The Parables of Mark 4

Mark 4:1-34 Parables and Mystery

¹Again he began to teach beside the sea. The biggest crowd yet gathered around him, so that he got into a boat and sat on the sea, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the soil. ²He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: (NRSV alt.)

¹Καὶ πάλιν ἤρξατο διδάσκειν παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν· καὶ συνάγεται πρὸς αὐτὸν ὄχλος πλεῖστος, ὥστε αὐτὸν εἰς πλοῖον ἐμβάντα καθῆσθαι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος πρὸς τὴν θάλασσαν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἦσαν. ²καὶ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς ἐν παραβολαῖς πολλὰ καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς ἐν τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ· (NA28)

³'Listen! Behold! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some (seed)¹ indeed fell beside the way, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Other (seed) fell on a rocky place, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. ⁷Other (seed) fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸Other (seed) fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.' ⁹And he said, 'Let anyone with ears to hear listen!' (NRSV alt.)

³Ἀκούετε. ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων σπεῖραι. ⁴καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ σπείρειν ὃ μὲν ἔπεσεν παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν, καὶ ἦλθεν τὰ πετεινὰ καὶ κατέφαγεν αὐτό. ⁵καὶ ἄλλο ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸ πετρῶδες ὅπου οὐκ εἶχεν γῆν πολλήν, καὶ εὐθὺς ἐξανέτειλεν διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βάθος γῆς· ⁶καὶ ὅτε ἀνέτειλεν ὁ ἥλιος ἐκαυματίσθη καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν ῥίζαν ἐξηράνθη. ⁷καὶ ἄλλο ἔπεσεν εἰς τὰς ἀκάνθας, καὶ ἀνέβησαν αἱ ἄκανθαι καὶ συνέπνιξαν αὐτό, καὶ καρπὸν οὐκ ἔδωκεν. ⁸καὶ ἄλλα ἔπεσεν εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν καλὴν καὶ ἐδίδου καρπὸν ἀναβαίνοντα καὶ αὐξανόμενα καὶ ἔφερεν ἓν τριάκοντα καὶ ἓν ἑξήκοντα καὶ ἓν ἑκατόν. ⁹καὶ ἔλεγεν· ὃς ἔχει ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω. (NA28)

¹⁰When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, 'To you has been given the mystery of the Basileia of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables;

¹²in order that they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
that they may not turn again and be forgiven. (NRSV alt.)

¹³And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

¹⁰Καὶ ὅτε ἐγένετο κατὰ μόνας, ἠρώτων αὐτὸν οἱ περὶ αὐτὸν σὺν τοῖς δώδεκα τὰς παραβολάς. ¹¹καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· ὑμῖν τὸ μυστήριον δέδοται τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐκείνοις δὲ τοῖς ἔξω ἐν παραβολαῖς τὰ πάντα γίνεται,

¹²ἵνα βλέποντες βλέπωσιν καὶ μὴ ἴδωσιν,
καὶ ἀκούοντες ἀκούωσιν καὶ μὴ συνιῶσιν,
μήποτε ἐπιστρέψωσιν καὶ ἀφεθῇ αὐτοῖς.

¹³Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· οὐκ οἴδατε τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην, καὶ πῶς πάσας τὰς παραβολὰς γνώσεσθε; (NA28)

¹⁴The sower sows the word. ¹⁵These are the ones beside the way where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky places: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷But they have no root in themselves, but are temporary; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they are scandalised (and stumble.)² ¹⁸And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²⁰And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.' (NRSV alt.)

¹⁴ὁ σπείρων τὸν λόγον σπείρει. ¹⁵οὗτοι δέ εἰσιν οἱ παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν· ὅπου σπείρεται ὁ λόγος καὶ ὅταν ἀκούσωσιν, εὐθὺς ἔρχεται ὁ σατανᾶς καὶ αἴρει τὸν λόγον τὸν ἐσπαρμένον εἰς αὐτούς. ¹⁶καὶ οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη σπειρόμενοι, οἳ ὅταν ἀκούσωσιν τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς μετὰ χαρᾶς λαμβάνουσιν αὐτόν, ¹⁷καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσιν ῥίζαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀλλὰ πρόσκαιροί εἰσιν, εἶτα γενομένης θλίψεως ἢ διωγμοῦ διὰ τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς σκανδαλίζονται. ¹⁸καὶ ἄλλοι εἰσὶν οἱ εἰς τὰς ἀκάνθας σπειρόμενοι· οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τὸν λόγον ἀκούσαντες, ¹⁹καὶ αἱ μέριμναι τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἡ ἀπάτη τοῦ πλούτου καὶ αἱ περὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἐπιθυμίαι εἰσπορευόμεναι συμπνίγουσιν τὸν λόγον καὶ ἄκαρπος γίνεται. ²⁰καὶ ἐκεῖνοί εἰσιν οἱ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν τὴν καλὴν σπαρέντες, οἵτινες ἀκούουσιν τὸν λόγον καὶ παραδέχονται καὶ καρποφοροῦσιν ἓν τριάκοντα καὶ ἓν ἑξήκοντα καὶ ἓν ἑκατόν. (NA28)

Translation Notes and Initial Comments

Note that in this section I work through the verses in chronological order, except that in some places there will be a comment concerning the same words in the parable and in its explantion. For example, in The birds came and devoured it… (vv4, 15) despite jumping to verse 15 to follow the subject of the birds, I then continue by returning to verse 5.

The biggest crowd yet (vv1) NRSV translates ochlos pleistos as such a very large crowd. It sounds rather like Mark 3:20 where the crowd is so large he can't even eat. But Marcus translates ochlos pleistos as "the biggest crowd yet." Typically, the crowd is polys (cf 3:7,8), a great number. Here, though, pleistos instensifies the meaning.³ Being the "biggest yet," the crowd essentially ratifies the truth of Jesus' claim that he is plundering the house of the strong man; that is, he is not using the power of Beelzebul but is greater than the ruler of demons. (cf Mark 3:22) Black notes that synagetai (gathered) is cognate with synagogue.⁴ Essentially, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue.

