Mark 4: 1-20 - The Parable of the Sower and the Seed

Two well-known characteristics of the book of Mark are that it appears to have been the first gospel written and that it served as the textual authority for Matthew and Luke, the other two synoptic gospels (Biblical, 1999). The fact that Mark functions as textual provenance for other gospels is relevant to understanding the parable of the sower and the seed because the internal evidence of the text--together with the fact that it was written in the apostolic era, possibly before the Roman destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in A.D. 70 but after the martyrdom of Peter at Rome in A.D. 64--is that the text itself was meant to function as a defining doctrinal source authority as the Christian cult (or more exactly the various cults of Christianity that scattered from Jerusalem through various parts of the Roman Empire) moved toward institutional status.

It is, indeed, difficult to overstate the context for the parable of the sower and the seed. In the modern period, as Anderson notes, interpretation of context was marked by a move away from the view that the parables stood for "a

. . .
e first century shows was by no means a universal community of faith. More than this, the words attributed to Jesus are completely consistent with the view that the legacy of Jesus's career, manifest in the institution of the church, is to be established in and through institutional doctrine codified in institutional text. Anderson suggests that there is a double view of the parables in general and that of the sower and seed in particular, seeing an equivalence between the seed and the kingdom of God. He cites the "message of the mysterious action of God in his ministry and . . . obscure beginnings of the kingdom of god . . . which contain within themselves the hope of the coming glory of the kingdom" (Anderson, 1976, p. 127). But this characterization remains diffuse because of the ambiguity of what the kingdom itself means. Is it the message of new faith against the old? The liberation of the Jews from the Romans in this world? Salvation in the next? Anderson adds that unbelievers outside the community of faith are opaque to the secrets of the kingdom (Mark 4:11-12), but so are those inside the community who partake of mysteries "that cannot be seen in this world by human eyes" (Williamson, 1983, p. 132). That is, absolute under
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Word God, Despite Anderson's, God Luke, Gnostic Christians, Galilee Luke, Matthew's Jesus, Accordingly Williamson, Church Christian, Satan Mark, Salvation Anderson, seed word, sower seed, kingdom god, parable sower seed, parable sower, community faith, christian message, text meant, word god, williamson 1983, seed interpreted, word god luke, message kingdom god, luke 811 mark, 811 mark 414,
Approximate Word count = 3374
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Mark 4: 1-20 - The Parable of the Sower and the Seed