PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
9 1Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the heavenly kingdom would arrive, Jesus laughed and replied, 2“The heavenly kingdom does not arrive as something one looks for. Nor will people say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There!’
3Look: The heavenly kingdom is in your midst!”
4And he told them a metaphor:
“This is what the heavenly kingdom is like. A man scatters seed on the earth. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 5All by itself the earth produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
6The heavenly kingdom is like yeast, which a woman took and mixed into sixty pounds of flour until it worked through the whole dough.
7The heavenly kingdom is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 8Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds even come to perch in its branches.”
9All these things Jesus spoke in metaphors.
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
9 1Ἐπερωτηθεὶς δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν Φαρισαίων πότε ἔρχεται ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐξεγέλασεν καὶ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς· 2Οὐκ ἔρχεται ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν μετὰ παρατηρήσεως, οὐδὲ ἐροῦσιν· Ἰδοὺ ὧδε ἤ· Ἐκεῖ. 3ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν.
4Καὶ παραβολὴν παρέθηκεν αὐτοῖς λέγων· Οὕτως ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ὡς ἄνθρωπος βάλῃ τὸν σπόρον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ καθεύδῃ καὶ ἐγείρηται νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν, καὶ ὁ σπόρος βλαστᾷ καὶ μηκύνηται ὡς οὐκ οἶδεν αὐτός. 5αὐτομάτη ἡ γῆ καρποφορεῖ, πρῶτον χόρτον εἶτα στάχυν εἶτα πλήρης σῖτον ἐν τῷ στάχυϊ.
6Ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ζύμῃ, ἣν λαβοῦσα γυνὴ ἐνέκρυψεν εἰς ἀλεύρου σάτα τρία ἕως οὗ ἐζυμώθη ὅλον.
7Ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν κόκκῳ σινάπεως, ὃν λαβὼν ἄνθρωπος ἔσπειρεν ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ αὐτοῦ· 8ὃ μικρότερον μέν ἐστιν πάντων τῶν σπερμάτων, ὅταν δὲ αὐξηθῇ μεῖζον τῶν λαχάνων ἐστὶν καὶ γίνεται δένδρον, ὥστε ἐλθεῖν τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ κατα-σκηνοῦν ἐν τοῖς κλάδοις αὐτοῦ.
9Ταῦτα πάντα ἐλάλησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν παρα-βολαῖς.