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Mark 4
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Chapter 4
Parable of the sower
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Again he began to teach by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there. The people were all along the shore, at the water’s edge.
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He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them,
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‘Listen!, Imagine a sower going out to sow.
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Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
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Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because there was no depth of earth;
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and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away.
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Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop.
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And some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.’
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And he said, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’
Why Jesus speaks in parables
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When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant.
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He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables,
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so that they may see and see again, but not perceive; may hear and hear again, but not understand; otherwise they might be converted and be forgiven’.[*a]
The parable of the sower explained
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He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
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What the sower is sowing is the word.
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Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan comes and carries away the word that was sown in them.
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Similarly, those who receive the seed on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy.
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But they have no root in them, they do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, they fall away at once.
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Then there are others who receive the seed in thorns. These have heard the word,
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but the worries of this world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing.
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And there are those who have received the seed in rich soil: they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
Parable of the lamp
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He also said to them, ‘Would you bring in a lamp to put it under a tub or under the bed? Surely you will put it on the lamp-stand?
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For there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light.
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
Parable of the measure
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He also said to them, ‘Take notice of what you are hearing. The amount you measure out is the amount you will be given – and more besides;
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for the man who has will be given more; from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’
Parable of the seed growing by itself
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He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land.
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Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.
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Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
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And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’
Parable of the mustard seed
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He also said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it?
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It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
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yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’
The use of parables
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Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it.
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He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.
The calming of the storm
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With the coming of evening that same day, he said to them, ‘Let us cross over to the other side’.
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And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.
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Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped.
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But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep.
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They woke him and said to him, ‘Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and all was calm again.
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Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’
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They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’
Chapters of Mark
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
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