Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
May 5, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(154)
1901 ASV
16 In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky [
places,] who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
17 and they have no [
firm] root in themselves, but are [
only] temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
18 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
- I. The Word Falls Upon The "Rocky Places".
- A. The translation "in a similar way" is a translation of "kai...homoios". This translation assumes the presence of "homoios" in the underlying Greek text (because it is actually in some of the manuscripts we have -- including those in the Textus Receptus; the Greek text behind the KJV), but it is not an "assured" part of Mark's record because it is omitted by several of the manuscripts we have.
- 1. Its "presence", if Mark actually did write it, inserts the idea of a necessary "likeness of concept" into Mark's meaning so that "in a similar way", or "in a like manner (likewise)" is an integrated part of his thought.
- 2. Its "absence", if some 'literary minded copyist' actually inserted it into Mark's record, tamps down that idea (the presence of a necessary likeness of action).
- 3. At issue is the question of whether Mark wished his readers to "see" some "similarity" between the "alongside the road" soil and the "soil resting upon an underlying rock formation". It is inescapable that he wished us to "see" a continuing focus upon "reasons for the seed's lack of fruitful plants. It is also possible that he did not wish to emphasize that focus since it is such an obvious point. How shall we discern what he actually wished for us? It is interesting that if Mark did wish to make this obvious point more obvious, he did it deliberately by using "homoios", a word he only used in one other place in his record (15:31). Rarely occurring words tend to "stand out" when they actually do occur. On the other hand, since there is a developing theme of "fruitless seed and its causes" in Mark's record, it is actually redundant for "homoios" to be part of his wording, which would actually reinforce the notion of an emphatic need for us to see that this theme is present. But, since this is a "beyond-obvious theme" in his text, what would be the point of highlighting it? There are as many reasons for highlighting as there are for not making such an effort. The presence of "homoios" is unnecessary; thus, it is unlikely that Mark wrote it into his record, but its presence does no harm to his "point" except to make it more emphatic than he intended.
- B. The ones who "are being sown" upon the "rocky places" (i.e., the seed that is sown there).
- 1. The word translated "rocky places" ("petrodes" ) is only used in respect to this parable and only Matthew and Mark use it. In Luke's record, he changes the word to "petra" (perhaps to make the obvious more so since Matthew's and Mark's records are as clear as can be what the meaning is, but Luke's makes sure there is no misunderstanding).
- 2. The word translated "rocky places" is immediately explained to mean "places where there is not a sufficient amount of "soil" to enable roots to develop. Thus, "petrodes" and "petra" overlap in meaning at the point of "not allowing for root development".
- II. Jesus' Explanation.
- A. The seed actually germinates.
- 1. These who are "petrodes" and "petra", when they heard the Word, immediately with joy are receiving it.
- a. The elements of "joy" (chara) and "receiving" (lambano) are the basis for visualizing "germination": these experience the benefit of "believing the Gospel" (joy) because they "receive" ("believe") the message of The Word. [Note: Luke makes this point far more obvious than does Mark by declaring that "they believe for a while" (Luke 8:13)].
- 1) Because the future development of "faith", in the thought of later generations of those who proclaim "justification by faith", includes a false idea of "germination" being all that is necessary for God to "justify", Luke was prompted to make sure that his readers did not swallow that false idea without any hesitation.
- a) Because there has developed a false notion of "believing" so that it is not "truly believing", it is critical for us to understand the biblical notion of "faith".
- b) The bottom line in the biblical notion of faith has two parts: 1) a "cessation of resistance to the obvious"; and 2) a "conviction of truth" that actually motivates a "response that is commensurate to the thing 'believed' ".
- c) The "problem" that has created certain false conclusions is the "problem" of the "durability of faith". There are some whose embrace of the biblical doctrine of "election of individuals from before the foundation of the world" has overshadowed their thinking about the temporal process to the degree that they have also embraced a notion that the Bible reveals a distinction between "believing" and "truly believing". The Bible does acknowledge a distinction between "saying 'I believe' " and "actually believing", but this is not the same thing as the idea that when the Bible says a person "believes", it can mean that he/she "has not truly believed". If the required "response that is commensurate to the profession of belief" exists, so also does "faith". But, if that "faith" does not develop to the point of "endurance", it is not "justifying faith". This is a study that requires a good deal of thought for clarity to settle in, but the facts remain: "faith" that does not endure is "real faith" until it is jettisoned by the one who did believe, but is now persuaded to reject the original content. At the point of "jettisoning", the real "believing" that had occurred is now moot because there is now no "belief". Surely, God communicates "faith" to His elect and develops it into a durable reality so that He can "justify" them, but that does not mean that the non-elect are those who never "believed"; they may well have believed at some point, but the durability of their faith was undeveloped at the point of temptation and they, succumbing to the temptation, rejected the original content.
