Saying 20: The Mustard Seed
The kingdom is like a mustard seed: the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on worked ground it puts out a great branch and shelters the birds.
Commentary
Thomas’s version insists on “tilled soil” — the ground has to be prepared. It also drops the tree, keeping the humbler “great branch” that a mustard plant actually produces.
Parallels
Mark 4:30–32; Matthew 13:31–32; Luke 13:18–19
Sayings on the same themes
- Saying 64 Saying 64: The Great Banquet A man invited guests to dinner; every one of them had business to attend to — debts to collect, a house to…
- Saying 63 Saying 63: The Rich Fool A rich man planned to invest his money, sow, reap and fill his barns so he would lack nothing — and died…
- Saying 54 Saying 54: Blessed Are the Poor Blessed are the poor, for the kingdom of heaven is yours.
- Saying 107 Saying 107: The Largest Sheep A shepherd with a hundred sheep lost the largest one. He left the ninety-nine and searched until he found it, and then…
- Saying 97 Saying 97: The Jar of Meal The kingdom is like a woman carrying a jar of meal. The handle broke on the road and the meal spilled out…
- Saying 21 Saying 21: Children in a Field Not Theirs Mary asks what the disciples are like; they are like children living in a field that is not theirs, who give it…