Mark 4
41 verses
The Parable Discourse is Mark's sustained teaching section, delivered from a boat on the lake to the crowd lining the shore. The sower parable opens the series with the hermeneutical key to all the parables: the word of the kingdom falls on four types of soil — the hardened path (immediately removed by Satan), the rocky ground (shallow reception that cannot survive pressure and persecution), the thorny ground (reception choked by worry, wealth, and competing desires), and the good soil (hearing, accepting, bearing — thirty, sixty, a hundredfold). The disciples receive the secret of the kingdom in private: parables reveal to those who seek understanding and conceal from those who do not, fulfilling Isaiah 6:9–10's judicial hardening of those who have settled into resistance. The lamp parable and the measure-for-measure principle develop the theme: the concealment is temporary (what is hidden will be disclosed), and attention to the teaching produces more understanding while inattention produces progressive loss. The growing-seed parable unique to Mark communicates the kingdom's automatic, self-generating growth — the farmer does not know how, and his activity or inactivity is irrelevant to what the seed does on its own. The mustard seed's transformation from the smallest of seeds to the largest of garden plants sheltering birds communicates the kingdom's disproportionate expansion from a tiny Galilean beginning. The Olivet Discourse's counterpart at the chapter's end is the storm stilling: the disciples who received the kingdom's secrets are terrified by the storm, Jesus rebukes the wind and sea with the same authority used on demons, and the disciples' question — who is this that even the wind and sea obey him — is the chapter's culminating, unanswered inquiry.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.
0 0Open verse page →
2
And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,
0 0Open verse page →
3
Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
0 0Open verse page →
4
And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
0 0Open verse page →
5
And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
0 0Open verse page →
6
But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
0 0Open verse page →
7
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
0 0Open verse page →
8
And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
0 0Open verse page →
9
And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
0 1Open verse page →
10
And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.
0 0Open verse page →
11
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
0 1Open verse page →
12
That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
0 0Open verse page →
13
And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
0 0Open verse page →
14
The sower soweth the word.
0 0Open verse page →
15
And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
0 0Open verse page →
16
And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
0 0Open verse page →
17
And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.
0 0Open verse page →
18
And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
0 0Open verse page →
19
And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
0 0Open verse page →
20
And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
0 0Open verse page →
21
And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
0 0Open verse page →
God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. Reading the Psalms alongside this gives ...
22
For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
1 1Open verse page →
23
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
0 0Open verse page →
24
And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.
0 0Open verse page →
25
For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.
0 0Open verse page →
26
And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
0 0Open verse page →
27
And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
0 0Open verse page →
28
For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
0 0Open verse page →
29
But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
0 0Open verse page →
30
And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
0 0Open verse page →
31
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
0 0Open verse page →
32
But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
0 0Open verse page →
33
And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.
0 0Open verse page →
34
But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
0 0Open verse page →
35
And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
0 0Open verse page →
36
And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
0 0Open verse page →
37
And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
0 0Open verse page →
38
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
0 0Open verse page →
39
And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
0 0Open verse page →
40
And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
0 0Open verse page →
41
And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
0 0Open verse page →
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
No notes on this chapter yet. Be the first to write one!