- 2) So, we have certain ones whose initial response to The Word is "joy" (a commensurate response to the truth believed) because they had no reason to not "believe" it.
- b. The "seed" has sent out its initial "root" so that it may begin to draw in the moisture and nutrients required for the seed to survive and grow.
- 2. Clearly, Mark/Jesus had this process in mind.
- B. But, there is not enough soil on the underlying rock to allow the emerging root to draw up moisture and nutrients.
- 1. These, whose initial response is "faith" and "joy", have both of those initial responses destroyed by the fact that "they have no root in themselves".
- a. What does this mean?
- b. To answer, we must understand that the "they have no root in themselves" is a figure of speech that answers to the parable: "they have [no place for a] root in themselves". They are "rock" with a dusting of soil upon them.
- 1) There is enough "dust" (soil) upon them that they can hold enough moisture to the seed to get it to begin its development; it germinates.
- 2) But, there is not enough "dust" upon them to shield the seed's initial development from the "scorching heat of the sun" (4:6) so that the moisture evaporates and the seed is "withered", having no moisture left in the soil to establish the root.
- 2. The "scorching heat of the sun" is "interpreted" by Jesus to refer to "affliction" and "persecution" caused by their initial, joyful, reception of The Word in a culture where such responses are not tolerated.
- a. Even in this description of "affliction" and "persecution" being "because of The Word" there is a recognition of legitimate "commensurate responses".
- b. If the "commensurate responses" did not exist, there would be no cause for "affliction" and "persecution" because of The Word. It is precisely because of the commensurate responses that others react by persecuting and afflicting.
- C. "...BUT they are 'proskairoi'...".
- 1. The adversative is "alla" and it stands as the strongest form of "contradiction".
- 2. The descriptive term for them is, as noted immediately above, "proskairoi".
- a. This word is used in four texts of the New Testament.
- 1) Matthew 13:21 uses it in the same setting as Mark 4:17 (our current text under consideration. Interestingly, Luke uses a diminished form of this word in 8:13 where we find "hoi pros kairon pisteuousin" (these are believing for a time).
- 2) The other two New Testament texts (2 Corinthians 4:18 and Hebrews 11:25) indicate the meaning to be "not lasting", or "in Time, but not in Eternity".
- b. The meaning is that their real "faith", though genuine for a season, had no "lasting" quality; it ceased to exist at some point in "time".
- 3. The meaning of "temporary" is given in the following declaration that "they fall away" because of "affliction" and/or "persecution".
- a. Matthew is the majority user of the word translated "fall away" (using it in 13 of the 27 texts in the New Testament where it is found) and Mark is the next greatest user (he used it in 8 of the remaining 14 texts of the New Testament where it is found). Luke, John, and Paul each use the word twice in their writings.
- b. The serious significance of these uses is that the outcome of "falling away" is being "cast into Hell" (Matthew 5:29 and Mark 9:43 are two of several examples of the force of this concept).
- c. Mark inserts "immediately" into his record at this point and, in keeping with his other uses of the term (euthus), intends his readers to "focus" upon this fact: that people can, and do, "fall away" unto condemnation is something that needs to be seriously considered.
- 1) There are poignant declarations in many places in the New Testament regarding "the failure of faith".
- 2) Perhaps the most critical of these is 1 Corinthians 15:2 which is set immediately before the details of Paul's "Gospel" are set forth. In that text, "salvation" is contingent upon "holding fast" and not "believing in vain". Thus, "salvation" is by "faith" which does not "fail" when "cause arises".
- 3) Even Hebrews 10:39, by using the text of Habakkuk 2:4 (upon which Paul rooted his "Gospel" in Romans 1:17), pointedly declares that "destruction" is the outcome of those whose "faith" does not keep them from "shrinking back".
- 4) This does NOT deny divine sovereignty in individual election from the foundation of the world, but it DOES deny "salvation" to those whose "faith" is "of themselves" and not of the Sovereign Who keeps His elect from "deceptions that destroy" (Matthew 24:22-31). Those who "with joy, receive the seed", but whose "reception is only good until it's cost is revealed" are those whose faith is not of God, but of their own narcissistic opportunism. Theirs is a real "faith", but it is not an enduring one because it is "rooted" in themselves who "have no root there".