1Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea. 2He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, 3“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow. 4As he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it. 5Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. 6When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8Others fell into the good ground and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.” 9He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, 12that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”
13He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables? 14The farmer sows the word. 15The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. 18Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word, 19and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”
21He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand? 22For there is nothing hidden except that it should be made known, neither was anything made secret but that it should come to light. 23If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”
24He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you; and more will be given to you who hear. 25For whoever has, to him more will be given; and he who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”
26He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, 27and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how. 28For the earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? 31It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, 32yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”
33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
35On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” 36Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. 37A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. 38He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”
39He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
41They were greatly afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Mark 4:13 “dwelt” – Site Study about first century house construction
House construction in the Holy Land in the first century was basically uniform in design, but size, materials, and decoration varied greatly, depending mostly on the socio-economic status of its owner, but also according to location and local building materials. In Galilee, houses were constructed primarily of the plentiful local basalt, while in Judea and Jerusalem houses were built (and still are) with limestone.
Houses were usually a single room or several rooms arranged around a central courtyard or room. In lower class homes, the one room functioned as a living room, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom all in one, whereas these functions would be separated in upper class homes. In rural areas houses were stand-alone, but from smaller villages to large cities, houses were mostly connected in settlement-blocks, and often in the Roman style called insulae. In Jerusalem particularly, being the largest city in Judea, houses were packed closely together, if not sharing common walls, especially in the walled portions of the city.
Floors in these houses were made by packing the earth on which the house was constructed (in lower class houses), packed pebbles, crushed rock or, in the case of upper-class dwellings, paved with stones. In the most palatial homes, the floors were made of elaborate mosaics. Although packed earth was the floor of the lower-class, they were nevertheless carefully made. They typically had alternating layers of clay and ash and were carefully leveled. Pebbles were gathered from local sources and also packed and leveled carefully. Stone floors took a great amount of time and labor, as did mosaic floors, which required the work of skilled craftsmen.
Walls in Roman period homes were almost universally stone. In the poorest homes, stones were built up and filled with small rocks and pebbles. In middle-class homes the walls were mortared with mud and pebbles and sometimes plastered.[1] In the houses of the rich walls were constructed using quarried and finished stone blocks, plastered, and often decorated with frescoes.
Roof construction in first-century homes varied. Lower class homes had simple roofs, made with tree branches and thatching. Sometimes palm branches were laid across the tree branches, and then covered with a mixture of mud and straw. Such a roof may have been the one over the home the paralytic was lowered through in an effort to be healed by Jesus (Mk 2:4).[2] In middle-class dwellings, sometimes the roof served as an open-air second story, such as in Capernaum, where outside staircases led from open courtyards to the roof.[3] In upper-class homes roofs were of the familiar terracotta tile type and often had devices to aid in catching rainwater and sending it to underground cisterns.
[1] Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 98.
[2] Ibid, The Archaeology of the New Testament, 107
[3] Ibid, The Archaeology of the New Testament, 98.