The Parable of the Sower

41 And again he was teaching by the seaside. And a very great number of people had come to him, so that he got into a boat on the sea and took his seat; and all the people were on the land by the seaside. 2 And he gave them teaching about a number of things in the form of stories, and said to them in his teaching, Give ear: 3 A man went out to put seed in the earth: 4 And while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside, and the birds came and took it for food. 5 And some went on the stones, where it had not much earth; and it came up straight away, because the earth was not deep: 6 And when the sun was high, it was burned; and because it had no root, it became dry and dead. 7 And some went among the thorns, and the thorns came up, and it had no room for growth and gave no fruit. 8 And some, falling on good earth, gave fruit, coming up and increasing, and giving thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much. 9 And he said to them, Whoever has ears, let him give ear. 10 And when he was by himself, those who were round him with the twelve put questions to him about the purpose of the stories. 11 And he said to them, To you is given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are given in the form of stories; 12 So that seeing they may see, and it will not be clear to them; and hearing it, they will not get the sense; for fear that they may be turned again to me and have forgiveness. 13 And he said to them, If you are not clear about this story, how will you be clear about the others? 14 The seed is the word. 15 And these are they by the wayside, where the word is planted; and when they have given ear, the Evil One comes straight away and takes away the word which has been planted in them. 16 And in the same way, these are they who are planted on the stones, who, when the word has come to their ears, straight away take it with joy; 17 And they have no root in themselves, but go on for a time; then, when trouble comes or pain, because of the word, they quickly become full of doubts. 18 And others are those planted among the thorns; these are they who have given ear to the word, 19 And the cares of this life, and the deceits of wealth, and the desire for other things coming in, put a stop to the growth of the word, and it gives no fruit. 20 And these are they who were planted on the good earth; such as give ear to the word, and take it into their hearts, and give fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundred times as much.

A Candle under a Bushel

21 And he said to them, When the light comes in, do people put it under a vessel, or under the bed, and not on its table? 22 There is nothing covered which will not be seen openly, and nothing has been made secret which will not come to light. 23 If any man has ears, let him give ear. 24 And he said to them, Take care what you give ear to: in the same measure as you give you will get, and more will be given to you. 25 He who has, to him will be given: and he who has not, from him will be taken even that which he has.

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26 And he said, Such is the kingdom of God, as if a man put seed in the earth, 27 And went to sleep and got up, night and day, and the seed came to growth, though he had no idea how. 28 The earth gives fruit by herself; first the leaf, then the head, then the full grain. 29 But when the grain is ready, he quickly sends men to get it cut, because the time for cutting has come.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 And he said, What picture may we give of the kingdom of God, or with what story may we make it clear? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is put in the earth, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth, 32 But when it is planted, it comes up, and becomes taller than all the plants, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of heaven are able to take rest in its shade.

Jesus' Use of Parables

33 And with a number of such stories he gave them his teaching, as they were able to take it: 34 And without a story he said nothing to them: but privately to his disciples he made all things clear.

Jesus Calms a Storm

35 And on that day, when the evening had come, he said to them, Let us go over to the other side. 36 And going away from the people, they took him with them, as he was, in the boat. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great storm of wind came up, and the waves came into the boat, so that the boat was now becoming full. 38 And he himself was in the back of the boat, sleeping on the cushion: and they, awaking him, said, Master, is it nothing to you that we are in danger of destruction? 39 And he came out of his sleep, and gave strong orders to the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be at rest. And the wind went down, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said to them, Why are you full of fear? have you still no faith? 41 And their fear was great, and they said one to another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea do his orders?

The Man with a Withered Hand

31 And he went again into the Synagogue; and there was a man there whose hand was dead. 2 And they were watching him to see if he would make him well on the Sabbath day, so that they might have something against him. 3 And he said to the man, Get up and come forward. 4 And he said to them, Is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? to give life or to put to death? But they said nothing. 5 And looking round on them he was angry, being sad because of their hard hearts; and he said to the man, Put out your hand. And he put it out, and his hand was made well. 6 And the Pharisees went out, and straight away made designs with the Herodians about how they might put him to death.

A Multitude at the Seaside

7 And Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great number from Galilee came after him: and from Judaea, 8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and the other side of Jordan, and the country about Tyre and Sidon, a great number, hearing what great things he did, came to him. 9 And he made a request to his disciples to have a little boat ready for him, so that he might not be crushed by the people; 10 For he had made such a great number well that all those who were diseased were falling down before him for the purpose of touching him. 11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, went down before him, crying out, and saying, You are the Son of God. 12 And he gave them special orders not to say who he was.

Jesus Chooses the Twelve

13 And he went up into the mountain, and sent for those whom it was his pleasure to have with him: and they went to him. 14 And he took twelve to be with him, so that he might send them out as preachers, 15 And give them the power of driving out evil spirits: 16 To Simon he gave the second name of Peter; 17 And to James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, he gave the second name of Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder: 18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; 19 And Judas Iscariot, who was false to him.

A Divided House Cannot Stand

20 And he went into a house. And the people came together again, so that they were not even able to take bread. 21 And when his friends had news of it, they went out to get him, saying, He is off his head.

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, said, He has Beelzebub, and, By the ruler of evil spirits he sends evil spirits out of men. 23 And turning to them, he said to them in the form of a story, How is it possible for Satan to put out Satan? 24 If there is division in a kingdom, that kingdom will come to destruction; 25 And if there is division in a house, that house will come to destruction; 26 And if Satan is at war with himself, and there is division in him, he will not keep his place but will come to an end. 27 But no one is able to go into the house of the strong man and take his goods, without first putting cords round the strong man, and then he will take his goods. 28 Truly, I say to you, The sons of men will have forgiveness for all their sins and for all the evil words they say: 29 But whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but the evil he has done will be with him for ever: 30 Because they said, He has an unclean spirit.

Jesus' Mother and Brethren

31 And his mother and brothers came and were outside, and sent for him, requesting to see him. 32 And a great number were seated round him; and they said to him, See, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. 33 And he said in answer, Who are my mother and my brothers? 34 And looking round at those who were seated about him, he said, See, my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's pleasure, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.