The Mustard Seed - Essay Example

The Mustard Seed All the synoptic books narrate similar accounts of the parable of the mustard seed as they all seek to create a comparison of the Mustard Seed parable with the heavenly kingdom. The different accounts narrate how the mustard seed, which is regarded to be among the smallest seeds grows progressively to a considerably big shrub that provides shelter to numerous of birds that make nests in its branches. However, each version of the parable tend to differ in the amount of details it presents due to the variable sources that the authors relied on when making coming up with the narrations. For instance Mark, Matthew and Thomas are all in agreement that the mustard seed ‘is the smallest of all seed’ a claim that is not reflected in Luke (Hultgren, 2002). Similarities and differences of the versions Some noticeable differences are evident from what the gospel books of Matthew, Mark and Luke account as compared to what the book of Thomas narrates. However, all the four accounts tend to provide a different view of how the mustard seed grows. For the case of Mark he elaborates that the seed grows into a great shrub, in reality this is the most probable scenario as this is what is generally expected in nature. The accounts by Matthew and Luke offers a rather different perspective as they claim the mustard seed grows into a tree. That notwithstanding Matthew also refers to the tree as the greatest of all shrubs thus sharing Marks’ point of view. In the gospel of Thomas it is described as ‘a great plant’ which can be closely related to Marks’ account. Marks’ account is arguably the longest as far Mustard Seed parable is concern while Thomas’ account provides the shortest version of the same. The introduction of the parable as presented by the authors differs as they employed different styles to reach out to variable audiences. For instance, the books of Mark and Luke present the parable with a set of questions as opposed to Matthew, who rather decides to present the parable directly from Jesus’ mouth. On the other hand, Thomas’ account implies that the parable was initiated by Jesus’ followers who asked to be told what the kingdom of heaven was like. All the accounts are in agreement that the ones that will utilize the mustard tree once it matures. However, the manner in which this occurs tends to be explained differently by the authors. Luke and Matthew indicate the mustard seed will grow into a great tree that the birds of the sky will come to the shelter. This is not echoed in the book of Mark as he emphasises on the mustard seed growing into a shrub that has many branches of which birds will make nests. When it comes to the process of sowing, the mustard seed Thomas and Mark tend to share the same idea in their explanation. In Marks’ account, he allude ‘when sown upon the ground’ this is very close to Thomas’ account that narrates ‘when it falls on tilled soil’. However, Matthew and Luke come up with a rather different version that introduces a human element responsible for sowing. In Matthew, the human element sow the seed in the field while in Luke the mustard seed in sown in the garden. This indicates the two authors had a common source that was different from the rest. It is worth noting that both Luke and Mark share some details with each other as far as their accounts are concerned. For example, Matthew and Mark do emphasise the contrast between the shrub and the mustard seed which is not the case in Mark. The idea of the mustard seed growing is presented in Luke and Matthew’s accounts, but it is tentatively omitted by Mark. Luke’s version of the parable stands out from the rest as it is presented in a narration form. This is manifested by the use of past tense in his account as opposed to the rest who utilized present tense in their respective accounts. Explanation of the parable It is evident the parable of the mustard seed is a double source analogy that is influenced by the use of Q source and Mark by both Matthew and Luke. Both Luke and Mathew demonstrated convergence in ideas with Mark in their narrations but that notwithstanding they also contain some similar finer details suggesting that they accessed some external source. On the other hand, the gospel of Thomas is founded on Mark but with some details suggesting consultation of an external source. Luke’s account is entirely based on the Q source. The narration of Matthew demonstrated some kind of blend mixing ideas from Marks with those from the Q source. The character of the Jewish is manifested throughout Matthew’s writing and thus there are no explanations offered concerning Jewish customs. The book of Matthew is present in a manner that makes it more of a teaching guide than it can be used for reference purposes. Despite attempts to make individual manoeuvres in narrating the parable, he had to make crucial inputs from Mark’s account to complement them to bring fully out the importance of the parable to non-Jews. Luke in his account utilizes the Q source together with some inputs from Mark to make his narration viable. However, he specifically concentrated on the Q source particularly Q 9:51-18:14) to form the basis for his account of the parable. Thomas, on the other hand, concentrated on Mark as his account demonstrates almost similar accounts. Luke chooses to give the parable a resounding background that was specifically meant for individuals who had prior knowledge of the gospel.Evidence on the use of the Q source is brought out by Luke and Matthew in their account when mentioning the human element that sow the mustard seed. The Q source does mention the human element that quickly shifts focuses to the mustard seed itself. Thus, this indicates both Matthew and Luke relied on the Q source to come up with their narration of the parable. The use of source Q is again manifested by Luke and Matthew when making the parallelism between the tree and the kingdom of heaven though they choose to use a different choice of words. In his account Mark describes how the mustard seed grew into a shrub an idea that is echoed in Thomas’ account where it becomes ’greatest of all shrubs’. The decision by Luke to use ‘tree’ reiterates his commitment of basing his narration solely on source Q. Alternatively Matthew exhibits classical traits by combining source Q with Mark as it can be demonstrated by the interchanging of the two terms. The tree defined by Luke and Matthew is perceived to have an Old Testament origin where trees were similar to kingdoms, Daniel 4:10-27.Mark gave a unique account of the parable thus making it quite difficult to discern the source of his narration. That notwithstanding the entire book of Mark is presented in a fashion that id very unique as compared to the rest; however, it is alluded to the social practices and traditions that existed before it was being composed. Often the book of Mark is perceived to be based on preaching rather than personal encounters with Jesus. The fact that different authors utilized different tenses in their narrations indicates the role of different sources in influencing narration of the parable of the mustard seed. Luke’s account is founded from source Q since it is narrated in the past tense. That notwithstanding the phrase ‘smaller than all seeds on earth’ that is used by Matthew and Luke can also be traced to source Q as it is omitted by Mark. Luke as a gospel author was more of historical in his narrations thus his work were framed in a manner that addressed an audience that had prior knowledge of the gospel a reason why he did not indulge in too much explanation in his narrations (Hultgren, 2002). Thomas based his account on Mark as it can be demonstrated by the wide similarities that the two accounts depict. His narration does not show any instance to relate it to source Q; however, his word choice may have been influenced by a different source. Since the human element is omitted in Thomas’ narration it further proves, his narration was not based on source Q. Meaning of the parables All the four accounts though narrated differently were all suggesting the same parable as taught by Jesus. Thus, it is prudent to state the meaning of the Mustard Seed parable is the same across all authors. In essence, Jesus was responding to his followers by elaborating to them the nature of the kingdom of heaven. He used the mustard seed to demonstrate the kingdom of heaven starts small, but over time it grows to an empire that will accommodate all the righteous people (Hultgren, 2002). Since the narration of Luke was made in the past tense, it is a clear indication that he was trying to reconstruct the history of early Christian movement. This is further affirmed by the fact Luke made use of a number of sources thus consolidating information to elaborate how Christian movement took place. Therefore, It is evident the parable of the mustard seed is a double source analogy that is influenced by the use of Q source and Mark by both Matthew and Luke. Works Cited Hultgren, Arland J. The parables of Jesus: A commentary. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002.Print. Read More