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Mark4:1–9

The Parable of the Sower

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Mark 4:1–9 — The Parable of the Sower. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea, and such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people crowded along the shore.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai palin ērxato didaskein para tēn thalassan kai pleistos ochlos synagetai pros auton hōste auton embanta eis ploion kathēsthai en tē thalassē kai pas ho ochlos ēsan pros tēn thalassan epi tēs gēs

Word by word33 · parsed
ΚαὶKai[Once]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πάλινpalinagainG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
palin: again, anew Mark's quiet admission that this is not a first attempt. The seaside teaching resumes what the house and courtyard could no longer hold.
ἤρξατοērxato[Jesus] beganG756
√ ἄρχομαι — to commence (in order of time)VerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
archomai: to commence, to begin Aorist middle, ingressive: the narrative marks the onset of a method, not merely an occasion. Pulpit dates the change from here, when direct teaching met scorn and gave way to parable.
διδάσκεινdidaskeinto teachG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
παρὰparabesideG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassanseaG2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
thalassa: the sea The same noun stands three times in this one verse (indices 6, 21, 29): the sea beside which he teaches, the sea he sits in, the sea the crowd stands against. Cambridge argues the lakeside scenery itself supplied the details of the parables that follow.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πλεῖστοςpleistos[such] a largeG4118
√ πλεῖστος — the largest number or very largeAdjectiveNominative Masculine SingularSuperlative
pleistos: the largest number, very great A superlative appearing in only 4 New Testament verses; two of the others are Matthew 11:20 (the cities where most of his works were done and which did not repent) and Matthew 21:8 (the very great crowd at the entry into Jerusalem). Mark's largest recorded audience is placed immediately before a parable about how little of the sown word takes root, and that placement is the unit's first argument.
ὄχλοςochloscrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Singular
συνάγεταιsynagetaigatheredG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
synago: to lead together, to gather Present tense, middle or passive voice. The same verb serves in Greek for gathering a harvest and for assembling a congregation; here the harvest language gathers people before the parable gathers grain.
πρὸςprosaroundG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὥστεhōstethatG5620
√ ὥστε — so too, iConjunction
αὐτὸνautonHeG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐμβάνταembantagot intoG1684
√ ἐμβαίνω — to walk on, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
embaino: to step in, to embark Aorist participle in the accusative, governed by the result conjunction hoste. Grammatically the whole of Jesus' action in this verse hangs on an accusative participle and two infinitives: the crowd is the only thing with a finite verb.
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
πλοῖονploiona boatG4143
√ πλοῖον — a sailer, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
καθῆσθαιkathēsthai[and] satG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
kathemai: to sit down, to be seated The seated posture is the teacher's posture, and the seat here is a boat on open water. The word says he sat in the sea: pressed off the land by the crowd he came to teach, he speaks from the one place they cannot press.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
θαλάσσῃthalassē[it]G2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiwhileG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πᾶςpasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ὄχλοςochlospeopleG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἦσανēsancrowdedG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
eimi: to be, to exist Imperfect plural against a singular subject. The verse ends not with an act but with a standing: they simply were there, facing the sea, on the land.
πρὸςpros. . .G4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὴνtēn. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassan. . .G2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐπὶepialongG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γῆςgēsshoreG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ge: soil, earth, land The word is "shore" here only by context; it is the same noun that will mean soil in verses 5, 8 and 20. The crowd is already standing on the parable's subject.
2

And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai edidasken autous polla en parabolais kai en autou tē didachē elegen autois

Word by word13 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδίδασκενedidaskenHe taughtG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
didasko: to teach Imperfect: a continued action. Mark gives no content for the "many things"; Poole's caution is that Jesus doubtless taught more than the evangelists recorded.
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
πολλάpollamany thingsG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
polys: much, many Neuter plural as a direct object: "many things." The abundance of the teaching is set beside the scarcity of the harvest the teaching will describe.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
παραβολαῖςparabolaisparablesG3850
√ παραβολή — a similitude ("parable"), iNounDative Feminine Plural
parabole: a similitude, a placing beside The word does not mean "illustration." Cambridge shows its Old Testament range under mashal: proverb, dark prophetic utterance, enigmatic maxim. Pulpit adds that the parable is therefore double edged, revealing those who love light and withdrawing light from those who do not. That double edge is the hinge on which 4:10-12 will turn, immediately outside this unit.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
διδαχῇdidachēteachingG1322
√ διδαχή — instruction (the act or the matter)NounDative Feminine Singular
didache: instruction, the act or the matter taught The noun can mean either the activity or its content, and Greek does not decide between them here. Both senses are ancient: Pulpit takes it of the mode of teaching, Gill of the doctrine received from the Father.
ἔλεγενelegenHe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epo: to speak, to say Imperfect again, "he kept saying," so that the parable of the sower arrives as one utterance out of a stream of them.
αὐτοῖςautoisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
3

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Akouete idou ho speirōn exēlthen speirai

Word by word6 · parsed
ἈκούετεAkoueteListenG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
akouo: to hear, in various senses Present imperative plural. Mark alone prefaces the parable with this command, and the whole unit is bracketed by the same root: akouete here, akouein and akoueto in verse 9. Everything between the brackets is about what happens to a word once it has been heard.
ἰδοὺidou. . .G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: lo! behold! Formally an aorist imperative of eidon, worn down to a particle of attention.
ὁhoAG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σπείρωνspeirōnfarmerG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
speiro: to scatter, to sow The participle with the article identifies rather than describes. Pulpit and Gill take the Sower to be Christ himself; Poole keeps the focus on the seed, which he calls the seed of God, the good seed.
ἐξῆλθενexēlthenwent outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exerchomai: to issue, to go out Cambridge presses the verb: the sower did not sow beside his own house or in a walled garden but went forth into the open country. Gill hears more in it, a coming forth from God into the land of Judea, which is a reading of the verb and not a claim the verb makes by itself.
σπεῖραιspeiraito sow his seedG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
speiro: to sow The same root as the participle: the sower sows. Greek is content with the tautology that English translations keep trying to fill.
4

And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai egeneto en tō speirein men ho epesen para tēn hodon kai ta peteina ēlthen kai katephagen auto

Word by word18 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐγένετοegenetoG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be, to happen The Septuagintal "and it came to pass." Mark's Greek here sounds like translated Hebrew, which suits a parable built entirely from sowing imagery the prophets had already used.
ἐνenasG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
σπείρεινspeireinhe was sowingG4687
√ σπείρω — to scatter, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
μὲνmenG3303
√ μέν — properly, indicative of affirmation or concession (in fact)Conjunction
men: indeed, on the one hand A weak particle doing structural work: it opens a series that allo (verses 5, 7) and alla (verse 8) will complete. Greek signals four soils before the first one is described.
ὃhosome [seed]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
pipto: to fall The one verb common to all four cases (verses 4, 5, 7, 8). Nothing in the parable is placed; everything falls. The seed exercises no choice of soil, and the soil is never said to have chosen either.
παρὰparaalongG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδόνhodonpathG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
hodos: a road, a way The path is the one surface in the field that human traffic has made, and it is the only soil described by what people did to it rather than by what it contains.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Plural
πετεινὰpeteinabirdsG4071
√ πετεινόν — a flying animal, iNounNominative Neuter Plural
peteinon: a flying creature, a bird Named without interpretation. Gill and Henry both take the birds for the devil, Henry comparing how the fowls of the air go about seed lying above ground; the parable itself supplies that reading only at 4:15, outside this unit.
ἦλθενēlthencameG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
κατέφαγενkatephagendevouredG2719
√ κατεσθίω — to eat down, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
katesthio: to eat down, to devour The prefix is the point: not nibbled but consumed. The seed on the path is not merely unfruitful, it is gone.
αὐτόautoitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Singular
5

Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai allo epesen epi to petrōdes hopou ouk eichen pollēn gēn kai exaneteilen euthys dia gēs mē to echein bathos

Word by word20 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄλλοalloSomeG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πετρῶδεςpetrōdesrocky groundG4075
√ πετρώδης — rock-like, iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
petrodes: rock-like, rocky The precision matters for the parable's argument. A field with stones in it fails by obstruction; a field of shelf rock under a film of soil fails by having no downward room at all. JFB and Cambridge agree that the second is meant, and that fixes the failure in verse 6 as structural rather than accidental.
ὅπουhopouwhereG3699
√ ὅπου — what(-ever) where, iAdverb
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
εἶχενeichenit did not haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
echo: to hold, to have Imperfect, of a standing condition: it kept not having. The same verb returns in verse 6 ("not having root") and again in verse 9 ("whoever has ears"), so that the unit's diagnosis and its final appeal are made with one word: what a hearer has.
πολλήνpollēnmuchG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēnsoilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξανέτειλενexaneteilenIt sprang upG1816
√ ἐξανατέλλω — to start up out of the ground, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exanatello: to start up out of the ground A rare double compound. Its base verb reappears at verse 6 of the sun, so the sprouting and the scorching share a root: what comes up fast is destroyed by what comes up next.
εὐθὺςeuthysquicklyG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
euthys: directly, immediately Mark's characteristic adverb, elsewhere the tempo of the kingdom's advance, here the tempo of a failure.
διὰdiabecauseG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
γῆςgēsthe soilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
μὴmēwas shallowG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
me: not, lest The negative that makes the infinitive a cause. Greek can say "because of the not having"; English must convert the lack into a quality.
τὸto. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἔχεινechein. . .G2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Infinitive Active
βάθοςbathos. . .G899
√ βάθος — profundity, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
bathos: profundity, depth The whole verdict on this soil is a missing dimension. It has surface and it has speed; it has no downward.
6

But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hote ho hēlios aneteilen ekaumatisthē kai exēranthē dia to echein mē rhizan

Word by word13 · parsed
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὅτεhotewhenG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἥλιοςhēliossunG2246
√ ἥλιος — perhaps akin to the alternate of G138 (αἱρέομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀνέτειλενaneteilenroseG393
√ ἀνατέλλω — to (cause to) ariseVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
anatello: to arise, to cause to rise Cambridge's cross references (Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 60:1, Malachi 4:2) attach this verb to messianic risings. Within the parable the sun is simply weather, and nothing in Mark makes it a figure for anything; but the word choice means a hearer who knows the prophets hears a rising that elsewhere heals, here exposing a plant with no root.
ἐκαυματίσθηekaumatisthē[the seedlings] were scorchedG2739
√ καυματίζω — to burnVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
kaumatizo: to burn, to scorch A rare verb, in only 4 New Testament verses. Matthew 13:6 has it in the parallel; Revelation 16:8-9 has it of men scorched by the sun and not repenting. The shared vocabulary does not make the parable an apocalypse, but it does mean the same word describes the heat that tests a plant and the heat that tests a world.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξηράνθηexēranthēthey witheredG3583
√ ξηραίνω — to desiccateVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
xeraino: to desiccate, to dry up The second passive. Withering here is not decay but dehydration: a plant with no access downward, in a climate with sun.
διὰdiabecauseG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἔχεινecheinthey hadG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Infinitive Active
echo: to have, to hold The third appearance of this verb in two verses (5, 6). The parable's failures are stated as absences of possession, not as acts of refusal.
μὴmēnoG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ῥίζανrhizanrootG4491
√ ῥίζα — a "root" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
rhiza: a root, literally or figuratively The whole weight of verses 5 and 6 rests here. What the rocky soil lacked was depth; what the plant lacked was root; and root is the only thing in the parable that is invisible while it matters most.
7

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai allo epesen eis tas akanthas kai hai akanthai anebēsan kai synepnixan auto kai edōken ouk karpon

Word by word17 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄλλοalloOther [ seed ]G243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeisamongG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἀκάνθαςakanthasthornsG173
√ ἄκανθα — a thornNounAccusative Feminine Plural
akantha: a thorn Cambridge identifies it with the Nabk of the Arabs, abundant in Syria and Palestine, and adds that the crown of thorns was probably woven from it. That association is his, offered as botany; the parable presses only the plant's competitive vigour.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αἱhaiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
ἄκανθαιakanthai[which]G173
√ ἄκανθα — a thornNounNominative Feminine Plural
ἀνέβησανanebēsangrew upG305
√ ἀναβαίνω — to go up (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
anabaino: to go up, to come up Shared with verse 8's participle for the good seed. The thorns and the grain both come up; only one of them ends in fruit. Mark's vocabulary refuses to let growth be the test.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνέπνιξανsynepnixanchokedG4846
√ συμπνίγω — to strangle completely, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
sympnigo: to strangle completely, to choke JFB's analysis is exact: the fault of this soil is neither hardness nor shallowness, since there is softness and depth enough, but the presence of something that draws off the moisture and richness to itself. Death here comes by diversion, not by deficiency.
αὐτόauto[the seedlings]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔδωκενedōken[they] yieldedG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
didomi: to give Aorist with the negative: it gave no fruit at all. The soil in this case is capable of giving and gives elsewhere, to the thorns.
οὐκouknoG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
καρπὸνkarponcropG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
karpos: fruit, as plucked The word the parable has been withholding. Nothing before verse 7 was measured by fruit: the path simply lost its seed and the rock grew a corpse. Only here is the standard named, and verse 8 will then apply it three times. The noun means fruit as plucked, the crop in the hand rather than the green on the stalk, which is why growth settles nothing in this parable. Mark presses the same measure twice more in his own narrative: the fig tree found in leaf and without fruit (11:13-14), and the vineyard whose tenants are asked for the owner's fruit and refuse it (12:2).
8

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai alla epesen eis tēn tēn kalēn gēn anabainonta kai auxanomena kai edidou karpon kai hen epheren triakonta kai hen hexēkonta kai hen hekaton

Word by word24 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiStillG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄλλαallaother [seed]G243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
ἔπεσενepesenfellG4098
√ πίπτω — to fall (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeisonG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
καλήνkalēngoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
kalos: good, fair, honest, worthy The adjective is aesthetic and moral as much as agricultural. Matthew Henry's prayer at this point is that new-creating grace would make the hearer's heart into this ground, which concedes what the parable never says: the soil is described, never told how it became good.
γῆνgēnsoilG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἀναβαίνονταanabainonta[where it] sproutedG305
√ ἀναβαίνω — to go up (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Plural
anabaino: to come up The same verb given to the thorns in verse 7. Here it is a present participle, continuous, and it leads somewhere.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐξανόμεναauxanomenagrew upG837
√ αὐξάνω — to grow ("wax"), iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Neuter Plural
auxano: to grow, to increase Present participle, middle or passive. Growth is received rather than achieved, and Mark does not name the giver in this unit.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδίδουedidouproducedG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
didomi: to give Imperfect. Against verse 7's single refusal, an ongoing gift. Fruitfulness in this parable is not an event but a habit of yielding.
καρπὸνkarpona cropG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἓνhenoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἔφερενepherenbearingG5342
√ φέρω — to "bear" or carry (in a very wide application, literally and figuratively, as follows)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phero: to bear, to carry Imperfect again, distributed over the three measures: one was bearing thirty, one sixty, one a hundred.
τριάκονταtriakontathirtyfoldG5144
√ τριάκοντα — thirtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἓνhenanotherG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἑξήκονταhexēkontasixtyfoldG1835
√ ἑξήκοντα — sixtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἓνhenanotherG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἑκατόνhekatona hundredfoldG1540
√ ἑκατόν — a hundredAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
hekaton: a hundred Ellicott notes that Mark's scale ascends where Matthew's descends, and Cambridge draws the conclusion that three causes of unfruitfulness are matched by three degrees of fruitfulness but only one cause of it. Cambridge also recalls that Isaac sowed and received a hundredfold in one year (Genesis 26:12), so the figure is generous but not fantastic.
9

Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai elegen Hos echei ōta akouein akouetō

Word by word7 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔλεγενelegen[Jesus] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epo: to say, to speak Imperfect, as in verse 2. Mark reports the most solemn line of the unit with his most ordinary verb of speech.
ὋςHosHe whoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
hos: who, which, that A relative pronoun with its antecedent withheld. The grammar makes the identification of the good soil a question put to the audience rather than a group named by the speaker.
ἔχειecheihasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὦταōtaearsG3775
√ οὖς — the ear (physically or mentally)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
ous: the ear, physically or mentally Plural and concrete. The parable's four soils have all been ground; the appeal at the end is to a body part, and Pulpit's gloss is that having ears means attending to Christ's words in order to ponder and obey them.
ἀκούεινakoueinto hearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
akouo: to hear Present infinitive: ears for hearing, a purpose the organ can possess and not use.
ἀκουέτωakouetōlet him hearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
akouo: to hear Third person present imperative, the hinge of the unit. Cambridge counts six occasions of the formula in the Gospels and eight more in Revelation 2 and 3 and 13, where the risen Christ addresses the churches. Within this unit the command is not a request for attention (that was verse 3) but a verdict: hearing, having been offered, is now required.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The largest crowd, and a teacher pushed onto the water — 4:1-2

Mark opens with a superlative he uses almost nowhere else. Pulpit, weighing the manuscripts, says the adjective πλεῖστος "should be rendered 'a very great' multitude": this is the biggest audience in the Gospel so far, and the evangelist places it immediately before a parable about how little sown word survives. Gill sets the scene physically, the boat lying a little off a lake that "had no tide, and so was still and quiet"; Cambridge adds that the lakeside itself, with its trodden paths, its shelf rock, its thorn bushes standing in the wheat and the deep loam of Gennesaret running down to the water, supplied the details of the parables, though that remains nineteenth century travellers' observation rather than exegesis. ⚙ What the Greek actually reports is stranger than either: an accusative participle and two infinitives leave Jesus grammatically dependent, while the only finite verbs belong to the crowd, which is being gathered (present tense, middle or passive) and was on the land. He is pressed off the shore he came to teach and ends, in the literal words, sitting in the sea. Pulpit dates the turn to parable from this moment, when direct teaching had met scorn; Benson explains the method as the usual manner of the eastern nations, framed "to impress them the more upon attentive hearers," and that last adjective is already the parable's subject.

ii. Two imperatives before any story — 4:3

The parable begins with a command, not a scene: Ἀκούετε, present imperative plural, keep hearing, all of you, followed by ἰδοὺ, look. Cambridge observes that this summons is peculiar to Mark, and Benson supposes it was spoken loudly to quiet the noise and hurry of the crowd. Ellicott then removes the English article: "Better, the sower," for the Greek has the articular participle ὁ σπείρων, a known figure rather than a specimen farmer. Cambridge presses the verb of departure: this man did not sow beside his own house or inside a walled garden but went forth into open country. Gill hears in that going forth a coming from God, and Pulpit states plainly that Christ teaches he is himself the Sower. ⚙ Both readings go beyond the words, which name no seed, no field and no owner; the parable in this unit reports only a sower, an act of sowing, and four things that happen to what he throws. Poole keeps the emphasis where the text does: it is "the seed of God, the good seed," and the sermon is the sowing.

iii. Three failures, and three different reasons — 4:4-7

The commentators are unanimous that the three losses are not variations of one problem. JFB names the first as seed "by the side of the hard path through the field, where the soil was not broken up," and Cambridge agrees, the trodden footpath crossing cultivated land; the failure is prior traffic. For the second, JFB is emphatic that the meaning is "not ground with stones in it which would not prevent the roots striking downward, but ground where a quite thin surface of earth covers a rock," and Cambridge calls that rock "an impassable barrier to the growth of the roots"; the failure is a missing dimension, and Gill notes shrewdly that depth would have cost time, so the speed of the sprouting was itself the symptom. For the third, JFB rules out both earlier causes, "there is softness enough, and depth enough," and locates the evil in something that "draws all the moisture and richness of the soil away to itself"; the failure is diverted supply. ⚙ Mark's verbs quietly say the same thing. One word, pipto, covers all four cases: nothing is planted, everything falls. Then the vocabulary doubles back on itself. The seedling on the rock springs up out (ἐξανέτειλεν) and is destroyed when the sun rises (ἀνέτειλεν) on the same verbal root; the thorns come up (ἀνέβησαν) with precisely the verb the good seed will use in verse 8. Growth, in this parable, proves nothing. Of the two words for ruin, both are passive and both singular with no stated subject: it was scorched, it was dried up; and the rare verb ἐκαυματίσθη stands in only four New Testament verses, two of them in Revelation's bowls of wrath. The thorns' work gets the harshest word in the unit, συνέπνιξαν, strangled together, which Cambridge lets Wyclif render "strangliden it."

iv. Good soil, an ascending scale, and an unnamed cause — 4:8

Ellicott catches the one place where Mark's wording parts from Matthew's: here is "an ascending instead of a descending scale," thirty, sixty, a hundred. Cambridge draws the structural conclusion, that "as there are three causes of unfruitfulness, so there are three degrees of fruitfulness, but only one cause of fruitfulness," and reminds the reader that Isaac once received a hundredfold in a single year (Genesis 26:12), so the top figure is generous rather than fabulous. JFB defines the good ground entirely by contrast, its qualities "precisely the reverse of the other three soils," soft enough to receive, deep enough to hold, clean enough to feed one plant only. ⚙ Two grammatical details are worth more than they look. The seed is plural here for the first time (ἄλλα, where verses 5 and 7 had the singular), and the fruit verbs turn imperfect: it kept giving (ἐδίδου), one was bearing thirty. Against verse 7's single flat aorist, "it gave no fruit," fruitfulness is drawn as a continuing habit. And the two growth participles are present, one of them middle or passive: it was coming up and being grown. Mark does not say who grows it, here or in the seed parable at 4:26-29. Gill and Henry both fill the silence with grace, Henry praying that by "new-creating grace our hearts may become good ground," which is a true doctrine reached from elsewhere; this unit describes the soil and never says how it came to be good.

v. The frame closes on one verb — 4:9

The unit ends where it began, on akouo. Verse 3 opened with Ἀκούετε; verse 9 closes with ears for hearing and a third person imperative, ἀκουέτω. Pulpit defines the qualification without softening it: the man who has ears to hear is the one "who diligently attends to the words of Christ, that he may ponder and obey them," and Pulpit sets against him the hearer who comes for the fame of the preacher, citing Ezekiel 33:32. Cambridge counts the formula: six occasions in the Gospels, eight more in Revelation, none in John. Pulpit also notes that Luke at this point has the stronger "he cried," while Mark keeps his plain imperfect "he was saying." ⚙ The Greek relative has no antecedent. Nothing in these nine verses tells the crowd which soil it is. The parable hands back a question, and the very next unit (4:10-12) will make the asking of that question the dividing line.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read only as far as verse 9 allows, the parable is not primarily about four kinds of people. It is about one throw of seed and four histories, and its most careful vocabulary is spent on denying every shortcut a hearer might take to self assessment. Growth is no evidence: the thorns come up with the same verb as the wheat. Speed is no evidence: εὐθὺς, elsewhere in Mark the tempo of the kingdom's advance, here labels a plant that will be dead by noon. Quantity is no evidence either, since thirty and a hundred are both good soil. Only two things are decisive, and both are invisible from above: depth, and root. The three failures are described as absences of possession, stated in Greek with one repeated verb, echo: it did not have much soil, it did not have root; and then the closing appeal uses the identical verb, whoever has ears. That repetition is where I would locate the parable's pressure. Notice as well what Mark refuses to supply. He gives two passive verbs for ruin with no stated subject, and a middle or passive participle for growth with no stated giver. He names neither the seed, nor the field's owner, nor the cause of any soil's condition; the commentators supply causes from doctrine (Geneva's fault of man and just judgment of God, Henry's new-creating grace, Gill's Satan in the air), and every one of those may be true from elsewhere in scripture while none of them is said here. What is said here is that a word was scattered wastefully over ground of every kind, that three quarters of it came to nothing, that the yield of the rest was extravagant, and that the only command attached to the whole account is to hear. A hearer cannot inspect his own root. He can only submit to the one thing the parable actually asks of him, and go on hearing while the depth is tested.

The soil is never asked to make the seed grow; it is asked to be deep enough to be broken.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same parable in three Gospels, and a boat already in the story verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier's strongest candidates for this unit are the synoptic parallels: Matthew 13:4 and 13:5 for the path and the rock, Luke 8:5 for the sowing, Matthew 13:8 for the yield. Ellicott, comparing Mark 4:8 with Matthew, says the parable is "almost verbally identical" with Matthew's, the one substantial difference being Mark's ascending scale of thirty, sixty, a hundred against Matthew's descending hundred, sixty, thirty; Cambridge adds that Luke gives only the hundredfold. JFB notices a further link inside Mark himself: the boat of 4:1 is most likely "the ship" already prepared at Mark 3:9. ⚙ The links here are Greek to Greek and lexically real, which is why they are tiered verbal; the caution is that a shared lexeme such as ge (223 verses) proves nothing on its own, and the weight of the claim rests on the near identity of whole clauses that Ellicott records, not on any one word.

Matthew 13:4 · Matthew 13:5 · Matthew 13:8 · Luke 8:5 · Mark 3:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes across the parallels, G4687 σπείρω (in 42 vv), G4098 πίπτω (in 86 vv), G3844 παρά (in 181 vv), G3303 μέν (in 180 vv), G1093 γῆ (in 223 vv), G4183 πολύς (in 322 vv); all refs are New Testament, and Ellicott independently records near verbal identity with Matthew's wording

Scorched: a verb that stands in only four verses verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἐκαυματίσθη (G2739, kaumatizo) is rare. The Verifier finds it in only 4 New Testament verses: Mark 4:6, its parallel Matthew 13:6, and Revelation 16:8 and 16:9, where the fourth bowl is poured on the sun and men are scorched with great heat and do not repent. In both places the sun is the instrument and the verb is passive. ⚙ The link is lexical and real, not thematic guesswork, but it should not be overread: Mark's sun is weather in an agricultural story, and Revelation's is judgment. What the shared word does establish is that Greek had one verb for the heat that exposes a rootless plant and the heat that exposes an unrepentant world, and that both scenes turn on what survives exposure rather than on what sprang up first.

Matthew 13:6 · Revelation 16:8 · Revelation 16:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2739 καυματίζω (in 4 vv), a genuinely rare word, plus G2246 ἥλιος (in 32 vv) in each context; all refs are New Testament, so no cross-Testament verbal claim is involved. It is a rare-word link, not a quotation of one text by another

The very greatest crowd: where else Mark's superlative falls verbal / quotation: confirmed

The superlative πλεῖστος (G4118) that Pulpit insists on rendering "a very great" multitude occurs in only 4 New Testament verses. The Verifier lists the others: Matthew 11:20, where most of Jesus' mighty works were done in cities that did not repent, and Matthew 21:8, where a very great crowd spreads garments on the road at the entry to Jerusalem, plus 1 Corinthians 14:27 of a limit on tongues. ⚙ Read together, the rare word twice marks a maximum of exposure to Jesus and once marks its result: the most works, the largest crowds, and repentance in neither case guaranteed. Mark spends the word on the audience of a parable that will report a three quarters loss. Note also that Matthew 21:8 shares hodos (G3598) with Mark 4:4, the road that in one place receives seed no one can grow and in the other receives garments for a king.

Matthew 11:20 · Matthew 21:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4118 πλεῖστος (in 4 vv), rare, with G3793 ὄχλος (in 170 vv) and G3598 ὁδός (in 99 vv) at Matthew 21:8 and G756 ἄρχομαι (in 84 vv) at Matthew 11:20; New Testament to New Testament only. The link is one rare word plus a shared situation, not a quotation

Sowing, fallow ground and the word that does not come back empty structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The parable speaks a prophetic idiom without quoting a prophet. Isaiah 55:10-11 already makes the rain and the seed a figure for the word that goes out from God's mouth and does not return to him empty but accomplishes what he purposes. Jeremiah 4:3 commands Judah to break up its fallow ground, which is precisely the diagnosis JFB and Cambridge give of Mark's trodden path, soil never broken up. Hosea 10:12 pairs sowing in righteousness with breaking up ground, and Psalm 126:5-6 sets sowing in tears against reaping with joy. Mark records no formal citation here, and none of these links can rest on shared vocabulary, since the Gospel is Greek and the prophets Hebrew. The honest statement is that the parable is built from a stock of sowing imagery scripture had already made theological, and that Mark's explicit prophetic citation in this chapter belongs to Isaiah 6 at 4:12, one unit later, not here.

Isaiah 55:11 · Jeremiah 4:3 · Hosea 10:12 · Psalm 126:6

basis: Cross-Testament, so shared Strong's numbers are impossible (Greek to Hebrew) and no verbal tier can be claimed; the Verifier returned no Old Testament candidates for this unit. The recorded basis is a shared motif, seed and soil and yield as a figure for the divine word, with no quotation claimed in either direction

A hundredfold, already granted once structural / thematic: confirmed

Cambridge, commenting on Mark's thirty, sixty and a hundred, recalls that it was said of Isaac that he sowed and "received in the same year an hundred-fold" (Genesis 26:12), and cites Herodotus on two hundredfold returns in the plain of Babylon. ⚙ The parallel is his, not ours, and it is doing modest work: it shows the top figure of the parable is agricultural hyperbole grounded in memory rather than fantasy. The theological interest is that Genesis attaches the hundredfold to a promise-bearing patriarch in a land under blessing, so Mark's highest yield lands in a vocabulary of covenant fruitfulness. That association is an inference, and the link cannot be called verbal: Genesis is Hebrew and Mark Greek.

Genesis 26:12

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is available and no verbal tier is possible; the basis is Cambridge's own explicit citation of Genesis 26:12 as the precedent for a hundredfold return, plus the shared motif of extraordinary yield

He that hath ears: the same formula, from the boat and from the throne structural / thematic: confirmed

Cambridge counts the occurrences of the closing formula: six in the Gospels (Matthew 11:15, Matthew 13:43, Mark 4:9, Mark 4:23, Mark 7:16, Luke 14:35), none in John, and eight in Revelation, at 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:29, 3:6, 3:13, 3:22 and 13:9. In Revelation the words are spoken by the risen Christ to the seven churches, each time attached to what the Spirit says. ⚙ The identification of the speaker is standard, but joining the two settings is our reading: the sentence that ends a parable told from a boat is the sentence that ends each letter to a church. We tier this below verbal, because the Verifier supplied no computed lexeme table for these refs and the basis here is Cambridge's enumeration of a repeated formula rather than a measured verbal link.

Mark 4:23 · Matthew 11:15 · Luke 14:35 · Revelation 2:7 · Revelation 13:9

basis: Cambridge (✦, at Mark 4:9) enumerates the identical formula at six Gospel places and eight in Revelation; all refs are New Testament, but the basis recorded here is his enumeration of a repeated saying, not a Verifier-computed shared lexeme, so the tier is held at structural

A sun that rises: the scorching and the healing typological

Cambridge notes that the verb behind "when the sun was up" (ἀνέτειλεν, G393) is the one used of the rising of sun or stars at Numbers 24:17 (the star out of Jacob), Isaiah 60:1 (the glory risen upon you) and Malachi 4:2 (the sun of righteousness rising with healing). ⚙ Reading those risings together with Mark's is figural, and it is ours, not Cambridge's: he offers the references only as usage parallels for the sense of the word. The figure, if it holds, is ironic rather than allegorical. The very rising that prophecy makes healing is, for a plant with no root, the thing that kills it; and Mark has already made the seedling's own springing up a compound of the same verb. Exposure to light is not neutral. We mark this novel and would not press it: the parable itself treats the sun as weather.

Numbers 24:17 · Isaiah 60:1 · Malachi 4:2

basis: Figural, not verbal: cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew) so shared Strong's numbers are impossible. The recorded basis is Cambridge's own citation of these three texts for the sense of ἀνατέλλω (G393), read figurally by us; novel rather than widely held, and the parable makes no such claim

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Sower who went out ancient/widely-held

The oldest reading of this parable makes the Sower Christ himself. Pulpit states it directly, that Christ teaches he is the Sower, the great preacher of the gospel among men; Gill takes the aorist ἐξῆλθεν as a coming forth from God into the land of Judea, and then extends the figure to any faithful minister of the word. Cambridge, staying with the agriculture, notes that the man went out beyond his own house and garden into the open country. ⚙ The Greek supports the identification more than it states it: ὁ σπείρων is articular, a known sower rather than an example, and Mark's own interpretation at 4:14 will name the seed as the word while leaving the sower unnamed. Read with the Gospel's own frame, the figure fits the one who came out to speak and whose speaking is the whole action of Mark 4: sowing without survey, on path and rock and thorn alike, with a generosity that looks like waste until the hundredfold.

Mark 4:3 · Mark 4:14 · Mark 1:14

Seated on the water while the land stands still novel

Taken literally, Mark 4:1 says that the teacher, pressed by the very greatest crowd, embarked and sat in the sea, while all the crowd were facing the sea, on the land. Gill and Geneva both explain the phrase practically, a boat launched a little off a tideless lake; Pulpit adds that the boat served to relieve him of the pressure of the multitude. ⚙ We would add one observation, and mark it as ours. Mark gives Jesus no finite verb in this verse, only an embarking and a sitting, while the crowd gets the only indicative verbs. The seated posture is the teacher's posture in Jewish practice, and here the seat is water. Two chapters of Mark later the same sea will obey his voice, and the same boat will carry him across it (4:35-41). Naming the sitting an enthronement goes beyond what Mark says here, so we mark it novel; what the verse does establish is that the word is spoken from outside the crowd's reach and cannot be crowded.

Mark 4:1 · Mark 4:39

The voice that ends the parable and ends the letters ancient/widely-held

The last line of this unit is a formula Cambridge tracks through six Gospel occasions and eight more in Revelation 2, 3 and 13, where the risen Christ addresses the seven churches and each charge closes with the same words. That the Revelation speaker is Christ is the ordinary reading of those chapters. ⚙ Joining the two settings is our inference, and it bears on how the parable is heard: the appeal from the boat is not a teacher's request for attention (that was verse 3, Ἀκούετε) but a third person imperative issued over the head of the hearer, exactly as it is issued to churches that are being weighed. Pulpit's definition of the qualification is the practical one, attending to Christ's words in order to ponder and obey them, and his counter example, with Ezekiel 33:32, is the hearer who comes for a pleasant voice and does not do the words. The soil that Christ commends in verse 8 is never told how it became good; the only instruction the risen and the incarnate voice both give is the same verb: hear.

Mark 4:9 · Revelation 2:7 · Revelation 3:22

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text and sources. Verse text is BSB; the word by word data, Strong's numbers and parses are the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief, and every lexical gloss above is quoted from that source rather than looked up elsewhere. Four of the ten commentators available for this unit contribute almost nothing to it: Barnes refers the reader entirely to his notes on Matthew 13:1-9, Poole to his notes on Matthew 13 (his one substantive paragraph sits at 4:3 and covers 4:3-20), Ellicott gives only three short corrections of rendering, and Henry supplies a single block note on 4:1-20 that draws on the interpretation in 4:14-20. Where their comments reach past this unit's verses, we have said so in the relevant editorial note.

What is uncertain. In the interlinear as supplied, Mark 4:8 carries the article τὴν twice in succession at indices 4 and 5 before καλήν γῆν; this is most likely a duplication in the source data rather than a reading of the Greek text, and no argument above depends on it. The aggregated commentary for 4:1 also runs two sources together: material in the [JFB] entry there continues into an outline and an exposition that read as another commentator's work, so we have quoted JFB only from material that is unambiguously his. In the interlinear, several Greek words are given no English gloss because BSB does not render them separately (ἰδού at 4:3, ἐγένετο at 4:4, αὐτοῖς at 4:2); we have treated those silences as divergences rather than errors.

What this unit does not contain. There is no formal Old Testament quotation in Mark 4:1-9. Mark's explicit Isaiah citation falls at 4:12, in the next unit, and has not been imported here. Accordingly every thread pairing this text with an Old Testament passage is tiered structural or typological, never verbal, since a Greek to Hebrew pair cannot share a Strong's lexeme. The Verifier returned no Old Testament candidates at all for this unit; the prophetic sowing texts cited above (Isaiah 55, Jeremiah 4, Hosea 10, Psalm 126, Genesis 26, Numbers 24, Isaiah 60, Malachi 4) are either explicitly cited by the named commentator or offered as our own motif reading, and each thread says which. Finally, this unit interprets nothing: the parable's own explanation of birds, rock, thorns and good soil is given at 4:14-20. Where Gill names the birds as Satan or Henry names grace as the cause of good soil, they are reading forward, and we have flagged it each time.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)