“And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?”
Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? — the question is not a rebuke of the disciples' ignorance but a communication of the sower parable's foundational status. This parable is the key to the others: if you understand how the kingdom works in the sower parable (the word goes out, different soils respond differently, abundant harvest results), you have the hermeneutical key for every other parable. The question how then will you understand any parable is not despair but instruction: understand this one, and the others become intelligible.
Church Fathers on Mark 4:13
Although the Lord appears in the transactions mentioned above to neglect His mother, nevertheless He honours her; since on her account He goes forth about the borders of the sea.
For if we look into the Gospel of Matthew, it appears that this same teaching of the Lord at the sea, was delivered on the same day as the former. For after the conclusion of the first sermon, Matthew immediately subjoins, saying, 'The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea-side.'
But He began to teach at the sea, that the place of His teaching might point out the bitter feelings and instability of His hearers.
Read all 22 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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