why, though, did Jesus use parables for the crowds? The answer is found in my comments at vv. 10-17. It is about knowledge and ignorance and hunger and complacency. Are they hungry enough to push through spiritual dullness and thick-headedness (ignorance) and learn about who God really is (true knowledge)? At this Second Coming, Jesus will separate out the edible fish and the other things caught in a dragnet (vv. 47-50). Many listeners of his message delivered by the church today will remain in ignorance. But they do not have stay that way.
Pray for your wayward sons and daughters and relatives. Pray for your co-workers. Ask God to change their hearts and save them. Never give up! Never stop praying!
France on these two verses:
Matthew’s statement can hardly be intended to apply to the whole teaching ministry of Jesus as recorded in this gospel, since crowds have been part of the audience to a great deal of nonparabolic teaching in chs. 5-7 while 12:46 identifies the crowds as the audience for at least some the preceding teaching. Nor does it seem likely that all the teaching which according to 22:33 impressed the crowds in Jerusalem took the form of parables. The diatribe of ch. 23 is addressed to the crowds as well as the disciples (23:1). What is observed here is not so much a watertight distinction of literary and rhetorical style, but rather that Jesus’s public teaching, even when not cast in the form we would recognize as parabolē, remains elusive, challenging, and unsettling, leaving his audience in a dilemma as to what response they should make. And that is what parables do, when given without explanation. (pp. 529-30)
So his interpretation is much more expansive than mine. You can take it or leave mine or take mine or leave his. It’s up to you. I’m a learner, just as you are.
GrowApp for Matt. 13:34-35
1. Jesus spoke in parables to the crowds in order to produce hunger in them search hard for the truth. Examine your hearts. Are you in a relentless search of the truth contained in Jesus’s words?
2. Or are you complacent?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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