The Gospel of Mark
PARABLES Mk 4,1-34: Overview
In the discourse, Jesus presents parables and also talks about parables as his means of teaching. We can see it as following on from Jesus' comment at the end of chapter 3 about his true family being those who do the will of God.
Jesus' ministry as a proclamation of the kingdom of God (1,14-15) provides the background for the discourse as we will see.
The equivalent discourse in Mt 13 shows the two are similar up to the interpretation of the parable (4,13-20 & Mt 13,18-23) and then go their separate ways.
The evangelist's comments at the beginning and end give us a bracket around the discourse. Mark opens it by setting the scene (4,1-2) and closes it with his comments on Jesus' teaching (4,33-34).
It is always necessary to be cautious in searching for circular arrangements such as the one we explored in 2,1-3,6. Yet, such an arrangement can be seen in this discourse which does help to confirm what may seem obvious.
As we might expect, the centre of this parable discourse is the explanation of the parable in 4,14-20 and this is brought out by the evangelist's editing.
I commented that the deeper meaning of these parables becomes explicit in 4,26 and 4,30 where Jesus says "the kingdom of God is like...". This is not stated for the first parable in 4,3 because Jesus' mission is to proclaim the kingdom of God (1,15).
Thus looking at the beginning and end of the discourse, we have at the beginning a parable about sowing (4,1-9, including the set-up) and at the end two parables on growing and harvesting (4,26-34, including the conclusion).
If we look a little closer, it is noticeable that verses 11,13,21 and 24 say "Jesus said to them" while verses 26 and 30 have the more general "He said". It is as if in verse 26, Jesus is back in the boat (4,1). We have therefore a middle portion, 4,10-25, with a more specific audience (4,10). That's how the evangelist chooses to tell his story and the purpose is clear. It is not necessary to ask the practical questions about how Jesus gets out of the boat and then got back in again.
The next step then is to look at the centre and see how it divides into three. Here we can note that in verses 10 to 13 and in 21-25 we are told that Jesus is speaking to them, the disciples. The same theme is found in both parts. Although "he said to them" occurs in both verses 21 and 24, there is a unity to these verses as we will see.
That therefore leaves us with the interpretation of the parable, 4,14-20, as the centre of this middle part. The middle of the middle as it were.
Putting all this together, we have now seen that there are seven parts to this discourse, 4,1-34. The pattern therefore looks like this:
- A Introduction (verses 1-2)
- B Parable of the Sowing of the Seed (verses 3-9)
- C Jesus speaks to the 12 (verses 10-13)
- D Interpetation of the Parable (verses 14-20)
- C Jesus speaks to the 12 (verses 21-25)
- B Parables of seed growing (verses 26-32)
- A Conclusion (verses 33-34)
A and B therefore are public teaching while C and D are private teaching by Jesus.
Reading the Chapter
That gives us a good outline for our reading for which we now have the following pages for this chapter, including the final episode:- 4,1-9: The Parable of sowing the seed (A-B)
- 4,10-25: Explanation of the Parables (C-D)
- 4,26-33: Two Parables of the seed growing (A-B)
- 4,35-41: The calming of the storm
Listen
The key word for the discourse is "listen" or "hear".
The Greek word is found in verses 3,9 (2x),15,16,18,20,23 (2x),24 and 33.
"Listening" is how Jesus begins (4,3) and the evangelist ends (4,33) the discourse as well as being the theme of the interpretation of the parable (4,14-20).
We will discover in due course that the key word for the other major discourse of this Gospel, that of chapter 13, is "sight". (This word occurs only in 4,12 and 4,24 in this discourse.)
Back now to the main page and to begin to read this discourse.