Other seeds fell upon thorns may leave the impression that the seeds were thrown into a patch of full-grown thorn bushes. It is only toward the end of the verse that the reader realizes that the thorn bushes were not already there at the time of the sowing. The reference is either to ground that contains the roots of old thorn bushes which will sprout in the coming season, or to ground in which thorn seeds have also fallen. This information may be necessary to provide in translation; for example, “Some of the seed fell among places where thorn bushes were going to grow up” or “… where the seeds (or, roots) of thorn bushes were already in the ground.”

For thorns, translators should use some plant or weed that grows quickly and is covered by thorns.

Grew up translates a verb which means “shoot up” or “spring up” when used of plants. Jesus is here referring to thorn plants which grow simultaneously with the newly sprouted grain plants. They grow more quickly and have more durability than the grain plants, and so they choke out the grain.

Notice that despite the fact that seeds is repeated at the beginning of the verse, them really refers again to the newly sprouted grain. Thus “choked the young crops” or “choked the seeds that had sprouted” are possible translations.

Languages will generally have a way of referring to one plant being choked by another, although a short phrase such as “made it impossible for them to grow” may be required.

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 .