Four Soils Parable

By not revealing what the Four Soils parable was about until its dramatic conclusion Jesus drew in his audience and held their attention, making them the very thing the parable urged them to be: good listeners.

Matt. 13:1-9; Mark 4:1-9; Luke 8:4-8
(Huck, 90; Aland, 122; Crook, 144)^[1]

Updated: 25 October 2023

וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וַיֵּאָסְפוּ אֻכְלוּסִים גְּדוֹלִים וַיֵּלְכוּ אֵלָיו וַיִּמְשׁוֹל לָהֶם מָשָׁל לֵאמֹר יָצָא הַזּוֹרֵעַ לִזְרוֹעַ אֶת זַרְעוֹ וּבִזְרִיעָתוֹ זֶה נָפַל עַל הַדֶּרֶךְ וְנִדְרַךְ וְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם אָכְלוּ אוֹתוֹ וְאַחֵר נָפַל עַל הַסֶּלַע וְעָלָה וְיָבֵשׁ מֵאֵין לֵחָה וְאַחֵר נָפַל בֵּין הַחוֹחִים וְעָלָה וְהַחוֹחִים חָנְקוּ אוֹתוֹ וְאַחֵר נָפַל בָּאֲדָמָה הַטּוֹבָה וְעָלָה וְעָשָׂה פְּרִי וּמָצָא מֵאָה שְׁעָרִים מִי שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ אָזְנַיִם לִשְׁמוֹעַ יִשְׁמַע

Later that day large crowds of people gathered and came to Yeshua, and he told them this parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on a footpath. First it was trampled, then the birds of the sky ate it. Some fell on rock. At first it sprouted, but then it dried out from want of moisture. Some fell among thistles. At first it sprouted, but then the thistles choked it. And some fell on good soil. It not only sprouted, it even produced grain, so that the sower saw a hundredfold return!

“Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”^[2]

Table of Contents

1. Reconstruction

2. Story Placement

3. Conjectured Stages of Transmission

4. Crucial Issues

5. Comment

5a. Seed-on-the-Path Scenario

5b. Seed-on-the-Rock Scenario

5c. Seed-among-Thorns Scenario

5d. Seed-in-Good-Soil Scenario

6. Redaction Analysis

7. Results of This Research

8. Conclusion

Reconstruction

To view the reconstructed text of the Four Soils parable click on the link below:

Paid Content
Premium Members and Friends of JP must be logged in to access this content: Login

If you do not have a paid subscription, please consider registering as a Premium Member starting at $10/month (paid monthly) or only $5/month (paid annually): Register

One Time Purchase Rather Than Membership
Rather than purchasing a membership subscription, you may purchase access to this single page for $1.99 USD. To purchase access we strongly encourage users to first register for a free account with JP (Register), which will make the process of accessing your purchase much simpler. Once you have registered you may login and purchase access to this page at this link:

Medieval illustration of the Parable of the Sower. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Click here to return to The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction main page. _______________________________________________________

^[1] For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.’” ↩
^[2] This translation is a dynamic rendition of our reconstruction of the conjectured Hebrew source that stands behind the Greek of the Synoptic Gospels. It is not a translation of the Greek text of a canonical source. ↩