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The Smallest Seed - Mark 4:31The hyper-skeptic Kornform is an M.D. Kornform: "Jesus said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, you can move mountains. I know it is a parable. Even if I couldn't understand this simplistic and false promise, Jesus still made the error." VH Aman: Dear Korn, I have Bolded and Resized your False Reading of Matthew 17:20. You should Know better. Kornform: "I have checked a significant number of translations and they all, save one or two, support what I said. The error stands." Dr Gary: No, the error on your part stands, Kornform. You misquoted Matthew 17:20. "And He *said to them, 'Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." Matt 17:20 NASB Kornform: "Here is the verse in most common
translations: DrGary: Sorry, Kornform, Mark 4:31 is not Matthew 17:20. You quoted one Gospel and then switched to another. Kornform: "I don't think there can be any doubt
that Jesus was referring to, as I said before, ALL POSSIBLE SEEDS. When he says
SMALLER THAN ALL THE SEEDS ON THE EARTH, he is NOT limiting the discussion to
the seeds that were familiar only to Jewish farmers in the area. DrGary's response: The passage in Mark reads: And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?
31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE."
33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;
34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own
disciples. Mark 4:30-34
NAS 1995 Update First, I am well aware there is a South American orchid seed that appears smaller than the mustard seed when viewed under a microscope. Do you think Jesus should have changed His 'parable' to read, "It is like the South American orchid seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground?" Obviously, to think the inhabitants of First Century Palestine would have understood is absurd. Second, you are being disingenuous in demanding literalism for every statement Jesus made. Do you honestly believe Jesus was speaking literally when He stated, "Follow Me; and allow the dead to bury their own dead?" Matt 8:22 In Matt. 18:9 Jesus said, "And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell?" NASB Have you rejected a personal relationship with Jesus because you don't want to pluck out your eye? In both cases Jesus is using a literary device known as Semitic hyperbole. Third, in describing the Kingdom of God Jesus clearly states he is giving a parable or illustration. The subject of the parable is the kingdom of God and not the mustard seed. In this passage the Lord used both Semitic hyperbole and Hebraic parallelism to make his point. Kornform is clearly wrong. Grace and peace, Dr. Gary Butner
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