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[Originally posted on my Rabbisaul blog Feb 1 2006]

Mark 4.33 says, “in many such parables He spoke to them the Word, just as they were able to hear.”

What does that mean? It surely does not mean, “as far (or as many – i.e. “as many parables”) as they were capable of understanding,” since even Jesus’ closest disciples lacked the capacity to understand, as is already seen earlier in the chapter.

If we can suppose that these parables are spoken, not only to the disciples, but to the multitudes (as v 34b demonstrates), and compare this statement with what appears in 4.10ff (regarding Jesus speaking to the multitudes in parables, so that “seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them”), then it seems to me that v 34 means something like this: “In many such parables Jesus spoke to them, just as that is all they had power to hear.” In other words, He keeps speaking to them in parables, because they do not have the “ears to hear” which He has been calling for (e.g. 4.23); their hearts and minds are left with a mystery. Thus, kathos (“just as”) is functioning in a comparative manner, and not with the sense of “to the degree that”) – something like “even as.”

I’m not sure if that does full justice to the Greek word edunanto (“able”), but that’s my best guess at the moment, and it conforms to what immediately follows: “but without a parable He did not speak to them.” This again ties back to 4.10ff. Edit: this usage of “able” in connection with understanding would seem to fit well with John 8.43: “Why do you not know My speech? Because you are not able to hear My Word.”

[Originally posted on my Rabbisaul blog Jan 31 2006]

Last week, I preached on the parable of the sower, seed, and soils (Mk 4.1-20), and drew attention to the fact that Jesus did not use parables so that people could better understand via His helpful illustrations; rather, He used them because He was turning those people over to the hardness of their hearts and deadness of their ears. The explanations were left for the “insiders” (4.10).

While that is all interesting and important, it is only part of the story. In the next passage, Jesus goes on to clarify. Here is a literal translation of Mark 4.21-22:

And He said to them, “Does a light come in order that it may be placed under a measure, or under the couch? Is it not in order that upon a lampstand it may be placed? For it is not hidden, except in order to be manifest, nor did it become secret, but in order that it may become manifest.”

He then goes on in succeeding parables to speak of how the seed is hidden in the ground, but nonetheless sprouts and grows beyond human reason, coming to fruition as harvestable grain (4.28-29) or as a bush with great branches which shade the birds (4.32).

It seems to me, then, that there is a lot more going on here than at first meets the eye. The point of the “hiddenness” of Jesus’ message of the kingdom – spoken in parables – is not that the Word become privatized among the “insiders,” but that it break forth and give light to all. If I’m right, that’s an interesting balance with the judgment language of 4.10ff. By “hiding” the kingdom Word among His disciples, Jesus is nonetheless still aiming at its public triumph.