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Matthew 13:13 — “Because” or “Therefore”? Why Jesus Spoke in Parables

By Chris ThomasPublished May 25, 20263 min readConfessional Bibliology, New Testament Textual Criticism, The Authentic Text of the New Testament: A Book-by-Book Examination of Textual Variants
Matthew 13:13 — “Because” or “Therefore”? Why Jesus Spoke in Parables

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not.” —

Matthew gives both a result and a reason. Jesus speaks in parables therefore, because the crowds see without truly seeing and hear without understanding. Some manuscripts alter the second link so that the parables sound more directly designed “in order that” the hearers should not perceive.

The received and leading modern critical texts agree on the word translated because. This article is therefore another control case, not a KJV-versus-modern deletion.

and use the purpose form: “that seeing they may see, and not perceive.” Matthew’s because sets the saying within his own account. The dullness of the people has already appeared; the parables both answer it and carry out Isaiah’s judgment.

Witnesses that replace “because” with ἵνα, “in order that,” may preserve assimilation to Mark and Luke. The change is easy because the following quotation from Isaiah uses purpose language. A scribe who remembered the parallels could make all three Gospels sound alike without changing the broad theology.

Matthew, however, writes a careful sequence. The disciples are given knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom. The resistant hearer loses even what he seems to have. “Therefore” Jesus speaks in parables—“because” the crowd’s seeing is blind and its hearing is deaf. Then Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them.

Judgment and mercy in one form

A parable is not merely a friendly illustration. It reveals truth to the disciple who comes near and asks; it also leaves the careless hearer with a story he will not seek to understand. That double action does not make God the author of sinful unbelief. The people close their eyes in verse 15. Their hardness is culpable, and Christ’s teaching judges it.

At the same time, the parable is mercy. Jesus continues to speak. The seed is scattered widely. Even the public explanation of why he uses parables warns the hearer not to remain outside.

The received conjunction keeps the order clear: human hardness is not manufactured by a grammatical particle, and divine judgment is not denied. The people refuse the light; Christ answers them in a form that exposes and confirms their state while still calling those with ears to hear.

Matthew wrote “because.” The main critical text agrees. The ancient purpose reading belongs to the history of harmonization, not to the settled wording of this Gospel.

The difference also matters for the order of responsibility. Matthew first describes people who see and do not see; the Isaiah quotation then speaks of a heart grown gross and eyes closed. The parables answer an existing refusal. Mark and Luke emphasize the judicial purpose produced by that refusal. The accounts are complementary rather than doctrinal rivals.

“Because” does not make Christ a passive observer of unbelief. He chooses the parabolic form, gives understanding to the disciples, and fulfills the prophetic word. Divine sovereignty and human guilt meet without being reduced to one conjunction.

The variant is therefore a good check on harmonization language. The purpose form is authentic in the parallels. Its truth elsewhere makes its entry here easier, not less significant. A copied word can be sound Scripture in Mark and still be secondary in Matthew.

Sources and further reading