Mark 4:8

_HEARKEN; BEHOLD, THERE WENT OUT A SOWER TO SOW:_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-20 This parable contained instruction so important, that all capable of hearing were bound to attend to it. There are many things we are concerned to know; and if we understand not the plain truths of the gospel, how shall we learn those more difficult! It will help us to value the privileges we enjoy as disciples of Christ, if we seriously consider the deplorable state of all who have not such privileges. In the great field of the church, the word of God is dispensed to all. Of the many that hear the word of the gospel, but few receive it, so as to bring forth fruit. Many are much affected with the word for the present, who yet receive no abiding benefit. The word does not leave abiding impressions upon the minds of men, because their hearts are not duly disposed to receive it. The devil is very busy about careless hearers, as the fowls of the air go about the seed that lies above gr...

See the parable of the sower explained in the notes at Matthew 13:1. See the parable of the sower explained in the notes at Matthew 13:1....

EXPOSITION MARK 4:1 AND AGAIN HE BEGAN TO TEACH BY THE SEASIDE. This return to the seaside is mentioned by St. Mark only. From this time our Lord's teaching began to be more public. The room and the little courtyard no longer sufficed for the multitudes that came to him. The Authorized Version says that "a great multitude was gathered unto him." The Greek adjective, according to the most approved reading, is πλεῖστος the superlative of πολὺς,_ _and should be rendered "a very great" multitude. They bad probably been waiting for him in the neighborhood of Capernaum. HE ENTERED INTO A BOAT—probably the boat mentioned at Mark 3:9—AND SAT IN THE SEA, _i.e. _in the boat afloat on the water, so

AND OTHER FELL ON GOOD GROUND,.... The word was preached to some whose hearts were disposed by the Spirit and grace of God to receive it; and their understandings were enlightened by it; and they had a savoury and comfortable experience of the truths of it, it coming with power to them; it was a good word to them, and through the grace of God they became good by it; a good work of grace was wrought upon their souls, and they were filled with all goodness and righteousness: AND DID YIELD FRUIT THAT SPRANG UP, AND INCREASED; they not only appeared, and made an outward profession of the word, and brought forth a little show of fruit, which comes to nothing, as in others; but they were filled with the fruits of righteousness, and increased with the increase of God, and grew in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, and continued to bring forth fruit to the end of their lives: and bro...

Mark 4:1. _And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land._ You can easily picture that scene, the Master sitting down in the vessel, with a little breathing space of water between himself and the crowd, and then the multitude on the rising bank, standing one above another, and all gazing upon the Teacher who sat down and taught them. It ought to reconcile any of you who have to stand in the crowd here when you remember that the hearers all stood in those days, and only the preacher sat down. Mark 4:2. _And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:_ He d

MARK 4:8 kai. auvxano,mena {C} The reading that best explains the origin of the others is auvxano,mena (a B 1071 _al_), which is nominative neuter plural agreeing with the subject a;lla (“Other [seeds] fell into the good ground, and while growing up and increasing they yielded fruit; and brought forth …”). Under the influence of avnabai,nonta, which can be (wrongly) construed with karpo,n, there was a strong tendency to alter auvxano,mena to auvxano,menon or auvxa,nonta. Another factor that contributed to altering the participle was the assimilation of a;lla to...

CHAPTER 4 _ 1. Teaching by the Seaside. The Parable of the Sower. (Mark 4:1. Matthew 13:1; Luke 8:4 .)_ 2. The Word to shine forth in testimony. (Mark 4:21 .Luke 8:16 .) 3. The Parable of the Growth of the Seed and the Harvest. (Mark 4:26 .) 4. The Parable of the Mustard Seed. (Mark 4:30 .Matthew 13

TEACHING BY PARABLES. This section illustrates the method of teaching which the evangelist regards as characteristic of this period of the ministry. In it he combines some general observations about the use of parables, with what was originally a brief account of teaching delivered on one day. A comparison of Mark 4:1 and Mark 4:35 represents Jesus as entering a boat in which He stays all day and in which He crosses at night to the other side. Yet in Mark 4:10 He is supposed to effect an escape from the people, whom He is again addressing in Mark 4:26, as if no interruption had occurred. The original narrative must then have consisted of a group of parables. Into this

TEACHING IN PARABLES (Mark 4:1-2)...