Scripture in 9:12, which can lend support to the third option. For Jeremias, Mark 4:11–12 refers to outsiders seeing everything obscure, “in order that they (as it is written) may ‘see and yet not see, may hear and yet not understand, unless they turn and God will forgive them.’ ”32 This position is attractive to some interpreters because it softens the harsh language of 4:11–12, which might otherwise resemble a negative form of predestination: i.e., Jesus speaks in parables to the outsiders for