Chapter 4

Once more He began to teach by the side of the Lake, and a vast multitude of people came together to listen to Him. He therefore went on board the boat and sat there, a little way from the land; and all the people were on the shore close to the water.

Then He proceeded to teach them many lessons in figurative language; and in His teaching He said,

'Listen: the sower goes out to sow.

As he sows, some of the seed falls by the way-side, and the birds come and peck it up.

Some falls on the rocky ground where it finds but little earth, and it shoots up quickly because it has no depth of soil;

but when the sun is risen, it is scorched, and through having no root it withers away.

Some, again, falls among the thorns; and the thorns spring up and stifle it, so that it yields no crop.

But some of the seed falls into good ground, and gives a return: it comes up and increases, and yields thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold.'

'Listen,' He added, 'every one who has ears to listen with!'

When He was alone, the Twelve and the others who were about Him requested Him to explain His figurative language.

'To you,' He replied, 'has been entrusted the secret truth concerning the Kingdom of God; but to those others outside your number all this is spoken in figurative language;

that ''They may look and look but not see, and listen and listen but not understand, lest perchance they should return and be pardoned.''

'Do you all miss the meaning of this parable?' He added; 'how then will you understand the rest of my parables?'

'What the sower sows is the Message.

Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom the Message is sown, but, when they have heard it, Satan comes at once and carries away the Message sown in them.

In the same way those who receive the seed on the rocky places are those who, when they have heard the Message, at once accept it joyfully,

but they have no root within them. They last for a time; then, when suffering or persecution comes because of the Message, they are immediately overthrown.

Others there are who receive the seed among the thorns: these are they who have heard the Message,

but worldly cares and the deceitfulness of wealth and the excessive pursuit of other objects come in and stifle the Message, and it becomes unfruitful.

Those, on the other hand, who have received the seed on the good ground, are all who hear the Message and welcome it, and yield a return of thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold.'

He went on to say, 'Is the lamp brought in in order to be put under the bushel or under the bed? Is it not rather in order that it may be placed on the lampstand?

Why, there is nothing hidden except with a view to its being ultimately disclosed, nor has anything been made a secret but that it may at last come to light.

Listen, every one who has ears to listen with!'

He also said to them, 'Take care what you hear. With what measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and that with interest.

For those who have will have more given them; and from those who have not, even what they have will be taken away.'

Another saying of His was this: 'The Kingdom of God is as if a man scattered seed over the ground:

he spends days and nights, now awake, now asleep, while the seed sprouts and grows tall, he knows not how.

Of itself the land produces the crop-- first the blade, then the ear; afterwards the perfect grain is seen in the ear.

But no sooner is the crop ripe, than he sends the reapers, because the time of harvest has come.'

Another saying of His was this: 'How are we to picture the Kingdom of God? or by what figure of speech shall we represent it?

It is like a mustard-seed, which, when sown in the earth, is the smallest of all the seeds in the world;

yet when sown it springs up and becomes larger than all the herbs, and throws out great branches, so that the birds build under its shadow.'

With many such parables He used to speak the Message to them according to their capacity for receiving it.

But except in figurative language He spoke nothing to them; while to His own disciples He expounded everything, in private.

The same day, in the evening, He said to them, 'Let us cross to the other side.'

So they got away from the crowd, and took Him--as He was--in the boat; and other boats accompanied Him.

But a heavy squall came on, and the waves were now dashing into the boat, so that it was fast filling.

But He Himself was in the stern asleep, with His head on the cushion: so they woke Him. 'Rabbi,' they cried, 'is it nothing to you that we are drowning?'

So He roused Himself and rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, 'Silence! Be still!' The wind sank, and a perfect calm set in.

'Why are you so timid?' He asked; 'have you still no faith?'

Then they were filled with terror, and began to say to one another, 'Who is this, then? For even wind and sea obey Him.'