Mark 4:28

αὐτομάτη (αὐτός and μέμαα from absolute μάω, to desire eagerly), self-moved, spontaneously, without external aid, and also beyond external control; with a way and will, so to speak, of its own that must be respected and waited for. Classical examples in Wetstein, Kypke, Raphel, etc. καρποφορεῖ, beareth fruit, intransitive. The following nouns, χόρτον, στάχυν, are not the object of the verb, but in apposition with καρπὸν (καρπὸν φέρει) or governed by φέρει, understood (φέρει, quod ex καρποφορεῖ petendum, Fritzsche). πλήρης σῖτος, this change to the nominative (the reading of [27] [28]) is a tribute to the importance of the final stage towards which the stages of blade and ear are but preparatory steps = then is the full ear. Full = ripe, perfect, hence the combination of the two words in such phrases as πλήρη καὶ τέλεια τἀγαθὰ quoted by Kypke from Philo. The specification of the three stages shows that gradual growth is the point of the parable (Schanz).

[27] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[28] Codex Bezae