📖 Biblical Definition
Matthew's major collection of kingdom parables, seven (or eight, depending on counting) parables given in succession and clustered around the question of how the kingdom comes and grows. The chapter is the second of five major teaching discourses in Matthew. Parables included: (1) the sower (vv. 3-9, 18-23) — four soils receiving the same seed; (2) the wheat and tares (vv. 24-30, 36-43) — good and evil grow together until the harvest; (3) the mustard seed (vv. 31-32) — the kingdom's small beginning and large outcome; (4) the leaven (v. 33) — quiet penetration of the whole; (5) the hidden treasure (v. 44); (6) the pearl of great price (vv. 45-46) — both teach the kingdom's incomparable worth; (7) the dragnet (vv. 47-50) — the final separation. Christ's teaching method in this chapter is itself theologically significant: parables both reveal the kingdom to those granted understanding and conceal it from those whose hearts are hardened (vv. 10-17, citing Isaiah 6:9-10). The kingdom arrives in mystery before it arrives in glory.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The kingdom-parables chapter.
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The chapter of Matthew gathering Christ's parables of the kingdom of heaven: how it is sown, mixed with weeds, grows from smallness, hides treasure, gathers all kinds, and separates at the end.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 13:11 — "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."
Matthew 13:31-32 — "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed... the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs."
Matthew 13:44 — "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Read for moral tips instead of as kingdom revelation that conceals from the proud.
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The parables are not folk-wisdom illustrations — they are revelatory and selective. Jesus says they hide the kingdom from the unrepentant while opening it to disciples. Treat them as keys that turn only in soft hearts.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek parabolē — placed-alongside.
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['Greek', 'G3850', 'parabolē', 'parable, comparison']
['Greek', 'G932', 'basileia', 'kingdom, reign']
Usage
"Read Matthew 13 to receive the mysteries of the kingdom."
"The kingdom comes hidden, then unveiled."