Mark 4:3

ἀκούετε : bear! listen! a summons to attention natural for one addressing a great crowd from a boat, quite compatible with ἰδού, which introduces the parable (against Weiss in Meyer). The parable is given here essentially as in Mt., with only slight variations: σπεῖραι (Mark 4:3) for σπείρειν; ὃ μὲν (Mark 4:4) for ἃ μεν, ἄλλο (Mark 4:5; Mark 4:7) for ἄλλα. To the statement that the thorns choked the grain (συνέπνιξαν αὐτό), Mk. adds (Mark 4:7) καὶ καρπὸν οὐκ ἔδωκεν, an addition not superfluous in this case, as it would have been in the two previous, because the grain in this case reaches the green ear. To be noted further is the expansion in Mark 4:8, in reference to the seed sown on good soil. Mt. says it yielded fruit (ἐδίδου καρπὸν), Mk. adds ἀναβαίνοντα καὶ αὐξανόμετα, καὶ ἔφερεν, all three phrases referring to ἄλλα at the beginning of the verse. The participles taken along with ἐδίδου καρπὸν distinguish the result in the fourth case from those in the three preceding. The first did not spring up, being picked up by the birds, the second sprang up but did not grow, withered by the heat, the third sprouted and grew up but yielded no (ripe) fruit, choked by thorns (Grotius). καὶ ἔφερεν introduces a statement as to the quantity of fruit, the degrees being arranged in a climax, 30, 60, 100, instead of in an anti-climax, as in Mt., 100, 60, 30.