Hot answers tagged parables
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It may likely grow into the Sinapis Nigra (Black Mustard). It can grow to eight feet tall, so it could actually be literally used by small birds to nest on its branches. However parables are not to be taken so literally and the image may be a slight exaggeration as part in parcel with the point of the passage.
In the OT mustard is not mentioned. Yet ...
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Abstract
Using the historical-grammatical method, whether a text should be taken allegorically depends on the genre of the text. Usually, the author provides sufficient clues to the genre for us to accurately determine if a text is to be taken as something more than the surface meaning.
Genre
One of the challenges of interpreting the Bible is that it ...
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Meaning of κόκκῳ σινάπεως
This is more or less just some additional information, Mike's answer is good. According to the IVP NT Commentary series:
Scholars still dispute what plant is meant by the “mustard seed.”
Nevertheless, by no conjecture is it the smallest of all seeds that
Jesus’ listeners could have known (the orchid seed is smaller); the
...
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I'm going to focus on just the explanation of the parable of the sower and not (for the moment) consider other explanations. Conveniently, that text is found in all three Synoptic gospels. Assuming Mark was the first written, we can get a pretty good idea of how Matthew handled the material:
When you look at the diffs, the changes are:
Plural => ...
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The sheep and "the least of these my brothers" are mutually-defining. The kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom of koinonia, partnership. Just as Yahweh self-identifies with Abram his covenant partner in Gen 12:3 ("I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you, I will curse"), Jesus says the same here regarding those in the kingdom. They are his ...
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