Luke 8:9

The Purpose of the Parables

9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,

Luke 8:9 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 8:9

And his disciples asked him
That is, as Mark says, "when he was alone"; after the multitude were departed, and they were by themselves, it may be in some house with other disciples:

saying, what might this parable be?
what is the sense and meaning of it? According to Matthew, they asked why he spake in parables to the people; and to such a question the following words are a proper answer.

Luke 8:9 In-Context

7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
10 he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'
11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.