Mark 4:13. Know ye not this parable! An answer to the second question, implied in Mark 4:10. It is not a reproof, but means: ‘You find you cannot understand this without assistance.' The next question: and how then will ye know all parables? extends the thought to all parables, but intimates further: ‘The first parable of the kingdom is the basis of all the rest. If they understand not this, they could not understand any that followed. If they had the explanation of this, they had the key for the understanding of all others.' Hence our Lord gives, not rules of interpretation, but examples, one of which is here preserved, to be our guide in interpretation. To understand the parables, God must help us (Mark 4:11). Wrong interpretations are those which do not tend to conversion and forgiveness (Mark 4:12).

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Old Testament