Parable of the mustard seed

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Etching by Jan Luyken from the Bowyer Bible for the parable of the mustard seed.

The parable of the mustard seed told by Jesus of Nazareth is transmitted in the Gospels of the New Testament according to Matthew ( Mt 13.31–32  EU ), Luke ( Lk 13.18–19  EU ) and Mark ( Mk 4.30–32  EU ) . In the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke, the parable of leaven follows immediately afterwards , which also has great growth from small beginnings as its theme. A variant of this parable can also be found in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas in Logion 20.

content

Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man sows in his field. Although it is the smallest of all seeds, it grows into a tree that towers above all other plants, and in whose branches the birds of the sky can perch.

interpretation

Black mustard seeds (Brassica nigra)

Although by no means all types of mustard produce particularly small seeds, the mustard seed is regarded as a metaphor for something very small in both Western and Asian cultures . Today it is assumed that the mustard seed mentioned in this parable is the seeds of black mustard .

Methodist theologian Ian Howard Marshall writes that the parable indicates the growth of the kingdom of God from small beginnings to global size. Evangelical Ben Witherington notes that Jesus chose this parable to make it clear to his listeners that the kingdom of God as he preached it would be small as the mustard seed during his lifetime, but like the tree, it would be large and firmly rooted in the future . Witherington also points out that this also implies that some would come under the shade tree, but others would see it as obnoxious and would try to uproot it. This fits the interpretation of the US theologian Shane Claiborne , according to which the object of comparison of the mustard seed is not the smallness of the seed and the size of the plant, but the rapid spread of the kingdom of God.

effect

With reference to this parable, little Bibles are referred to as mustard seed Bibles . Some Christian initiatives have the Latin or German term “Senfkorn” in their name, such as the Senfkorn Order . A famous folk-language, mystical poem or even a song text, which was handed down in several manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries, received its title Granum sinapis from a Latin commentary attributed to the theologian Meister Eckhart .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Parable of the Mustard Seed  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Peter: Opium Weights from Burma , 2004 & 2005, accessed: April 23, 2009.
  2. ↑ L. Wehr: Mustard Seed . In: Manfred Görg , Bernhard Lang (Ed.): New Bible Lexicon . tape III . Benziger-Verlag, Düsseldorf / Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-545-23074-0 , Sp. 570 .
  3. ^ A b I. Howard Marshall , The Gospel of Luke: A commentary on the Greek text , Eerdmans, 1978, ISBN 0-8028-3512-0 , p. 561.
  4. ↑ a b Ben Witherington , The Gospel of Mark: A socio-rhetorical commentary , Eerdmans, 2001, ISBN 0-8028-4503-7 , pp. 171-172.
  5. ↑ Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living As an Ordinary Radical .
  6. ↑ Mustard Seed Order . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 15 . Altenburg 1862, p. 843 ( zeno.org ).
  7. ↑ Granum sinapis on eckhart.de .
  8. ↑ Paul Hirtz: “Inexpressible is the Divine” - mystical 'speaking' of God , semester 11.2, Curriculum Commission for Catholic Religion G8 in Saarland (ed.), November 7, 2009.