“To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus tells His disciples (Matthew 13:11). What mysteries?

A clue from the OT: The only place where the word “mystery” is used in the canonical books of the LXX is Daniel 2, where it is used 8x. And Daniel 2 also talks about a “kingdom” set up by the “God of heaven.” This combination of terms is found only here in the LXX.

Where does this get us? Two steps, at least.

First, Jesus is treating His disciples as prophets, as new Daniels, who are given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Or, maybe better, the disciples are kings, Nebuchadnezzars, who need the prophetic explanations of the new Daniel, Jesus, to understand the parables (visions) that Jesus gives.

Second, in both Daniel 2 and Matthew 13, the mysteries revealed have to do with the future realities of God’s reign on earth. Daniel learns about a series of empires, pictured as a statue of various materials, will eventually be ground to powder by the coming of the kingdom of heaven, which grows to a mountain. The disciples learn from Jesus about the various effects of seed on the ground, about the tares and wheat, about the mustard seed, etc. They are learning about the future of the kingdom that the God of heaven is establishing through Jesus.

Maybe a third step: The connection with Daniel 2 might support NT Wright’s view that the parable of the sower should be understood as a temporal sequence, the four sowings linked to the four empires of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s vision.

Very tentatively, a further step: Should we take ge as “soil” as the NASB has it, or as “land” or as “earth”? Is it possible that the parable is showing us the Son of Man sowing the seed in four separate “lands.” Is this a picture of the Lord scattering His seed, the seed of Abraham, and with that seed the seed of the word, across the world? In one land, Israel is sown and but is quickly snatched away; elsewhere, the word/seed withers and is choked. But now Jesus comes and as He scatters His seed, the land will bring forth fruit. There will be fruit among the Gentiles.