iv. 1-9. Parable of the Sower: cf. Matt. xiii. 1-9; Luke viii. 4-8. This is the ‘beginning of parables,’ as the turning of water into wine was the ‘beginning of miracles’—the great pattern-parable, and one of those which have a place in each of the Synoptists. Matthew and Mark agree in bringing it in after the incident of the mother and brethren. Luke places it in a different connexion, before that incident. Mark gives it as one of ‘many’ that were spoken (verses 2, 33), and reports in the same connexion other two. Matthew gives a cluster of seven.

1. began to teach: Jesus was again by the lake, and had resumed his teaching. At once a crowd gathered, and he betook himself for freedom’s sake to the boat. Then his teaching took the form of parable. That this was a change, and one that surprised the disciples, appears from their question, ‘Why speakest thou unto them in parables?’ (Matt. xiii. 10). Hitherto he had taught in more direct and less pictorial terms, by words of grace like those of the Sermon on the Mount, or by simple figures which explained themselves. But he had now reached a point in his ministry at which he had to deal with the deeper things of his kingdom. These were so strange to the Jews, so unlike all their ideas and expectations, that he had to adopt a method of instruction that might conciliate, and provoke reflection, and gradually make a way to their minds for new truth. [Salmond, 1906]

the sower. The things on which his eye could rest as he sat there in the boat—the sea, the cornfields, the soils of different kinds, the beaten pathway, the intertwining thorns, the flocks of birds, would suggest the similitudes. [Salmond, 1906]

the way side: the path by the field or passing through it, beaten by the tread of many feet and incapable of receiving the seed. [Salmond, 1906]

rocky ground: that is (cf. Luke’s ‘on the rock’), not soil merely mixed with stones, but solid rock thinly covered with soil. The seed might penetrate a little way, but could have no depth of root and would speedily be scorched. [Salmond, 1906]

among the thorns: in Matthew, ‘upon the thorns;’ that is, on thorny ground. Thorns, the nābk of the Arabs, are an abundant crop in Syria. They look like the grain, and grow with it, but only to discover at last their deadly nature, and choke the wheat when it should yield its increase. [Salmond, 1906]

thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. Matthew begins with the highest degree of fruitfulness and goes down the scale. Luke says simply ‘a hundredfold.’ Writers, both ancient and modern, speak of the extraordinary fertility of Eastern soil (cf. Gen. xxvi. 12), and not least of that of Galilee. Of the Plain of Gennesaret Dr. Robinson says, ‘its fertility can hardly be exceeded’ (Bib. Researches, iii. 285).

The soils, therefore, have respectively the qualities of hardness, thinness, foulness, and goodness. The seed will have fortunes corresponding to the soils. In one case it does not spring at all; in the second it springs but to wither; in the third it springs and grows, but yields nothing; in the fourth it comes to maturity, and to an increase varying in measure according to the different degrees of the soil’s softness, depth, and purity. [Salmond, 1906]

Who hath ears to hear, let him hear: solemn words reported by all three Synoptists here; spoken also in connexion with the sayings recorded in Matt. xi. 15, xiii. 43; Mark iv. 23; Luke xiv. 35. They do not occur in John’s Gospel; but in the Apocalypse they appear eight times. [Salmond, 1906]

iv. 10-20. Explanation of the Parable; cf. Matt. xiii. 10-23; Luke viii. 9-15.

