Mark 4 is the fourth chapter of the

Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...

in the New Testament of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible. It tells the parable of the Sower, with its explanation, and the

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

of the Mustard Seed. Both of these parables are paralleled in

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

and

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...

, but this chapter also has a parable unique to Mark, the Seed Growing Secretly. The chapter ends with Jesus calming the storm.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 41 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: * Codex Vaticanus (AD 325–350; complete) * Codex Sinaiticus (AD 330–360; complete) * Codex Bezae (ca. AD 400; complete) * Codex Washingtonianus (ca. AD 400; complete) * Codex Alexandrinus (AD 400–440; complete) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) designated by the siglum C or 04 {in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 3 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a ma ...

(ca. AD 450; complete)

Parables

Jesus goes again (see ) to the lake (the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest ...

). He begins to teach by the sea or "on the shore", and then sits in a boat, and speaks to "a great multitude" (). The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entrie ...

notes that "the Greek adjective, according to the most approved reading, is πλεῖστος, ''pleistos'', the

superlative Comparison is a feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe. In languages t ...

of πολὺς, ''polus'', and should be rendered 'a very great' multitude. The room and the little courtyard no longer sufficed for the multitudes that came to him." From there the text suggests that "he spoke many things in parables"; from the many, Heinrich Meyer argues that Mark presents "a selection":

The Sower

The first parable Mark relates is the parable of the Sower, with Jesus speaking of himself as a sower or farmer and his seed as his word. Much of the seed comes to no account but "still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."
4:8
His

disciples A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in ...

(students) do not understand why he is teaching in parables or even what the meaning of the parables are. Later, after the crowds have left and Jesus tells them "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"
4:11-12
, with Jesus quoting Isaiahbr>6:9-10

Early Christians Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...

used this passage from Isaiah "...to explain the lack of a positive response to Jesus and his followers from their fellow Jews." (Miller 21) He rebukes them for not understanding him, and explains his meaning, and that those who accept his word, i.e. his teaching are the ones who will produce the large "crop". This is also found in Luk
8:4-15
and Matthe
13:1-23
It is also sayin

of the Gospel of Thomas.

Lamp on a Stand

Jesus then speaks of a lamp on a stand, that one does not put it under concealment but allows to shine (). He says, "For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear,"
4:22-23
the last sentence being, judging from all available texts, a favorite saying of Jesus. This is also in Luk
11:33
and perhaps in Matthe
10:26-27
"'Consider carefully what you hear,' he continued. 'With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.'"
4:24-25
The ''Scholars Version'' translates these verses like such: "...The standard you apply will be the standard applied to you, and then some. In fact, to those who have, more will be given, and from those who don't have, even what they do have will be taken away!" Mark 4:25 also occurs in the Parable of the Talents (, ) and , , Thomas 41. Mark 4:24 also occurs in and .

The Growing Seed

The parable of the Growing Seed (verses 26–29) and the parable of the Mustard Seed (verses 30–32) follow, each showing analogies with nature and small beginnings yielding much more in the end. They are both illustrations of the growth of the

kingdom of God The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" b ...

. In the Seed Growing Secretly Jesus used the metaphor of a man planting a seed and then paying it no attention until "As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
29
This is partially replicated in Thoma

The mustard seed, says Jesus, is like the kingdom of God because it starts out as the smallest seed and yet "...becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
32
This is in Matthe
13:31-32
and Luk
13:18-19
It is also sayin

of Thomas.

Great Miracles

Rembrandt's ''The Storm on the Sea of Galilee'', 1633">The_Storm_on_the_Sea_of_Galilee.html" ;"title="Rembrandt's ''The Storm on the Sea of Galilee">Rembrandt's ''The Storm on the Sea of Galilee'', 1633 From to the end of Mark 5">chapter 5 Chapter five refers to a fifth chapter, but the term may also refer to: Albums * Chapter 5: Letter, a 2002 album by g.o.d. * Chapter 5: Underrated, a Syleena Johnson album, 2011 * ''Chapter V'' (Staind album), 2005 * ''Chapter V'' (Trey Songz albu ...