The farmer sows the word.
Parallel translations
- WEB The farmer sows the word.
- KJV The sower soweth the word.
- NKJV The sower sows the word.
- NASB The sower sows the word.
- NLT The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The sower sows the word. It matters because it identifies the seed as God's message, the gospel that produces life.
Overview
Jesus interprets the parable: the seed is the word of God proclaimed. This frames the whole parable around the spread and reception of the gospel. It teaches that the same word goes out to all, and that the varied outcomes depend not on the seed but on the soil of the human heart.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Acts 8:4Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
- Matt 13:19When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
- Matt 13:37He replied, “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
- Luke 8:11Now this is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.
- 1 Pet 1:23–25For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
- Mark 4:3“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
- Mark 2:2they gathered in such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the door, as Jesus spoke the word to them.
- Col 1:5–6the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel
- Isa 32:20Blessed are those who sow beside abundant waters, who let the ox and donkey range freely.
- Luke 1:2just as they were handed down to us by the initial eyewitnesses and servants of the word.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 4:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.