Sat on the sea (vv1) The sea—thalassa, not NRSV's lake—is mentioned three times in this single verse. Note that Jesus does not sit in the boat, as NRSV leads us to imagine. He got into the boat and sat on the sea— kathēsthai en tē thalassē. He sat to teach, which implies all the authority of a rabbi. The crowd stood to listen, as respectful followers of a rabbi stood. Sat on the sea leads Marcus to note that "biblically literate readers might be reminded of Psalm 29.⁵

The voice of the Lord is over the waters…
The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king for ever… (Psalm 29:3,10)

After this time of teaching, he will not only calm a sea storm,⁶ but later come to them in the dead of night, walking on the sea.⁷

The crowd stood on the soil, (epi tēs gēs) (vv2) Although NRSV's translation of on the land nicely contrasts with Jesus being seated on the sea, it misses the similarity between the crowd and the seed. The crowd is on the gēs, and the seed is sown on the gēs in verse 5⁸ (twice) and in verse 8. As we listen to the explanation of the parable we realise what is being said: The crowd is us. We are the soil on which the seed is being sown.⁹

Went out to sow… (vv3) The word for went out is exēlthen, which is the same word used of Jesus' mission in 1:35,38, 2:13. The text invites us to identify the sower as Jesus.¹⁰

Some seed indeed fell…(vv4) Seed was precious. Moloney and others who claim that Palestinian sowing involved the "indiscriminate casting of seed"¹¹ are almost certainly wrong. Seed was precious and yields were often low. The typical sower of seed would be more accurate and more even in their broadcasting the seed than any of us could manage. What Jesus described was not the usual seed loss of sowing, but an unthinkable, indiscriminate, waste of seed. In the Greek ho men epesen uses men as an intensifier to this waste. I have reflected this by saying "some seed indeed fell." (Note that seed is understood in the Greek text and is not used in the parable or its interpretation.)

Listen! Behold! (vv3), Beside the way (vv4, 15) NRSV's Listen! in verse 3, hides the Greek which is Akoúete. idoù... Listen! Behold....)¹² (Note the reverse mirroring of this phrase in Mark 4:24: blepete ti akouete Look! Listen!) This parallels the hearing and seeing (or not) in verses 10-12 which come from Isaiah 6. Listen! Behold also links this parable to the later healing of the deaf man and of the blind men; despite the literal words of Mark 4:12, some who cannot see or hear do become able to see and hear. (cf Mark 7:32-37, Mark 8:17-26, Mark 10:46-52.) The example of Bartimaeus makes it clear this connection is intentional because the seed of verses 4 and 15 which NRSV has fall "on the path" is, in both cases, para tēn hodon, the description of Bartimaeus as he sat blindly by the road/way in Mark 10:46. When Bartimaeus' sight was restored by Jesus, he followed Jesus on the Way. (en tē hodō) Metzger asserts that the clear meaning of para tēn hodon is "on the path,"¹³ but this is only one layer of the intent of the text. We are socialised by tradition to think of a mere path through the field in Mark 4, and a wider road leaving Jericho in Chapter 10. But the expressions are identical. So I have translated Mark as some seed fell beside the way in order to expose Mark's deliberate connections to Isaiah 6, and to Bartimaeus.

The birds came and devoured it… (vv4, 15). "Satan disguises himself as a bird in several Jewish texts,"¹⁴ so this connection may already have occured to people before they heard the interpretation given in 4:15. (I am reminded of Pharaoh's baker in Genesis 40, with the birds eating the loaves from his basket.) Satan is the outworking of our culture of violence. People hear the word but the culture neutralises what they hear.

Rocky place... (4:5, 16) Note that there is a rocky place in verse six, but rocky places in verse sixteen. What is this word petrōdes saying about the disciple whose name is Petros? Petrōdes is "from πέτρα and εἶδος; hence, properly, 'rocklike,'"¹⁵ Note that there is no separate word for soil or ground alongside petrōdes in the Greek text of either verse 4 or 15. The lack of soil is first emphasised: gēs is used twice in vv5b. Then, by the time we come to verse 17, there is no mention of soil at all. What is emphasised is the lack of a root.

No root: (4:5, 17) In the first parable, the seed which fell on the rocky (place) had "no depth of soil." But in the interpretation, the seeds "have no root." (NRSV) The Greek intensifies this: Kai ouk echousin rhizan en heautois means "and (or but) had no root in themselves." ¹⁶

Rootlessness is a sign of ungodliness as Wisdom 4:3 indicates:

But the prolific brood of the ungodly will be of no use,
and none of their illegitimate seedlings will strike a deep root
or take a firm hold. (NRSV)

That contrasts with Colossians 2:7 where those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord are "rooted and built up in him and established in the faith..." (NRSV) Yet the problem for the petrōde is that they have no root in themselves.

Carroll asserts that the rocky place (petrōdes) is

metaphorically the home of Petros. Simon belongs on stony—or rocky—ground, that matter out of which he is formed… When Simon the fisherman was called to follow, he heard the word with joy. But the forewarning is that he has no roots...¹⁷

We too often import Matthew's text into Mark. Matthew says that Jesus will build his church on the rock of Petros, which is an image based on the foundation stone of the temple, the place where many Jewish folk thought the creation of the world began.¹⁸ (cf Matthew 16:13-23) If we put aside Matthew's later (post-Mark) image of Petros/Rock, what Mark shows us is a man who is stony ground.

But are temporary, (vv17) alla proskairoi eisin is literally: but temporary are. The NRSV's and endure only for a while seems to me to introduce the notion of enduring. Until "trouble or persecution arises" there is nothing to endure.

Thorns… (vv7, 18) There are many weeds which will choke out a crop, such as the zizania or darnel of Matthew 13:26, but Mark specifically chooses akanthas, thorns. This is the exact word used for the twisted crown of Chapter 15:17. The reader of verse 18 will see the sarcasm here: "The cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things" (vv19) are the crowning glory of empire.

Fell into good soil… (vv8, 20) Until verses 8 and 20, the location of the seed is without soil. But now seed falls in the good soil. (tēn gēn τēn kalēn) And here there is extraordinary yield!

Mystery (vv11) The NRSV translation of mustērion as secret in Mark 4:11 is unhelpful. In our culture, secret implies something we can know if we have the right information; someone can tell us a secret. But mustērion is not about intellectually knowing and mastering things. Mystery must be experienced, or undergone; we stand under it, subject to it. Although some Christians hint that they understand the mystery of the Basileia more fully than the rest of us, Jewish thought understood that we will only know the fullness of mystery at the eschaton.¹⁹

In order that… (vv11-12) These verses are an unacknowledged reference to Isaiah 6 and the story of Isaiah's call. There, God wills that people will not repent. A surface reading of Mark appears to accentuate this aspect of Isaiah because Mark adds the word hina to his loose quotation of the prophet: so that or in order that. The text clearly says Jesus uses parables in order that people may not turn again and be forgiven. I will say much more below about these verses and Mark's intentions.

(But are temporary, (vv17) See above, under the discussion of No root…)

They are scandalised (and stumble.) (vv17) See below for detailed commentary on this translation of the word skandalizontai.