10. they that were about him with the twelve asked of him. The meaning of the parable was not clear even to the disciples and the Twelve, far less to others. When he has finished his teaching for the time and the crowd is gone, he explains things in private. He does this in response to a request made by his disciples (Luke viii. 9). [Salmond, 1906]

the mystery. By this is meant a secret that is told or is destined to be told; in that sense the gospel (Rom. xvi. 25; 1 Cor. ii. 1, 7), or some particular part or truth of it, e.g. the calling of the Gentiles (Eph. iii. 3), the change at the Resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 51), is a ‘mystery.’

them that are without. Those outside the circle of the disciples. Mark alone gives this phrase.

all things are done in parables. Parabolic teaching serves more than one good purpose. It conciliates attention; it wins a place for strange or unwelcome truths in the mind; it illumines and illustrates; it helps the memory and stimulates reflection; it guards the life of truth until it can be received. But it has also another use. It is, as Matthew Henry puts it, a ‘shell that keeps good fruit for the diligent, but keeps it from the slothful.’ It is this penal object or result that is in view here. [Salmond, 1906]

that seeing they may see, and not perceive. Our Lord here makes use of certain words of the O.T. (Isa. vi. 10) which appear repeatedly in the N.T. (cf. John xii. 40; Acts xxviii. 26), and which speak of a blindness that comes on the people as the penalty of their grossness and the hardening of their minds. He applies these words to the case of those who crowded him and yet were ‘without.’ He spoke as he did to the dull and carnal ‘because seeing they see not’ (Matt. xiii. 13). So in Matthew it is expressed as result. But in Mark the words are given in terms of purpose—‘that seeing they may see, and not perceive.’ For with God result is also purpose. This solemn and difficult saying touches one of the sovereign laws of the kingdom of God—the fact that, in the Divine order and in the nature of things, refusal to receive the truth issues in inability to see the truth. The love of darkness has for its penalty ultimate insensibility to the light. [Salmond, 1906]

Know ye not this parable? The parable had its occasion in the moral condition of the disciples. It was intended to free them from those mistaken, unspiritual anticipations of his kingdom, which stood in the way of their understanding his teaching, and to help them to see that that kingdom was to come not immediately and by power, but by means of a Divine message which required time to do its work. [Salmond, 1906]

soweth the word. The great subject of the parable, therefore, is the word; this Divine message which he brought to men, the conditions of its efficiency, and the reception it was to have. [Salmond, 1906]

the way side: a figure of the spiritually obtuse, or the hearer whose ear is reached but not his heart, who is as if the word had never come to him. [Salmond, 1906]

the rocky places. So is it with the impulsive, hasty hearer who receives the word, but in a way so superficial that he goes down at once before trial. [Salmond, 1906]

among the thorns. A third type of mind, sympathetic to the message and going far with it, but divided between God and the world, and so becoming ‘unfruitful’—reaching nothing worthy in life or in service. [Salmond, 1906]

the good ground. The mind that ‘takes in’ the word, keeps it, and submits itself to its spiritual work, and so obtains, in smaller or larger measure, the good of life and the power of service. [Salmond, 1906]

iv. 21-25. The Responsibility of Hearing; cf. Luke viii. 16-18.

21. the lamp. The kind of lamp no doubt that might be seen in any humble Galilean house, a simple earthenware saucer, perhaps, with wick and oil. [Salmond, 1906]

that it should be manifested. As a lamp is given not in order to be covered, but that it may give light, so the word is given by Christ to the disciples not that they may keep it for themselves, but that they may impart it to others. The explanation is offered perhaps with a view to the ‘mystery’ of the kingdom of God. The things of that kingdom are mysteries, but they are misunderstood if they are taken to be secrets meant to remain secret. [Salmond, 1906]

Take heed what ye hear. The importance of right hearing is seen in this—that the measure of attainment in this matter of knowing the mystery of the kingdom will be the measure of the attention given to the word. [Salmond, 1906]

he that hath, to him shall be given. Another of the great laws of the kingdom. Knowledge adds to knowledge. The due exercise of the gift of insight into truth leads to larger insight, while neglect of gift leads to loss of gift. [Salmond, 1906]

iv. 26-29. Parable of the Fruit-bearing Earth. One of the three parables which speak of the things of the kingdom in terms of a sower’s work; akin to those of the sower and the tares, but with a distinct purpose, and illustrating a different aspect of the kingdom. It is peculiar to Mark. [Salmond, 1906]

and rise night and day. The picture is that of a farmer who, having done the work of sowing which belongs to him to do, goes about in the ordinary way of life, and attempts nothing further, but patiently and hopefully leaves the seed to the action of the forces in the earth. [Salmond, 1906]

