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Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea. He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, “Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds[a] came and devoured it. Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.” He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

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Footnotes

  1. 4:4 TR adds “of the air”

The Parable of the Sower

And again he began to teach beside the sea,[a] and a very large crowd was gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and[b] sat on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the sea on the land. And he began to teach[c] them many things in parables, and was saying to them in his teaching, “Listen! Behold, the sower went out to sow. And it happened that while he was sowing, some seed[d] fell on the side of the path, and the birds came and devoured it. And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up at once, because it did not have any depth of soil. And when the sun rose it was scorched, and because it did not have enough root, it withered. And other seed fell among the thorn plants, and the thorn plants came up and choked it, and it did not produce grain.[e] And other seed fell on the good soil, and produced grain,[f] coming up and increasing, and it bore a crop[g]—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.[h] And he said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 4:1 That is, the Sea of Galilee
  2. Mark 4:1 Here “and” is supplied because the previous participle (“got”) has been translated as a finite verb
  3. Mark 4:2 The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here (“began to teach”)
  4. Mark 4:4 Literally “some of which”
  5. Mark 4:7 Literally “fruit,” describing here the grain harvested from the healthy plants; in contemporary English this would more naturally be expressed by terms like “grain” or “crop”
  6. Mark 4:8 Literally “fruit,” describing here the grain harvested from the healthy plants; in contemporary English this would more naturally be expressed by terms like “grain” or “crop”
  7. Mark 4:8 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
  8. Mark 4:8 The phrase “times as much” is not in the Greek text but is implied