The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Amy-Jill Levine Read Free Book Online Page B

fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
    10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret * of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that
        ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
              and may indeed listen, but not
                     understand;
       so that they may not turn again and be
              forgiven.’”
    13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. * 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
    21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23 Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25 For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
PARABLES AND KINGDOM
Because of their prominent place in the first three Gospels, parables are, as scholars have argued, among the most likely teachings to go back to the historical Jesus. Ironically, however, their elusive quality has not yielded a consensus as to what they meant for Jesus or his first followers. Gk parabolē (lit., “throw alongside,” that is, talk about one thing in terms of another) and Heb mashal (from a verb meaning “compare”) referred to any figurative comparison, from clear proverbs to obscure riddles. The rabbis also told many parables of God’s relation to Israel (e.g., Gen. Rab . 3.1; Lam. Rab . 1.1)
The first parable in Mk 4 (vv. 2–9) seems clear to the modern audience, but Jesus’ followers have difficulty understanding. For Mark, the secret of the kingdom of God, communicated through the parables, is explained to the insiders, but those outside only hear the impenetrable shell (vv. 11–12,33–34). Thus Mark suggests that the parables, without an explanation, are impenetrable, although most of them succeed at least on a suggestive level. Mark’s presentation also rigidly and irrevocably separates insiders from outsiders, and the latter are lost. Jesus speaks in parables in order that the outsiders may not understand and seek forgiveness. (This hard line may have been softened in Mt 13.13.) Mark is here quite emphatic that the community is a separate entity with insiders’ understanding and restricted salvation. The parables also express “the secret [lit., ‘mystery’] of the kingdom of God” (v. 11). It is left ambiguous whether the kingdom is present now or lies in the future. In the parable of the sower, the extended comparison is stretched: the “seed” stands for the “word” that the believer hears, and yet the plants that spring from the seed are the believers