Matthew 13:14

Matthew 13:14, in plain English

Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah: these people keep hearing but never understand, keep looking but never perceive. An ancient pattern is repeating itself.

Why it's here

The spiritual blindness Jesus faces is not new. Isaiah saw the same thing centuries ago. Some people hear God's voice over and over and still refuse to let it in.

Who's speaking

Jesus quotes Scripture to the disciples.

Where it sits in the story

Jesus connects His frustration to an ancient prophet who experienced the same thing. Spiritual deafness is not a new problem -- it has been happening for centuries.

The scholarly reading

Jesus declares Isaiah 6:9-10 fulfilled (anaplero-utai) in the crowd's response -- 'ever hearing but never understanding, ever seeing but never perceiving' -- connecting first-century unbelief to Isaiah's experience of Israelite obduracy.

Language and setting

Isaiah 6:9-10 is the most-quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament regarding Jewish unbelief (cf. John 12:40, Acts 28:26-27, Romans 11:8). Jesus sees His generation re-enacting the same spiritual pattern Isaiah confronted.

Voice

Jesus quotes Isaiah to the disciples.

Significance

Jesus traces the crowd's spiritual imperception back to an ancient pattern described by Isaiah -- the same blindness and deafness that characterized Israel centuries earlier is repeating itself.

12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

13This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’

14In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

15For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’

16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.

Read all of Matthew 13 — A farmer scatters seed, a woman hides yeast, a merchant finds a pearl. Jesus teaches in parables — and not everyone is meant to understand.