The Rhetorical Pattern of the Parable

In verses 3-9 there are three failures of the sowing: beside the way, in the rocky place, and among the thorns. Mark is not breaking his typical three fold pattern by then referring to a fourth lot of seed, for there are in fact three more sowings, which yield thirty, sixty and one hundred fold. It is unclear what would have constituted a typical yield under a Palestinian farming system,²⁰ but the numbers are clearly meant to indicate a great blessing. Genesis 26:12-14 provides some context:

Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year reaped a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich; he prospered more and more until he became very wealthy… (NRSV)

For the listener of the time, attuned to rhetorical patterns, the double three fold pattern accentuates the enormous harvest which comes despite the apparent waste of seed. But no farmer would sow as wastefully as this sower did. A reflective listener might therefore wonder if the "wasteful" sowing of seed is not perhaps a metaphor for lavish grace. We are being invited to see with new eyes.

Scandal: A Key Term

Verse 17 introduces a key New Testament term. The problem for seed which falls in a rocky place is not only a lack of root, but also lies in how it responds.

The Greek noun scandalon and the verb skandalizein occur some 44 times in the New Testament.²¹ They are variously translated as scandalised, offended, took offence, fall away, stumbling block, etc. which can hide the frequency of their use.

The New Testament, and early church understand Jesus to be the scandal/stumbling block foretold in Isaiah.²² The key difference between Isaiah and the NT, is that the New Testament authors understand that we are the source of the scandal, or stumbling block, not God.²³ In brief, scandal is that we stumble over the idea that Jesus could really be the incarnation of God and the means of our salvation. We see an example in Mark 6:1-3.

On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offence (eskandalizonto) at him. (NRSV)

This response to the message of Jesus as saviour is the outworking of a characteristic of us humans that drives all the other small scandals of human existence. Scandal is, at base, the outworking of imitation and rivalry. We can only be, and learn to be, by imitating others. We are not instinctive, unlike many other species. Beyond very basic needs like food, we desire material things, and we desire to be a certain sort of person (metaphysical desire²⁴ ), because we think these things will enable us to be like the one we admire; the one who seems to know how to be, and upon whom we therefore model ourselves so that we can be. Girard²⁵ emphasises that this characteristic of us is God given. Imitation is good. It is how we become human.

It is how we imitate that causes the problem. Rather than imitate peaceably, we seek to gain security of being by exceeding and supplanting the other. Those we have sought to imitate, at first gratified, but now threatened by our imitation, fight back. Neither of us can let go of this, for to walk away from our rivalry for the object of our desire is to be diminished, and even to have our survival threatened. We stumble over the same issue again and again, with the object that seemed to be the trigger for our rivalry often forgotten in our fascination and dislike for each other. Girard says about scandal

Like the Hebrew word that it translates, "scandal" means, not one of those ordinary obstacles that we avoid easily after we run into it the first time, but a paradoxical obstacle that is almost impossible to avoid: the more this obstacle, or scandal, repels us, the more it attracts us. Those who are scandalized put all the more ardor in injuring themselves against it because they were injured there before.²⁶

Why does scandal have such power? Its power begins through our fear of death. As noted, to walk away from rivalry feels as though it diminishes us, and perhaps even risks death, because it puts us at the mercy of another being. Chrysostom preached about our enslavement to the fear of death:

The one who fears death is a slave and subjects themself to everything in order to avoid dying... [But] the one who does not fear death is outside the tyranny of the devil… whose slave are they then? They fear no one, are in terror of no one, are higher than everyone, and are freer than everyone. For one who disregards their own life disregards more so all other things. And when the devil finds such a soul, he can accomplish in it none of his works.²⁷

We will see in Mark that Jesus chooses to go to his death and show us that it need not be feared. But until we see this, and begin to experience some freedom from such fear, the fear of death enslaves us and twists all our humanity.

Not only is the power of scandal rooted in the fear of death, it is magnified by the scapegoat mechanism. The choosing of a scapegoat enables the mob, the crowd of us, to gain a measure of control—a unity—over the mob violence which threatens not only ourselves, but the wider group. A public scandal does not first of all horrify us, or titillate us; its first effect upon us is solidarity. We gain community solidarity and protection from a scandal. We are invisible in the crowd, safe among the others, part of a unity, and not the object of the crowd's attention. The basic thrill or titillation of scandal is that it is happening to someone else. We stumble over this kind of rivalry induced scandal again and again. It is why gossip magazines and the tabloid press have an enduring appeal despite their odious nature. They are a primitive form of community, and a safety valve for our brewing anxieties. And they allow us to justify ourselves with the thought that compared to the scapegoat we are not so bad after all; it is not us who are the problem.

We live in a highly scandalised environment. The cancelling of people (which is scapegoating) is much more visibly frequent as we become aware of scapegoating's error. We need ever more scapegoats/scandals to deflect our fear and self loathing as we recognise the the victims of our old culturally agreed scandals of poverty, race, sexuality and gender are innocent. As a consequence of this recognition, the "modern world is essentially deprived of sacrificial protection, that is, becoming increasingly exposed to a more and more exacerbated violence, [...] which is the violence of all of us."²⁸ We continue to seek scapegoats, especially via "cancel culture," but the lynching, metaphorical or otherwise, has much less power as more of us recognise the phenomenon of scapegoating. Cancel culture is much more temporary, "merely a circumstantial sedative that breaks just for a moment the fascination with scandal in which global society lives: individual tensions find release in social scandals."²⁹

It is appropriate then to highlight the word scandalon when it appears in the Greek text, for whether we stumble, or take offence, or fall away³⁰ , it is at base the same behavioural mechanism. Therefore, for my own prompting in this document I will use a variation of the translation I have applied to Chapter 4:17: scandalised (and stumble).

At the beginning of the Gospel, Mark tells us of Jesus' command: "Follow me." This call in Mark 1:17 is refined in Mark 8:34 and 10:32-45, indicating that to follow him means to imitate him. Girard says, "As soon as we sincerely imitate Jesus instead of our neighbors, the power of scandals vanishes."³¹ As a model to imitate Jesus is too far removed from us for rivalry to occur.³²

The Scandalous Stumbling Block of Those "Outside"

At first reading, Mark 4 appears to contain its own scandal. The parable of the sower, seed and soil offers some comfort to Mark's traumatised community. In all the loss, the betrayals, and the inexplicable inability of people to see who Jesus is, there is hope: There will be an enormous harvest. There is an implicit invitation in the parable of the sower to see the harvest beginning already in the lives around us. But then Jesus says he speaks in parables in order that people will not "turn again and be forgiven." Our response is that this is scandalous. "I will not believe in a God who hardens," someone said.³³ Here is a stumbling block indeed! How do we read Mark here?

If we place the texts of Mark 4, Matthew 13, and Luke 8, beside each other we can observe the following:

1. Neither Matthew nor Luke are quite clear about Mark's purpose in Chapter 4. Luke's disciples ask only what the parable of the sower means. Matthew's disciples ask why Jesus speaks in parables to them; the crowds. But in Mark, those around him simply "asked him about the parables."³⁴ Whilst that could mean, "Why do you speak to them in parables," it seems to be a more general question.

