Scripture · Matthew 13:24-30
Matthew 13:5
The Sower
Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.
A sower strides along a ridge above stones and thorny growth, with birds scattered across the ground and sky.
About the artwork
Millais brings several conditions from the parable into one hillside. Seed leaves the sower’s hand above the stony foreground, while bramble-like stems and feeding birds introduce other obstacles to growth. The good soil is not separately labeled; the landscape requires the viewer to look for what might happen to the scattered seed.
The Dalziel Brothers engraved the design after Millais, who drew it onto a prepared woodblock and checked the printed proofs. That collaboration matters most in the foreground: narrow cut lines separate pebbles, grasses and tangled stems while the sower remains a dark, legible silhouette against the sky. The eye has to travel through resistant ground to reach him. The obstacles to growth occupy more of the image than the action of sowing.
Featured in: John Everett Millais’s Bible Paintings: The Holy Family That Made Dickens Furious
What does Matthew 13:5 mean?
Matthew 13:5 describes seed on shallow rocky soil, where quick growth is followed by withering when the sun rises. Jesus’ later explanation connects that soil with a hearer who initially responds gladly but does not remain rooted when trouble comes. The verse is one part of a fourfold account of reception.
The birds, stones, and thorns in the engraving gather those different outcomes into a shared field. Reading verses 18–23 alongside the image shifts attention from the farmer’s skill to the conditions in which the word is received. Initial growth and lasting fruit are not treated as the same thing.
The stony foreground makes Matthew 13:5 visible, while the birds and thorns invite reading the whole parable and its explanation.
Sources
John Everett Millais’s Bible Paintings: The Holy Family That Made Dickens Furious. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Matthew 13 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Matthew 13:5.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:Sower with Setting SunHealing of a Leper