Mark 4:13-20, The Parable of the Sower Explained (The Study of Mark)

     13 And he says to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand1 any of the parables2? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 Now some are like seed along side the road: where the word is sown, and when it is heard, immediately, Satan comes and takes the word away that has been sown in them. 16 And some are like seed sown on rocky ground, when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy, 17 but3 they don’t have a root in themselves, but are temporary. Then after affliction or persecution comes because of the word, immediately, they fall away4. 18 And others are like seed sown in the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of the time5, the deception of wealth, and the longing for everything else6 come in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those others are like the seed sown on good ground, who hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop7, one producing thirty times, one sixty times, and one hundred times. Mark 4:13-20

1 γνώσεσθε (understand) 

Greek: “know”.

2 πάσας τὰς παραβολὰς (any of the parables) 

Greek: “all parables”.

3 καὶ (but) 

Greek: “and”.

4 σκανδαλίζονται (fall away) 

Or “were offended” or “stumbled”. The main idea is that those people 

stopped believing.

5 τοῦ αἰῶνος (of the time) 

Greek: “of the age”. This probably really means “the cares of their 

present life”, or as some translations render it, “the cares of the world”.

6 αἱ περὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἐπιθυμίαι (the longing for everything else) 

Greek: “the longing around remaining things”.  This could mean different things.  Since the context of the passage is speaking about things that hinder a person's ability to produce in the spiritual sense, I translated this line in the most extreme way.

7 καρποφοροῦσιν (produce a crop) 

Greek: “produce fruit”.

The Greek

Μάρκον 4·13 Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· οὐκ οἴδατε τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην, καὶ πῶς πάσας τὰς παραβολὰς γνώσεσθε; 14 ὁ σπείρων τὸν λόγον σπείρει. 15 οὗτοι 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. 16 καὶ οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη σπειρόμενοι, οἳ ὅταν ἀκούσωσιν τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς μετὰ χαρᾶς λαμβάνουσιν αὐτόν, 17 καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσιν ῥίζαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀλλὰ πρόσκαιροί εἰσιν, εἶτα γενομένης θλίψεως ἢ διωγμοῦ διὰ τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς σκανδαλίζονται. 18 καὶ ἄλλοι εἰσὶν οἱ εἰς τὰς ἀκάνθας σπειρόμενοι· οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τὸν λόγον ἀκούσαντες, 19 καὶ αἱ μέριμναι τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἡ ἀπάτη τοῦ πλούτου καὶ αἱ περὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἐπιθυμίαι εἰσπορευόμεναι συμπνίγουσιν τὸν λόγον καὶ ἄκαρπος γίνεται. 20 καὶ 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.