Mark 4:30-34

New American Standard Bible

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (A)And He was saying, “How shall we ^[a](B)picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that ^(C)the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

³³ And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to ^[b]understand it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them ^(D)without a parable; but He was ^(E)explaining everything privately to His own disciples.