2. In Mark there is the secret while the others have the secrets³⁵ ; ie, plural. This hints that Mark has one particular, or overarching, secret in mind.

3. All three gospels have a version of othering, whether it is them,³⁶ those outside,³⁷ or others.³⁸

4. Both Luke and Matthew leave out Markan Jesus' words: "And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?'"³⁹

5. Yet although they leave out that question, Matthew and Luke do not leave out the question about what the parables mean. I take this to mean that although they are most uncomfortable with the answer of Markan Jesus about the purpose of parables, the question of why Jesus spoke in parables has been an issue within their communities which can't be ignored.

6. Matthew and Luke are offended by Mark's hina - in order that. Matthew removes it altogether. And, before relating Mark's quotation of Isaiah 6, he moves away from Mark's word order and inserts the words of Mark 4:24-25:

For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

What this dual strategy achieves is to reframe the Isaiah 6 words (as used by Mark) so that Matthew's Jesus says that the phenomenon of deafness and blindness, which means parables are the only option for teaching those "outside," is a fulfillment of Isaiah 6.

With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says…. (Matthew 13:14)

In this way he seeks to remove some of the offence from Jesus' words.

Luke leaves the hina - in order that - in place. He also feels constrained to leave the prophecy in place, but minimises it in two ways. Firstly, his strategy seems to be to minimise the prophecy by using only half the number of words that Mark does. Then he goes straight to the seed which falls "on the path," where, in his re-telling, "the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved,"⁴⁰ (NRSV) reshaping⁴¹ the offensive words of Mark 4:12 so that is the devil, not God, who prevents people being saved.

I draw the following from this exploration of the three texts.

Any explanation that suggests Mark and his contemporaries did not see the offence of Jesus' statement in Mark 4:12 is incorrect. Matthew and Luke clearly did see it and wished to diminish it.
The fact that they both leave the Isaiah prophecy in place testifies to the genuineness⁴² of the statement by Jesus. It could not be left out, and yet there was also an understanding, on their part, that the Gospel Jesus brought could not finally mean what a surface hearing or reading of his words as relayed by Mark, implied.
This means that we cannot deal with the issue by leaving it out as irrelevant to our time, or even wrong, which is the approach of the RCL, which is silent when it comes to Proper 10A - Matthew 13:1-9,18-23. This silent unacknowledged omission teaches people in church to be ashamed of Jesus' words. It is an invitation to be offended by the words left out. Neither can we deal with the words by pretending we have greater insight than the early church; clearly, it too was unhappy with them!
I am intrigued by what Matthew and Luke do leave out in their relating of Mark, which is the words "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?" I take it that Mark is not, in fact, referring to the parable of the sower.⁴³ Instead, we should read him to be referring to his immediate previous words, as I have laid them out below:

And he said to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the Basileia of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables, in order that 'they may indeed look but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.' " ¹³And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

This is the parable of The Mystery of the Basileia of God. What does it tell us?

The Mystery of the Basileia of God

In her poem Staying Power, Jeanne Walker Murray⁴⁴ reflects "in appreciation" upon the words of Maxim Gorky at the 1929 International convention of Atheists. At that time, Gorky said

Who can be stronger than our will and stronger than our reason? Our reason and our will - this is what is working miracles. Who created the gods? We did, in our fantasies and our imaginations. Since we created them, we have the right to overthrow them. And we should overthrow them. In their place we need nothing apart from humanity and its free reason.⁴⁵

Walker Murray sometimes follows her own doubts; perhaps Gorky was right: "I can't go on like this, and finally I say / all right, it is improbable, all right, there / is no God." But then:

Oh, we have only so many words to think with.
Say God's not fire, say anything, say God's
a phone, maybe. You know you didn't order a phone,
but there it is. It rings. You don't know who it could be.

You don't want to talk, so you pull out the plug.
It rings. You smash it with a hammer
till it bleeds springs and coils and clobbered up
metal bits. It rings again. You pick it up

and a voice you love whispers hello.

From these two poles of human experience are formed two Gospels of Mark. Mark is not a Gospel which exists apart from the reader; it is a read (or heard) book. We shape, we create, the book before us in our reading and listening;⁴⁶ there is no such thing as an uninterpreted book. My reading of Chapter 4 is that is not primarily addressed to the person struggling to believe in the Basileia of God through all the horrors of the fall of Jerusalem, or of the genocide of Gaza. Chapter 4 is not seeking to convert Gorky. Mark, and Mark 4, is written to the person who cannot not believe, despite themselves. They come to Mark with questions of why and how, not if. They cry to God in anger, "How could you!?" whilst knowing fully that there is only God, and that empire is a lie. They are not looking for a way out of believing, but for a way further in. They are those at the end of Chapter 3, who are gathered around Jesus, and they are there again in Chapter 4, asking about the parables in a much more open ended way than Luke or Matthew⁴⁷ understand Mark. They did not order a telephone, but it keeps ringing. And to them, Mark 4 offers a new insight into the love and mystery of the Basileia. It does this through a rhetorical ambush.

By the end of Mark 3, it is clear who Jesus' family is: those gathered around Jesus.⁴⁸ The outcome of the Gospel has been flagged: Jesus will be killed. The enemy is identified: "The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians..."⁴⁹ And the Basileia is at hand. How, then, does one live after the destruction of the Temple, the fall of Jerusalem and, especially, after the betrayal of those around Jesus by brothers and sisters who were also gathered there with them?⁵⁰ It would be easy to conclude that the whole story is a fiction, but what if God keeps tugging at us? How do I live if I cannot simply walk away in despair or hatred because the telephone keeps ringing?

One conclusion is that those people—the betrayers—did not ever really believe. Yes, the seed was sown. The word was given, but like seed which fell on rocky places, or among the thorns, there could be no harvest. They appeared to be gathered with us, but in truth, they were "outside."⁵¹

But, what has also happened leading up to Mark 4 is an astonishing demonstration of compassion and love. People are healed. Withered, paralysed, and excluded people,⁵² people who in many ways were outsiders, are given life and brought back into community. Those for whom the phone rings have met a voice which they love. They know this person and the goodness and compassion of him.

He teaches in parables. Why does he do this? Here is the technical answer:

Parables [are] exercises in semantic play and paradox, which create a liminal⁵³ situation for hearers, upsetting their rational or accepted meaning-constructs in order to create new possibilities… [creating a bridge which] "invites the hearer to cross over and see what the speaker sees. Such a bridge cannot be built in the public world of literal meanings, the world reduced to what all accept for purposes of interpersonal commerce, for this public world is itself being challenged. The speaker must disclose truth by using words which, taken literally, are false, as happens in the case of metaphor. The words are successful insofar as they are able to induce an imaginative vision with sufficient power to undermine the obviousness of literal meanings."⁵⁴

But those around Jesus in Mark are not thinking about liminal places. They are not thinking about the meaning of one particular parable—that of the sower—that is a question Luke⁵⁵ frames. They are not even thinking too much about them, those outside. That's Matthew⁵⁶ who, like Luke, misses the subtlety of Mark. In Mark, those around Jesus simply asked him "about the parables." There is an honesty here: those to whom Jesus explained everything in private confess they, too, don't understand the parables.

And Jesus answers them with what he identifies as the critical parable:

¹³And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

This parable, the parable of the Mystery of the Basileia of God, is the ambush at the centre of Chapter 4. And, beginning with Matthew and Luke and, probably before them, people have fallen into the trap. Jesus baldly states the logical conclusion of people's understanding that their sisters and brothers never really believed, for in Jesus' time, nothing happened without God's permission. So, in the old language of faith, he said,

'To you has been given the mystery of the Basileia of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; ¹²in order that

"they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
in order that they may not turn again and be forgiven." (NRSV alt.)

This is so out of character that, in our disappointment and shock, we forget the next verse:

And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

This is the ambush. Jesus' statement offends us, we stumble over it, we may even fall away like Juel's student who refused to believe in a God who hardens.⁵⁷ All the words I have I have just used are translations of skandalizontai, the word used to describe the seed which lands in the rocky places.

The ambush works like this: We are disappointed or offended that Jesus would say such a thing about God; this is not the God he has shown us. And then, in this liminal place where perhaps we might see anew, Jesus gently replies to us, "But is this not the God you imagine—one who locks some people on the outside of the Basileia?"

"Of course not," we reply.

"But you do imagine God in this way," he says. "Not one of you batted an eye when, in Chapter 3, Mark spoke of those outside, because you have decided there are those outside and then those who are my family—these are your words, are they not? Wherever there is church, are there not those whom you think of, and treat, as being outside?"

At this place, we may begin to realise that Mark has been steering us into this little snare for quite a few verses. We might notice that, apart from the teaching about his impending death, Jesus only speaks to us in parables, and not directly. And that even the disciples, to whom he privately explained everything,⁵⁸ nonetheless don't understand his parables,⁵⁹ either in word or deed. Why else do they ask about the parables here in Chapter 4? And by the grace of God, perhaps we will wonder if "us and them," us around Jesus, and them outside, is a construct of empire. Will we be able to listen and hear?

All of Us, Just Us

By the end of Chapter 3 we think we have seen that there are two kinds of people: First, it seems there are the people caught up in the reality of the crowd, that existence which is swept unconsciously through life in the mix of fear and violence. This is the crowd who gather around Jesus in fascinated desire for the healing and the power that is in him, but are always on the edges of crushing him,⁶⁰ edging toward desire to kill him, and then finally, inevitably, do just that. Some of these people have consciously begun to plot that very thing in Mark 3:6, after trying to provoke his lynching in Mark 3:22.

But there are also gathered around him those who are his new family, the ones who truly love him, who have been given to see the mystery of the kingdom of God.⁶¹ It appears they are no longer of the crowd, but have stepped out of it. They no longer fall upon him. And here Mark is setting us up for a revelation, because… they do nonetheless fall upon him!⁶² From this point on in the gospel, Mark baldly and repetitively portrays the disciples as little different to the crowd!

We see that Rock/Petros is rocky ground by name and by nature. Just as the Pharisees have stony hearts⁶³ like the stony heart of Pharaoh, so does Rock-Peter. Under the threat of persecution (cf Mark 4:17, 14:66-72) he is, according to Mark 4:17, scandalised by Jesus. (NRSV says he falls away.) Rock becomes an "active persecutor" by his denial of Jesus⁶⁴ : Even before his denial in words, he is sitting around the fire of fellowship⁶⁵ with the mob. Well before that, Jesus has had to say to him, "Get behind me, Satan!"⁶⁶ (NRSV)

We see that Judas is also scandalised by Jesus. Whether for greed of money⁶⁷ or something else, Judas acts out Jesus' metaphor of the goodness of God sown even into the thorns which is then choked by the cares of the world. Judas loves him and he hates him and he hands him over. And (in Matthew 27:5) regrets his hatred and hangs himself. (This is the fascination of rivalry, not a following on the Way.)

We see that James and John, apparently so deeply converted, so close to Jesus "the son of God," that they spoke with the voice of God—this is the meaning of Sons of Thunder⁶⁸ —James and John nonetheless could not get beyond imagining that the Basileia culture of God—which reflects the very nature of God—was like them, who thought that love and service of Jesus meant sitting at the top of the pole next to a dictator God!

And we see Jesus himself tell the disciples that they are not seeing and hearing.⁶⁹ It turns out that even the disciples, like us, are no different to the crowds. In the mystery of the Basileia there is no us and them. There is only us, and when the biggest crowd yet gathers around Jesus, there is "a tearing in two directions at once."⁷⁰ This is because our good instinct to gather around him is at the same time adjacent our original sin. This is the irony of humanity: all our attempts at humanity are based on our foundational sin which is to gather to separate ourselves from others. In the terrifying violence which springs from our rivalries, we seek to be, and to become us, by the creation of a contrasting other, the one we at least symbolically cast out and kill so that the rest of us may live together. But Jesus understands the mystery of the Basileia of God that there can only ever be an us. As soon as we create the others, as soon as someone—anyone—becomes them, we refuse the Basileia of God, and enter back into the culture of empire.

This is extraordinarily difficult to perceive. It is not a matter of understanding a lucid argument, of someone carefully explaining to us how things work. The very words which we use to argue—our concepts, everything we understand, what Tannehill⁷¹ calls the "public world of meaning"—all this is based and created in and by the world, the empire, which is being challenged! Basileia and empire are immiscible and cannot understand each other.

Our own Western C21 perceptions are particularly unhelpful here. We are steeped far more than we know in that reductive materialism which believes reality can be explained by , and finally reduced to, the purely physical, and which states that if we can't explain something in these terms then it must be an illusion. Our technological successes, the parts of reality where reductive materialism works so well, blind us to just how affected by this we are, even though most of us are quite (blindly) contradictory in our actual living of life, and assume the reality of much that scientism⁷² says is illusory. I emphasise this issue because if the reality of the Basileia in the face of trauma is scandalous for Mark's community, the thing we largely safe and secure Westerners stumble over is the notion that life is more than the material, especially as reductive materialism works itself out as the thorns of consumerism.

Our hope lies in the fact that we are not a materialist culture. We are

"a culture torn in two directions at once… between … the "manifest image" and the "scientific image" of reductive materialism.

"The manifest image describes the full-blown, rich world as we actually experience it: bursting with values, colors, morals, ordinary objects such tables and trees and coffee mugs, as well as hope, suffering, and joy. The scientific image describes the minimalist, Galilean⁷³ world of quantities that we imagine supplies the underlying scaffold: microphysical particles, forces, mathematical laws, and not much else."⁷⁴

Because the manifest image still has such a pull on us, because we still fall in love, because stories (and parables) still fascinate us despite our wedding to technology, we are open to being seduced, or provoked. We are close to the liminal places.

We cannot be argued into these places and the mysteries they offer us. To begin to enter the Basileia is to be in some way called. And to receive it more fully means receiving Jesus as Lord fully within the manifest image, living and dying with him. To think that we can describe this Basileia in elegant theological terms without submitting ourselves to it to our utmost is to be deluded. Mustērion is not about intellectually knowing things. It does not "figure things out." Mystery is experienced, undergone. We are inducted into it. To describe mystery in literal language which claims to "solve" or explicate the mystery is a demonstration that we have not undergone the mystery at all, and that we do not "stand under" it. Indeed, such a description is likely to talk ourselves out of what knowing we had gained!

And finally, the mystery of the Basileia is far greater than the removal of the false distinction of us and them. That is but a beginning of a mystery which we will not know inside of time.

By now, perhaps we are seeing that Mark 4:14-20 is not so much an explanation of the Parable of the Sower as it is a description of, and a challenge to, our discipleship. And the parables which follow become a blunt repudiation of any of us who persist with the thought that some will not "turn again and be forgiven": "There is nothing hidden, except in order to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except in order to come to light."⁷⁵

Mark 4:20-34 More Parables

²¹And he was saying to them, 'Nor does (lit. Not) a lamp come in order to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not in order to be put on the lampstand? ²²For there is nothing hidden, except in order to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except in order to come to light. ²³Let anyone with ears to hear listen!'

²⁴And he was saying to them, 'Look! Listen! The measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. ²⁵For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.' (NRSV alt)

²¹Καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· μήτι ἔρχεται ὁ λύχνος ἵνα ὑπὸ τὸν μόδιον τεθῇ ἢ ὑπὸ τὴν κλίνην; οὐχ ἵνα ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν τεθῇ; ²²οὐ γάρ ἐστιν κρυπτὸν ἐὰν μὴ ἵνα φανερωθῇ, οὐδὲ ἐγένετο ἀπόκρυφον ἀλλ' ἵνα ἔλθῃ εἰς φανερόν. ²³εἴ τις ἔχει ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω.

²⁴Καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· βλέπετε τί ἀκούετε. ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν καὶ προστεθήσεται ὑμῖν. ²⁵ὃς γὰρ ἔχει, δοθήσεται αὐτῷ· καὶ ὃς οὐκ ἔχει, καὶ ὃ ἔχει ἀρθήσεται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. (NA28)

²⁶And he was saying, 'The Basileia of God is as if a person would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once they goes in with their sickle, because the harvest has come.'

³⁰And he was saying, 'With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all herbs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.' (NRSV alt)

²⁶Καὶ ἔλεγεν· οὕτως ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ὡς ἄνθρωπος βάλῃ τὸν σπόρον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ²⁷καὶ καθεύδῃ καὶ ἐγείρηται νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν, καὶ ὁ σπόρος βλαστᾷ καὶ μηκύνηται ὡς οὐκ οἶδεν αὐτός. ²⁸αὐτομάτη ἡ γῆ καρποφορεῖ, πρῶτον χόρτον εἶτα στάχυν εἶτα πλήρη[ς] σῖτον ἐν τῷ στάχυϊ. ²⁹ὅταν δὲ παραδοῖ ὁ καρπός, εὐθὺς ἀποστέλλει τὸ δρέπανον, ὅτι παρέστηκεν ὁ θερισμός.

³⁰Καὶ ἔλεγεν· πῶς ὁμοιώσωμεν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἢ ἐν τίνι αὐτὴν παραβολῇ θῶμεν; ³¹ὡς κόκκῳ σινάπεως, ὃς ὅταν σπαρῇ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, μικρότερον ὂν πάντων τῶν σπερμάτων τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ³²καὶ ὅταν σπαρῇ, ἀναβαίνει καὶ γίνεται μεῖζον πάντων τῶν λαχάνων καὶ ποιεῖ κλάδους μεγάλους, ὥστε δύνασθαι ὑπὸ τὴν σκιὰν αὐτοῦ τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκηνοῦν. (NA28)

³³With many such parables he kept speaking the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he would not speak to them except in parables, but would explain everything in private to his disciples. (NRSV alt)

³³Καὶ τοιαύταις παραβολαῖς πολλαῖς ἐλάλει αὐτοῖς τὸν λόγον καθὼς ἠδύναντο ἀκούειν· ³⁴χωρὶς δὲ παραβολῆς οὐκ ἐλάλει αὐτοῖς, κατ' ἰδίαν δὲ τοῖς ἰδίοις μαθηταῖς ἐπέλυεν πάντα. (NA28)

Translation Notes and Initial Comments

In order that (vv 21,22 twice in each verse) This is the same word hina used in the difficult verse 12: "in order that they might not see…"

Look! Listen! (vv24) Blepete ti akouete. This is surely playing off the Akouete idou of 4:2.

The greatest of all herbs, (vv32) Depending on the variety, mustard can be a weedy plant only a couple of feet tall, or a much more substantial bush as much as ten feet tall. What does Mark envisage? Matthew and Luke both want to use the word dendron, which is a tree. Matthew keeps the word lachanōn, or shrub, but modifies it so that it "it is the greatest of garden plants (lachanōn) and becomes a tree."⁷⁶ Luke leaves out all reference to herbs or shrubs and simply has dendron.⁷⁷

Promise, Warning, and Grace

In verses 21-23, Mark is reinterpreted by Luke, who makes the obvious point: ¹⁷For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. (8:17) Luke has read Mark 4:22 and asked "But why deliberately hide it in the first place?"⁷⁸ Mark was an oral document⁷⁹ . Imagine the reading of 4:10-13 to an audience, and not a minute later, 4:22-23. A small emphasis on hina —five times!— a slight inflection or a pause after the first time, perhaps a hint of a wink— all these are a verbal rubric, a let the reader understand.⁸⁰ If God would not deliberately hide the lamp, why would God deliberately blind people to understanding? Despite our blindness, despite our stony-hearted, thorn-infested selves, there will be a harvest.

Psalm 119:5 says "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (NRSV from MT) Here in Mark, the saying about the lamp immediately follows the so-called explanation of the parable of the sower, where the sower sows the word; logos. Logos is repeated 7 times. NRSV says the logos-luchnos is not brought to be hidden. This is also the translation of erchetai given in my interlinear text. But in Mark 3:20 Jesus erchetai/comes home, and in 4:14 Satan likewise comes and takes away the logos. We do not say it so in English, but in the Greek, one hears that the lamp is not brought into the room; rather, it comes in order not to be hidden.⁸¹ The word is not passive.

If we have seen grace in the telling of the parable of the sower, there is also a warning: Look at what you hear! The measure you give and get is not a version of "the rich get richer." There is a giving to that to which we pay attention. There are two kingdoms here; Basileia and empire. Pay attention to empire, and the rewards of empire will likely come, perhaps even more than we expect. And then, perhaps the worst thing of all. Imagine not being able to recognise grace when it approaches us, when even what we have is taken away, not by an angry God but simply by our paying attention to the wrong things and now being unable to recognise Basileia when it comes. Give your attention to the Basileia and still more will be given to you.

The Basileia will happen, with us, without us, despite us; we know not how. Be at peace. How can this be? Does it not seem that the Basileia, our experience of Basileia is like the ridiculous image of the small garden shrub? The image Mark is referencing can be seen in both Ezekiel 17:21-22 and Daniel 4:10-12. The metaphor of the great tree of a king/kingdom which provides shelter was well known. Both Matthew and Luke clearly feel that a shrub undermines the metaphors of the great tree and the Basileia of God. But Mark is dealing with the counter-intuitive Basileia which exists and which is the final reality in the face of trauma and savagery. Though the Basileia seems a mere herb compared to the great trees such as Nebuchadnezzar⁸² , and now Rome, it can shelter all the birds of the air.⁸³ Although it seems weak like a mere herb, nonetheless

All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.⁸⁴

Following these parables we will now see acts of raw power contrasted by disciples seeing but not understanding,⁸⁵ by ridicule⁸⁶ and rejection⁸⁷ , and more evangelism by one healed.⁸⁸ Jesus asked, "With what can we compare the Basileia of God, or what parable will we use for it?" If nothing else, it seems that power is not what our culture has understood it to be. This brings us to the final verses of this section of Chapter 4.

The Markan Mystery

Verse 33-4 concludes Mark's teaching about parables. He is again clear that before the crucifixion and resurrection, the disciples, even though it was all explained to them in private, did not understand what Jesus was saying. A fuller understanding only comes post resurrection.

During Jesus ministry, Luke and Matthew portray Jesus teaching in other than parables. Matthew Chapters 5-7 are the obvious and extended example. If we have read them, Mark's very limited moments of direct teaching (as opposed to his numerous references to Jesus' teaching) almost feel like a deliberate obfuscation. We commonly assume that Mark did not have access to parts of the tradition he does not mention. Certainly, to suggest that he deliberately omits parts of the tradition is speculation. But if Mark and his community did know the traditions of Matthew Chapters 5-7, what would be the effect of their omission be upon his drama? Does such an imagined effect justify us who do know Matthew and who do feel Mark's brevity and mystery drawing similar conclusions?

Might Mark be suggesting that the mystery of the Basileia, its tiny, apparent
weakness, which will be a shelter to all the birds of the air, has very little
to do with that other teaching? Is he saying something like, "Don't get into making "a law" of my teaching? That is a trap. Instead, see my works of power and live them, that vulnerable contradictory power that is free of the slavery of the fear of death." Certainly, we will now see enormous power, a power which contradicts Rome, and suffers for it. A power which is nonviolent and which conquers death. And a power which in its acceptance of all people and its refusal of "us and them" begins to live the Basileia of God. The parables humble us. Whenever we are honest, we realise we barely understand. And the more direct teaching of Mark invites our honesty, too. It is about the things we know we struggle to do well.

(Andrea Prior June 2025)

----------

1. There is no word for seed in the text; it is understood.

2. NRSV has "but endure only for a while…"

3. Marcus, pp291

4. Black, Mark, "Introducing the parables (4:1-2)

5. Marcus, pp292

6. Mark 4:35-41

7. Cf Mark 6:45-52

8. Note that I have translated vv5 as the rocky place because the words to petrōdes have no reference to soil.

9. It is not that "on the land" is an incorrect translation. But where in English we have "stood on the land" and "fell into good soil," the Greek uses exactly the same word gēs in each case, which enables another level of meaning. I think we owe it to our listeners to make that layer visible.

10. Moloney, Section Parable of seed sown 4:3-9)

11. Moloney, Section Parable of seed sown 4:3-9)

12. Moloney, Section Parable of the seed sown 4:3-9) sees an allusion to the Shema here: Hear, O Israel… Deuteronomy 6:4

13. Metzger, pp129

14. Marcus pp309. One example given by Marcus is Jubilees 11: "And the prince Mastêmâ exerted himself to do all this, and he sent forth other spirits, those which were put under his hand, to do all manner of wrong and sin, and all manner of transgression, to corrupt and destroy, and to shed blood upon the earth… And the prince Mastêmâ sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of their labours. Before they could plough in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface of the ground." Text taken from https://sacred-texts.com/bib/jub/jub27.htm, titled "The History of the Patriarchs from Reu to Abraham (cf. Gen. xi, 20-30); the Corruption of the Human Race (xi. 1-15)." Mastema is a prince of demons perhaps equivalent to Satan.

15. Thayer's Greek Lexicon pp507 says of Petros: "used metaph. of a soul hard and unyielding, and so resembling a rock, Soph. O. R. 334; Eur. Med. 28;" which suggests that Mark's use of petrōdes is deliberate.

16. Marcus, p305p wonders if Mark "has a rudimentary theology of the self." He notes the tension of opposites in Mark 8:34-36 where the denial of self that is needed to follow Jesus leads to finding our true self.

17. Caroll, pp31

18. See, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_Stone or https://placeandsee.com/wiki/foundation-stone

19. Marcus, pp298

20. I have found improbably low estimates of twofold being typical to suggestions that 100 fold was not extraordinary. For some references see Black, Mark, under "A Sower's Seeds (4:3-9)"

21. Gospel of Matthew: 19, Mark: 8. "Of the 44 New Testament occurrences, 26 are placed in the mouth of Jesus by the gospel writers. 32 of the 44 are in the four gospels; 9 are from the letters of Paul; and one a piece for 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation. " Nuechterlein, Girardian Lectionary, "skandalon in the New Testament" Nuechterlein lists many examples of how the words are translated into English.

22. Isaiah 8:14-15 "He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over—a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken." This sits against another stone in Isaiah 28:16. "See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation…" And Psalm 118:22 says, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." James Alison points out the connection of all three made by 1 Peter 2:6-8. "⁶For it stands in scripture: 'See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.' ⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner', ⁸and 'A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.'" (NRSV)

23. Cf Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong, pp140-141

24. Metaphysical desire is to desire an aspect of character or personality that another person possesses instead of a material possession. Acquisitive desire is the desire for a physical object they possess.

25. Girard, Reader, pp197

26. Girard, I See Satan Fall… pp16

27. The excerpt is from Homily IV of Chrysostom’s Homilies on Hebrews and is quoted in Beck, The Slavery of Death, p14. I have changed the language to be gender inclusive.

28. Girard, René (2006). Los orígenes de la cultura. Conversaciones con Pierpaolo Antonello y Joao Cezar de Castro Rocha. (Madrid, Editorial Trotta) pp202 quoted in Cannata, Juan Pablo Girard's Scapegoat Mechanism and Media Scandals, (Heythrop College Seminar, 2015 https://www.academia.edu/10533660/Girards_Scapegoat_Mechanism_and_Media_Scandals,) pp4

29. Cannata, Juan Pablo Girard's Scapegoat Mechanism and Media Scandals, (Heythrop College Seminar, 2015 https://www.academia.edu/10533660/Girards_Scapegoat_Mechanism_and_Media_Scandals,) pp4

30. Mark 4:17 skandalizontai, NRSV fall away
Mark 6:3 ἐσκανδαλίζοντο, NRSV took offence
Mark 9:42 σκανδαλίσῃ, NRSV causes… to sin
Mark 9:43 skandalizē, NRSV causes you to sin
Mark 9:45 skandalizē, NRSV causes you to sin
Mark 9:47 skandalizē, NRSV causes you to sin
Mark 14:27 skandalisthēsesthe, NRSV: fall away
Mark 14:29 skandalisthēsontai, NRSV: may fall away

31. Girard, “Violence Renounced: Response by René Girard,” chapter 14 of Violence Renounced, edited by Willard M. Swartley, Pandora Press, 2000, pages 310-311. Quoted by Nuechterlein at https://girardianlectionary.net/learn/girard-on-the-imitation-of-christ/

32. Jesus is an external mediator. This is discussed above under Theology via Anthropology: Mediation and Rivalry

33. Juel, Mark, “IN PARABLES,”

34. Matt 13:10, Mark 4:10, Luke 8:9

35.Matt 13:1, Mark 4:11, Luke 8:10

36. Matthew 13:10,11

37. Mark 4:11

38. Luke 8:10

39. Mark 4:13

40. Luke 8:12

41. Note too that Mark is not be forgiven, Luke is not… be saved.

42. That is, there is no evidence that either of them doubted that Jesus said these words.

43. At this point, I disagree with many or even most interpreters. I note that Black, Mark, see the section "The Seeds' Reception (4:13-20)" sees the potential of my assertion, even if he feels it less likely to be the case.

44. http://www.jeannemurraywalker.com/poem/staying-power/

45. https://korolevperevody.co.uk/bezbozhniki.html

46. It may be useful to speak of what is “behind” Mark’s Gospel, since there was a history that led to its writing. It is useful to speak of the “world” of the text in the sense that pieces are part of a larger whole that has a structure and themes and order. Books are written, however, to be read and heard. Interpretation ought to attend first of all to the event of reading, not least because words intend to move an audience as well as to inform. Juel, Mark, Section: The Role of the Reader

47. They seek to limit the embarrassment of Mark's statement about parables.

48. Cf Mark 3:34-35

49. Mark 3:6

50. Cf Mark 13:12

51. Cf Mark 3:31, 4:11

52. Mark 3:1 Mark 2:1-11, Mark 2:13-27

53. Liminal means a borderline place where there is opportunity for change and new understandings.

54. Quoted in Myers, Binding the Strong Man, See: Chapter Five in the section "ii. Ears to Hear: The Kingdom as Mystery" He quotes Tannehill, The Sword of His Mouth. (Philadelphia: Fortress 1975), pp183

55. ref

56. ref

57. Juel, Mark, “IN PARABLES,”

58. Cf Mark 4:34

59. Cf Mark 8:14-21 Note,, too, Black' observation: "Even though Mark 4:12 indicates that everything is in parables for those beyond the Twelve and other intimates, there is no indication in the rest of Mark 4 that the audience of Jesus' parables is anyone other than his disciples." Black, Mark, "

60. Mark 3:9, 4:1

61. Cf especially Mark 4:10-11

62. See the comment on the text of Mark 3:10

63. Stony hearted is the translation of Mark 3:5 in Carroll, pp36. The word there is pōrōsei tēs kardias, and translated as hardness of heart it reminds us of the Pharaoh, as Jesus and Mark surely intend. But it comes from pōros which is a stony accretion. (Moulton pp358) We correctly translate the word as harden, but Greek speakers would also see the other shade of meaning.

64. Girard, Reader, pp199

65. Mark 14:54 begins with us perhaps thinking of his bravery, but then he is "sitting with the guards, warming himself at the fire." John's gospel highlights this with it's two charcoal fires. (John 18:18, 21:9)

66. Mark 8:33

67. Cf Mark 14:1-2, 10-11

68. Cf Mark 3:17 In scripture, God's voice is compared to thunder, eg: 1 Samuel 2:10: "The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High^[^d^] will thunder in heaven. " (NRSV)

69. Cf Mark 10:35-45

70. Repurposing Tannehill's words quoted in Wilson, below.

71. Quoted in Myers, Binding the Strong Man, See: Chapter Five in the section "ii. Ears to Hear: The Kingdom as Mystery" He quotes Tannehill, The Sword of His Mouth. (Philadelphia: Fortress 1975), pp183

72. Science is a methodology for discovering material processes. It is valid and powerful. Scientism is the claim that this methodology describes everything; in short, scientism is reductive materialism in disguise.

73. The world of Galileo Galilei, not the world of Galilee.

74. Wilson, Kit "Are We Really Living in a Materialist Age?" https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/after-neoliberalism/articles/are-we-really-living-in-a-materialist-age He attributes the term manifest image and scientific image to the philosopher Wilfrid Sellars.

75. Cf Mark 4:12, 22

76. Matthew 13:31

77. Luke 13:19

78. Matthew 5:15 and Gospel of Thomas 33 have had the same question.

79. Cf Mark 13:14

80. Cf Mark 13:14

81. We should note that this does not identify the word as Jesus. That is to anticipate the Gospel of John. Note too that although MT Psalm 119:105 says your word is a lamp… it's LXX equivalent (more likely familiar to Mark) says your law… Marcus discusses this area at some length, see pp314,318

82. Daniel 4:10

83. In his section "Other Sowers' Seeds (4:26-29 + 4:30-32)", Black, Mark, says "the clichéd antithesis between 'smallest of seeds' and (magnificent) tree, Mark subverts the listener's expectations [with an] hilariously ludicrous [comparison]: God's kingdom begins as the smallest of seeds but grows up to become the greatest of—zucchini."

84. Ezekiel 17:24

85. Mark 4:41

86. Mark 5:40

87. Mark 6:1-6

88. Mark 5:19-20, cf Mark 1:40-45

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