Yet he has no root in himself: in such a context root is used symbolically of “stability” or “steadfastness.” Revised Standard Version retains the root imagery, but this is not necessary and perhaps not even the best procedure to follow, since the comparison shifts from a plant to a person. INCL maintains the figure with some effectiveness (“but the message does not take root in them”), while Good News Translation drops the imagery (“But it does not sink deep into them”). Other possibilities include “but it does not make a deep impression on them,” “but they don’t really make it part of them,” and “but the word does not really establish itself in their lives.”
Endures for a while translates an adjective in Greek which means “temporary” or “lasting only for a while.” Other than the Marcan parallel (4.17), the word occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only twice (2 Cor 4.18; Heb 11.25). New English Bible has “no staying-power,” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “unstable” or “unsteady.” The phrase endures for a while can be handled in either of two ways. The subject can be the person who received the word, as in “he believes only for a short time” or “he accepts the message only for a little while.” A second way is for the word to be the subject, as in “the word stays in him only for a short time” or “this word does not remain a part of his life very long.” Of course, this phrase should flow naturally from the previous one.
Tribulation (Good News Translation “trouble”) is found elsewhere in Matthew in 24.9, 21, 29. Persecution occurs only here in the Gospel. The word refers to a campaign to oppress or punish people because of their belief or their race. The combination of the two words is found elsewhere only in Mark 4.17 and 2 Thessalonians 1.4, though Romans 8.35 is similar with the addition of “hardship” (Good News Translation). The first of these two nouns (tribulation) is used of difficulties in general; the second does refer to persecution in particular. Depending on the receptor language, translators have used words like “troubles,” “suffering,” and “hard times” for tribulation and persecution. However, some translators have employed verbal phrases to render these terms, as in “when people (start to) persecute him and cause him to suffer” or “… make trouble for him and give him suffering.”
These things happen on account of the word, that is, “because he has believed (or, accepted) the message.” As in verse 19, word is used in the sense of “message” (Good News Translation).
Fall away (Good News Translation “give up”) occurs with similar meaning in 24.10; Mark 4.17; 14.27, 29; John 16.1. It can be rendered as “he stops believing the word” or “he abandons his faith.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .