Luke 8:1-11

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Some Women Accompany Jesus

8 Soon afterward he went on through one town and village after another, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,^{(A) 2} as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,^{(B) 3} and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to them^[a] out of their own resources.

The Parable of the Sower

⁴ When a large crowd was gathering, as people were coming to him from town after town, he said in a parable: ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell on a path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rock, and as it grew up it withered for lack of moisture. ⁷ Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. ⁸ Some fell into good soil, and when it grew it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!”^(C)

The Purpose of the Parables

⁹ Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant.^{(D) 10} He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets^[b] of the kingdom of God, but to others I speak^[c] in parables, so that

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹¹ “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.^(E)