Mark 4:1–41

¹And he again started teaching beside the sea. And a very great crowd gathered near him, so that he went aboard a boat and sat out on the sea, but all the crowd beside the sea were on the shore.²So he began to teach them many things with illustrations and to say to them in his teaching:³“Listen. Look! The sower went out to sow.⁴And as he was sowing, some [seed] fell alongside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.⁵And other [seed] fell upon the rocky place where it, of course, did not have much soil, and it immediately sprang up because of not having depth of soil.⁶But when the sun rose, it was scorched, and for not having root it withered.⁷And other [seed] fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.⁸But others fell upon the fine soil, and, coming up and increasing, they began to yield fruit, and they were bearing thirtyfold, and sixty and a hundred.”⁹So he added the word: “Let him that has ears to listen listen.”

¹⁰Now when he got to be alone, those around him with the twelve began questioning him on the illustrations.¹¹And he proceeded to say to them: “To ​YOU​ the sacred secret of the kingdom of God has been given, but to those outside all things occur in illustrations,¹²in order that, though looking, they may look and yet not see, and, though hearing, they may hear and yet not get the sense of it, nor ever turn back and forgiveness be given them.”¹³Further, he said to them: “YOU​ do not know this illustration, and so how will ​YOU​ understand all the other illustrations?

¹⁴“The sower sows the word.¹⁵These, then, are the ones alongside the road where the word is sown; but as soon as they have heard [it] Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.¹⁶And likewise these are the ones sown upon the rocky places: as soon as they have heard the word, they accept it with joy.¹⁷Yet they have no root in themselves, but they continue for a time; then as soon as tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, they are stumbled.¹⁸There are still others who are sown among the thorns; these are the ones that have heard the word,¹⁹but the anxieties of this system of things and the deceptive power of riches and the desires for the rest of the things make inroads and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.²⁰Finally, the ones that were sown on the fine soil are those who listen to the word and favorably receive it and bear fruit thirtyfold and sixty and a hundred.”

²¹And he went on to say to them: “A lamp is not brought to be put under a measuring basket or under a bed, is it? It is brought to be put upon a lampstand, is it not?²²For there is nothing hidden except for the purpose of being exposed; nothing has become carefully concealed but for the purpose of coming into the open.²³Whoever has ears to listen, let him listen.”

²⁴He further said to them: “Pay attention to what ​YOU​ are hearing. With the measure that ​YOU​ are measuring out, ​YOU​ will have it measured out to ​YOU, yes, ​YOU​ will have more added to ​YOU.²⁵For he that has will have more given to him; but he that does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶So he went on to say: “In this way the kingdom of God is just as when a man casts the seed upon the ground,²⁷and he sleeps at night and rises up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows tall, just how he does not know.²⁸Of its own self the ground bears fruit gradually, first the grass‐blade, then the stalk head, finally the full grain in the head.²⁹But as soon as the fruit permits it, he thrusts in the sickle, because the harvesttime has come.”

³⁰And he went on to say: “With what are we to liken the kingdom of God, or in what illustration shall we set it out?³¹Like a mustard grain, which at the time it was sown in the ground was the tiniest of all the seeds that are on the earth—³²but when it has been sown, it comes up and becomes greater than all other vegetables and produces great branches, so that the birds of the heaven are able to find lodging under its shadow.”

³³So with many illustrations of that sort he would speak the word to them, as far as they were able to listen.³⁴Indeed, without an illustration he would not speak to them, but privately to his disciples he would explain all things.

³⁵And on that day, when evening had fallen, he said to them: “Let us cross to the other shore.”³⁶So, after they had dismissed the crowd, they took him in the boat, just as he was, and there were other boats with him.³⁷Now a great violent windstorm broke out, and the waves kept dashing into the boat, so that the boat was close to being swamped.³⁸But he was in the stern, sleeping upon a pillow. So they woke him up and said to him: “Teacher, do you not care that we are about to perish?”³⁹With that he roused himself and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: “Hush! Be quiet!” And the wind abated, and a great calm set in.⁴⁰So he said to them: “Why are ​YOU​ fainthearted? Do ​YOU​ not yet have any faith?”⁴¹But they felt an unusual fear, and they would say to one another: “Who really is this, because even the wind and the sea obey him?”