Day 51 of 75 · Parables and teaching

Z-R-ʿ

zarʿa: seed

זרע · זרעא

ܙܪܥ · ܙܰܪܥܳܐ

The feel

Zarʿa holds the whole arc: sowing, the seed scattered from your hand, and the children who spring from a forebear. It is language rooted in Galilee’s fields. You release the grain toward ground you cannot control, then trust what may rise beyond your sight.

The root family

Form	Pattern	Transliteration	Script	Standard	Qala rendering
Verb, "to sow"	peal imperfect, "that he might sow"	dnezruʿ	דנזרוע ܕ݁ܢܶܙܪܽܘܥ	to sow seed	to sow · to scatter seed
Noun, "seed"	emphatic noun	zarʿā	זרעא ܙܰܪܥܳܐ	seed	seed · offspring · descendants
Agent noun, "sower"	doer pattern	zāruʿā	זרועא ܙܳܪܽܘܥܳܐ	sower	the sower (Mt 13:3)

Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary and the interlinear (Mt 13:3; Mt 13:37; Mk 4:26).

The verb stems

Stem	Force	Form here	Sense
Peal	simple active	zraʿ	to sow, corpus-attested: dazraʿ, "who sowed" (Mt 13:37); dnezruʿ (Mt 13:3)
Ethpeel	simple passive	—	be sown; grammar books give mezdraʿ, the t and z trading places: scaffold form, cited here from grammar, not from the corpus
Pael	intensive	—	not attested in this corpus
Ethpaal	intensive passive	—	not attested in this corpus
Aphel	causative	—	not attested in this corpus
Ettaphal	causative passive	—	not attested in this corpus
Shaphel	rare causative	—	not attested in this corpus

Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause.

In his voice

Matthew 13:3

And he told them many things in parables. "Look," he said, "a sower went out to sow.

zāruʿā … dnezruʿ , "a sower … to sow": the doer and his deed from one root, the sentence that opens the parable chapter.

Matthew 13:37

He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

dazraʿ … zarʿā ṭābā , "who sows … the good seed": verb and noun side by side; in the next verse the seed turns out to be people: "the children of the reign."

Mark 4:26

And he said: "The reign of God is like this. A man scatters seed on the ground.

zarʿā , "seed": Mark's quietest parable. The man's whole contribution is the throw; the growing happens without him.

Practice

Recall one unseen seed you have planted: a kind word, an apology, honest work. Breathe once for the casting, once for the waiting, then leave the field alone.

Say zarʿa aloud: seed, sowing, children, one root carrying the whole arc.

Connections

Ḥ-Ṣ-D (Day 52)P-ʿ-L (Day 53)zārʿin zarʿā

Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.

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