Vincent's NT Word Studies
32. Groweth up. Mark only.Herbs (twn lacanwn). Rev., rightly, the herbs; those which people are wont to plant in their gardens. The word denotes garden - or pot-herbs, as distinguished from wild herbs.
Shooteth out great branches (poiei kladouv megalouv). Lit., maketh, etc. Rev., putteth out. Peculiar to Mark. Matthew has becometh a tree. On branches, see note on Matt. xxiv. 32. One of the Talmudists describes the mustard-plant as a tree, of which the wood was sufficient to cover a potter's shed. Another says that he was wont to climb into it as men climb into a fig-tree. Professor Hackett says that on the plain of Akka, toward Carmel, he found a collection of mustard-plants from six to nine feet high, with branches from each side of a trunk an inch or more in thickness. Dr. Thomson relates that near the bank of the Jordan he found a mustard-tree more than twelve feet high.
Lodge (kataskhnoun), See on Matt. viii. 20. Lit., pitch their tents.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
4:32 {Groweth up} (anabainei). #Mt 13:32 {When it is grown} (hotan auxeqei). {Under the shadow thereof} (hupo ten skian autou). A different picture from Matthew's {in the branches thereof} (en tois kladois autou). But both use kataskenoin, to tent or camp down, make nests in the branches in the shade or hop on the ground under the shade just like a covey of birds. In #Mt 8:20 the birds have nests (kataskenwseis). The use of the mustard seed for smallness seems to have been proverbial and Jesus employs it elsewhere (#Mt 17:20; Lu 17:6).
