Jesus and the Crowds

The Parable of the Sower

¹Again vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ²And xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³“Listen! Behold, ya sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ait withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold.” ⁹And he said, d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰And ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, f“To you has been given gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for hthose outside everything is in parables, ¹²iso that

“‘they jmay indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they kshould turn and be forgiven.’”

¹³lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴mThe sower sows nthe word. ¹⁵And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it owith joy. ¹⁷And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qthey fall away.1 ¹⁸And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ubear fruit, vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”