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Twist family Bible study: the Gospel of Mark
Wayne:
So on to Mark chapter 4! So many people have come to hear Jesus speak that he has to go out on a boat while they listen from the shore.
He goes into parable mode. A sower sows some seeds, but for one reason or another, lots of seeds don't make it. But the ones that do yield a harvest of 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown.
Wayne:
One passage doesn't sound as compassionate as I would like.
At least in some translations, Jesus seems to be pleased that some people can't understand what he's saying. ???
Funny, I just checked my Dad's King James and he had circled this verse, Mark 4:12. He didn't mark a lot of things - maybe it annoyed him too. :laugh:
-- 11 ... unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
12 That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
Wayne:
There's an interesting cross-reference in the New American Standard Version though...
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%204:12;&version=49;
This passage is roughly a quotation from both Isaiah and Ezekiel. I suspect that Mark (or whoever the writer was) put this phrase in to show the parallel to the prophets' experience.
I don't think they had anything like quotation marks in the original Greek to indicate explicitly the words that Jesus said as opposed to Mark's annotations, so I'm willing to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Wayne:
Also as we've noticed, Jesus had to watch what he said, so folding his message into parables was a way to deliver the message without explicitly saying anything the authorities could arrest him for.
verse 34: He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.
Wayne:
The coolness of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_4
This is the chapter where Jesus calms the storm...
The disciples are surprised at Jesus's superpowers: Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
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