The Sower
4 When a great multitude came together and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable: 5 “The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6 Some seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 Some fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 Some fell into the good ground and grew and produced one hundred times as much fruit.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” 9 Then his disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?” 10 He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the road are those who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root. They believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation. 14 What fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life; and they bring no fruit to maturity. 15 Those in the good ground, these are those who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with perseverance.
The same parable, with one soil described differently and the good ground given a quality the other tellings do not name.
“The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it.
The parable and its explanation are given in the earliest account Mark 4:1–25, with the four soils, the hardened path, the shallow rock and the thorns. This telling is the shortest of the three, and the differences are all in the wording of the explanation.
“The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it.
The trampling is added here. Before the birds arrive, the seed on the path has been walked on — the traffic of ordinary life does the first damage.
Some seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
The other tellings name the sun as what killed it. Here the cause is stated from underneath: no moisture. The failure is in what the plant could not reach rather than in what fell on it.
"The seed is the word of God" Luke 8:11. The identification is made plainly, and it governs everything after it.
Those along the road are those who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved.
This account alone states the purpose behind the snatching, and it is worth stating plainly: there is an intelligence at work in inattention, and it has an objective.
"They believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation" Luke 8:13. The word believe is used of the rocky ground here, which the other accounts do not say. The account is not squeamish about it — something real began, and it did not last.
"They are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life; and they bring no fruit to maturity" Luke 8:14. Three thorns rather than two, and the third is this book's addition: pleasures. Anxiety, wealth and enjoyment are listed together as the same kind of hazard, and none of the three is a sin. And the failure is precisely dated — not that nothing grows, but that nothing reaches maturity.
Those in the good ground, these are those who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with perseverance.
The last verse is where this telling does its own work. An honest and good heart is a phrase out of ordinary Greek moral speech, the description of a decent person — the writer reaches for the vocabulary his Gentile reader already uses. Hold it tightly is what the other three soils failed to do.
And with perseverance is the word that answers everything above it. Three soils failed at three different speeds, and the difference in the fourth is not intensity but duration. Nothing here is quick.
settled What this mark means