Mark 4–5

Chapter 4

Parable of the Sower and Soils

^1aHe began to teach again ^bby the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that ^cHe got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.

²And He was teaching them many things in ^aparables, and was saying to them in His teaching,

³“Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;

⁴as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵“Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

⁶“And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

⁷“Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

⁸“Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

⁹And He was saying, “^aHe who has ears to hear, ¹let him hear.”

¹⁰As soon as He was alone, ¹His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables.

¹¹And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but ^athose who are outside get everything ^bin parables,

¹²so that ^awhile seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”

Explanation

^13aAnd He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?

¹⁴“The sower sows the word.

¹⁵“These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately ^aSatan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

¹⁶“In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;

¹⁷and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they ¹fall away.

¹⁸“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,

¹⁹but the worries of ^athe ¹world, and the ^bdeceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²⁰“And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and ^abear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

²¹And He was saying to them, “^aA lamp is not brought to be put under a ¹basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?

²²“^aFor nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.

²³“^aIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

²⁴And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. ^1aBy your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.

²⁵“^aFor whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

Parable of the Seed

²⁶And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

²⁷and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.

²⁸“The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

²⁹“But when the crop permits, he immediately ^1aputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30aAnd He said, “How shall we ^1bpicture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

³¹“It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,

³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that ^athe birds of the ¹air can nest under its shade.”

³³With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;

³⁴and He did not speak to them ^awithout a parable; but He was ^bexplaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Stills the Sea

^35aOn that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”

³⁶¹Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them ^ain the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.

³⁷And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.

³⁸Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

³⁹And He got up and ^arebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ¹it became perfectly calm.

⁴⁰And He said to them, “Why are you ¹afraid? ^aHow is it that you have no faith?”

⁴¹They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Chapter 5

The Gerasene Demoniac

^1aThey came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.

²When He got out of ^athe boat, immediately a man from the tombs ^bwith an unclean spirit met Him,

³and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain;

⁴because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

⁵Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.

⁶Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;

⁷and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “^1aWhat business do we have with each other, Jesus, ^bSon of ^cthe Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”

⁸For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

⁹And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is ^aLegion; for we are many.”

¹⁰And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

¹¹Now there was a large herd of swine feeding ¹nearby on the mountain.

¹²The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.”

¹³Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

¹⁵They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been ^ademon-possessed sitting down, ^bclothed and ^cin his right mind, the very man who had had the “^dlegion”; and they became frightened.

¹⁶Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the ^ademon-possessed man, and all about the swine.

¹⁷And they began to ^aimplore Him to leave their region.

^18aAs He was getting into the boat, the man who had been ^bdemon-possessed was imploring Him that he might ¹accompany Him.

¹⁹And He did not let him, but He said to him, “^aGo home to your people and report to them ¹what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”

²⁰And he went away and began to ^aproclaim in ^bDecapolis ¹what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Miracles and Healing

^21aWhen Jesus had crossed over again in ^bthe boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He ¹stayed ^cby the seashore.

^22aOne of ^bthe synagogue ¹officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet

²³and implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and ^alay Your hands on her, so that she will ¹get well and live.”

²⁴And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

²⁵A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,

²⁶and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—

²⁷after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His ¹cloak.

²⁸For she ¹thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will ²get well.”

²⁹Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ^aaffliction.

³⁰Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that ^athe power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”

³¹And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

³²And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.

³³But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.

³⁴And He said to her, “Daughter, ^ayour faith has ¹made you well; ^bgo in peace and be healed of your ^caffliction.”

³⁵While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the ^asynagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”

³⁶But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the ^asynagogue official, “^bDo not be afraid any longer, only ¹believe.”

³⁷And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except ^aPeter and ¹James and John the brother of James.

³⁸They came to the house of the ^asynagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing.

³⁹And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.”

⁴⁰They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was.

⁴¹Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, ^aI say to you, get up!”).

⁴²Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.

⁴³And He ^agave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.