John Gill Commentary Mark 4

And he began again to teach by the sea side
He went out of the house where he was at Capernaum, the same day he had the above discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees, and on which his mother and: brethren came to speak with him; and from thence he went where he had been before, and taught the people; namely, to the sea side, the shore of the sea of Galilee, or Tiberias:

and there was gathered unto him a great multitude ;
which followed him from the house, and from other parts of the city, and perhaps from the adjacent places:

so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea ;
in the ship at sea, at some little distance from the shore; the sea of Tiberias being rather a lake, and within land, had no tide, and so was still and quiet:

and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land ;
stood on the land, all along the sea shore; (See Gill on Matthew 13:1), (See Gill on Matthew 13:2).

And he taught them many things by parables
As he sat in the ship, and they stood on shore;

and said to them in his doctrine ;
as he was teaching them, and delivering to them the doctrine he has received from his Father: though theJews say ^F3 , that``the Israelites will have no need (xyvm Klm lvwdwmltl) , "of the doctrine of the king Messiah, in the time to come"; because it is said, "to himshall the Gentiles seek", and not the Israelites.'' But it appears from here, and many other places, thatthe Israelites both stood in need of his doctrine, and sought after it;

and very excellent it was; the doctrine of God, and of the grace of God; and was spoken with authority, and in such a manner as never manspoke, and which he delivered to his apostles; and which, if ministers bring not with them, should not be bidGod speed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: Bereshit Rabba, sect 98. fol. 85. 3.

Hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow .
] By whom is meant Jesus Christ, who came forth from God as a teacher, and went out into the land of Judea to preach the Gospel, which is sowing spiritual things among men; and this may be also applicable to any faithful minister of the word.

And it came to pass, as he sowed
Whilst he was preaching the, Gospel, casting about the precious seed of the word, he was laden with:

some fell by the way side ;
the common beaten path: the word was dispensed among some men comparable to it, on whom it lighted, but made no impression; there it lay, though not long, and was not inwardly received, and took no root, and consequently was of no effect:

and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up ;
the devils, who have their abode in the air, especially the prince of the posse of them; and the Syriac version reads it in the singular number, "and the fowl came"; that ravenous bird of prey, Satan, who goes about seeking what he may devour; and for this purpose attends where the word is preached, to hinder its usefulness as much as in him lies.

And some fell on stony ground
The word was preached to some persons who had hearts of stone, and which remained so:

where it had not much earth ;
and so could be received only in a notional and superficial way, but could take no place, so as to produce any good effect:

and immediately it sprung up ;
a sudden and hasty profession of the word was made, without a powerful experience of it:

because it had no depth of earth ;
if it had, it would have been longer in coming up; more work would have been done by it, which would have required more time, before a profession of it had been made.