The Parable of the Sower Interpreted

¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones beside the path where the word is sown, and whenever they hear it,^[a] immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ And these are like^[b] the ones sown on the rocky ground, who whenever they hear the word immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but are temporary. Then when^[c] affliction or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones sown among the thorn plants—these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹ and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and^[d] choke the word and it becomes unproductive. ²⁰ And those are the ones sown on the good soil, who hear the word and receive it^[e] and bear fruit—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.”^[f]