Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Matthew: Chapter 13]
\phain•\ to show) by harvest.
13:29 {Ye root up the wheat with them} (\ekriz•s•te hama autois
ton siton\). Literally, "root out." Easy to do with the roots of
wheat and darnel intermingled in the field. So \sullegontes\ is
not "gather up," but "gather together," here and verses 28 and
30. Note other compound verbs here, "grow together"
(\sunauxanesthai\), "burn up" (\katakausai\, burn down or
completely), "bring together" (\sunagete\).
13:30 {My barn} (\t•n apoth•k•n mou\). See already 3:12; 6:26.
Granary, storehouse, place for putting things away.
13:31 {Is like} (\homoia estin\). Adjective for comparison with
associative instrumental as in 13:13,44,45,47,52. {Grain of
mustard seed} (\kokk•i sinape•s\). Single grain in contrast with
the collective \sperma\ (17:20). {Took and sowed} (\lab•n
espeiren\). Vernacular phrasing like Hebrew and all
conversational style. In _Koin•_.
13:32 {A tree} (\dendron\). "Not in nature, but in size" (Bruce).
"An excusable exaggeration in popular discourse."
13:33 {Is like unto leaven} (\homoia estin zum•i\). In its
pervasive power. Curiously enough some people deny that Jesus
here likens the expanding power of the Kingdom of heaven to
leaven, because, they say, leaven is the symbol of corruption.
But the language of Jesus is not to be explained away by such
exegetical jugglery. The devil is called like a lion by Peter
(1Pe 5:8) and Jesus in Revelation is called the Lion of the
Tribe of Judah (Re 5:5). The leaven permeates all the "wheaten
meal" (\aleurou\) till the whole is leavened. There is nothing in
the "three measures," merely a common amount to bake. Dr. T.R.
Glover in his _Jesus of History_ suggests that Jesus used to
notice his mother using that amount of wheat flour in baking
bread. To find the Trinity here is, of course, quite beside the
mark. The word for leaven, \zum•\, is from \ze•\, to boil, to
seethe, and so pervasive fermentation.
13:35 {I will utter} (\ereuxomai\). To cast forth like a river,
to gurgle, to disgorge, the passion of a prophet. From Ps 19:2;
78:2. The Psalmist claims to be able to utter "things hidden
from the foundation of the world" and Matthew applies this
language to the words of Jesus. Certain it is that the life and
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