The earth beareth fruit of herself. The heart of the parable is here, in the spontaneous action of the earth. While the man waits, the seed is passing through changes which are independent of his action, and are due to the unconstrained and unaided operation of the forces stored in the soil.

first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. These hidden forces work not only surely and effectively, but regularly, carrying the seed without fail through the orderly development of blade, ear, and full corn. [Salmond, 1906]

when the fruit is ripe: or, ‘alloweth.’ Only at the end has the farmer his time again. At last the seed returns to him as the ripe grain which it is for him to gather. All through the interval things have gone on in ways unknown to him, by the operation of powers hidden from him and uncontrolled by him.

The parable is best described as that of the fruit-bearing earth. It represents the kingdom of God indeed as a thing that grows silently and by successive orderly stages. But neither the secrecy nor the gradual, regulated method of increase is the immediate point here. It is that the kingdom of God is a spiritual thing introduced into the world, working in quiet and without haste through the moral forces deposited in human life and society, and moving on to its assured end by laws of its own. This is a word, therefore, of encouragement. The Parable of the Sower spoke of disappointments and failures due to the nature of the soil in which the seed is committed. This one speaks of hidden forces beyond our knowledge or control, which secure the growth of the seed, when once it is fitly sown, and make it certain of increase. [Salmond, 1906]

iv. 30-32. Parable of the Mustard Seed: cf. Matt. xiii. 31, 32; Luke xiii. 18, 19. [Salmond, 1906]

mustard seed. Never mentioned in the O.T. In the N.T. it occurs thrice on the lips of Christ, and always in respect of its smallness, viz. here (with the parallels in Matthew and Luke), in Matt. xvii. 20, and Luke xvii. 6. No doubt the common mustard-plant is meant; not, as some have supposed, the tree known as the khardal, which is said to grow as high as twenty-five feet. For that tree does not appear to have been known in the districts in which Jesus was teaching.

less than all the seeds: that is, than those familiar to the Jews of these parts and wont to be handled by them. [Salmond, 1906]

greater than all the herbs: that is, than all that had a place in a Jew’s garden. In hot countries the mustard (one of the tiniest of seeds) grew to a great size, ten or twelve feet high—as tall, we are told, as a horse and his rider.

birds of the heaven can lodge. Not for nesting, but rather for resting and for devouring the seeds. Birds are said to have a special favour for the mustard and its branches.

The point of the parable is in the contrast between the diminutive seed and the great increase. It is a word of hope, needed by the disciples and opportunely spoken. The kingdom of God as they now saw it was so unlike what they looked for, and so insignificant in its first appearance, as to suggest gloomy anticipations. This parable was spoken to correct that mood of mind, and give the assurance of a mighty future, notwithstanding the small and obscure beginning. The kingdom would yet cover the earth and embrace the nations (cf. Ezek. xxxi. 6, 12). The growth of the kingdom of God had already been set forth in the O.T. under the image of a tree (Ezek. iv. 10-12, xvii. 22, 24, xxxi. 3-9; Dan. iv. 10-12). [Salmond, 1906]

iv. 33-34. Method and Principle of Christ’s Teaching: cf. Matt. xiii. 34, 35.

33. many such parables. It is but a selection, therefore, that is given by Mark.

as they were able to hear it. Jesus taught with a wise adaptation to the capacities of his hearers, beginning with the simpler questions of duty, proceeding to the deeper things of his kingdom, and unfolding these latter gradually. Cf. John xvi. 12. The Apostles taught on the same principle: cf. 1 Cor. iii. 2; Heb. v. 12, xii. 20. [Salmond, 1906]

without a parable spake he not unto them. We do not need, however, to take this to mean that he limited himself to the parabolic form of teaching on all occasions hereafter.

expounded. The word is used of the interpreting of dreams (Gen. xl. 8, xli. 8, 12), and also of the deciding of questions (Acts xix. 39). It was our Lord’s stated practice, therefore, to open up to his disciples, when they were alone, the meaning of the parables he had spoken to the people generally. Matthew finds a fulfilment of Ps. lxxviii. 2 in this habitual use of parabolic address (ch. xiii. 14). [Salmond, 1906]

iv. 35-41. The Stilling of the Storm: cf. Matt. viii. 23-27; Luke viii. 22-25. Luke agrees with Mark in introducing this incident immediately after these parables. In all three Synoptists it is followed immediately by the story of the Gadarene demoniac.

35. on that day. Mark’s note of time is very definite. Luke says simply ‘on one of those days.’

when even was come. At the close, therefore, of an exhausting day’s work he proposes to cross to the other side, no doubt with a view to be free of the crowd and obtain rest. [Salmond, 1906]

take him. Said appropriately of the disciples, as being in charge of the boat.

as he was: without attempting any change or making any further provision for him. He was in the boat, and they start at once.

other boats. This is noticed only by Mark. They set out, probably, in eagerness to follow him. Nothing is told us of their fate. [Salmond, 1906]

ariseth a great storm of wind. Luke’s description is peculiarly true to nature—‘there came down a storm of wind on the lake.’ It was one of those sudden, fierce winds that sweep down from the heights upon the deep-set lake, through the great rifts that open out on the shore.

now filling: not ‘was now full,’ as in the A.V. The waves, driven with sudden violence, began to fill the boat. [Salmond, 1906]

he himself: contrasting his tranquil slumber with the tumult raging about him.

in the stern, asleep on the cushion. This picture of his position is given by Mark alone. Matthew and Luke mention only his sleeping. ‘In the stern’—where he could rest, out of the way of those handling the boat. ‘Asleep’—because weary, like one of ourselves, and needing rest; so fast asleep, too, as to be unconscious of the tempest. This is the only occasion on which the Gospels directly ascribe sleep to him. ‘The cushion’—a pillow, or perhaps the leather seat of steersman or rower.

they awake him: fear rendering them unable any longer to forbear.

Master: properly ‘teacher,’ ‘Rabbi.’

carest thou not? An appeal with a touch of reproach in it, which does not appear in Matthew or in Luke. [Salmond, 1906]

And he awoke. What the noise of wind and wave did not do, is done at once by the call of the disciples.

rebuked. All three Synoptists notice the fact; Mark alone gives the terms of the command addressed to the sea.

be still: lit. ‘be muzzled,’ as if the sea were a raging, roaring beast. The form of the word, too, means ‘be still forthwith and remain so’. With reference to the shrieking winds—‘Peace’; with reference to the rushing waves—‘be still.’

ceased: a picturesque word, expressing cessation from tiring toil and trouble. The lake sank back forthwith, like an exhausted creature, into motionless repose. [Salmond, 1906]

he said unto them. He had to rebuke the disciples as well as the winds and waves. In Matthew the order is reversed, and the chiding of the disciples precedes the stilling of the raging elements.

fearful. Courage fled because their trust failed.

have ye not yet faith? ‘Not yet’—after all they had seen in these many days of association with him. Luke puts it, ‘Where is your faith?’ They had it in a measure, but it was not at hand then when they needed it. [Salmond, 1906]

feared exceedingly. They are mastered now by a different kind of fear—not weak timidity, but wholesome awe.

Who then is this? New questions spring to their lips, indicating how profoundly they are moved. A greater impression is made upon them by this work than by any other they have yet witnessed. It came home to themselves and concerned those uncontrollable forces of nature which put their awe on fisherman folk like them. To them it meant more than even the rebuke of demons (i. 27). [Salmond, 1906]