Mark 4:8

some thirty St Luke says simply "and bare fruit an hundred-fold." St Matthew says "some an hundred-fold, some sixty fold, some thirty-fold." St Mark begins from the lowest return, and ascends to the highest. It is said of Isaac that he sowed and "received in the same year an hundred-fold" (Genesis 26:12). Herodotus tells us that two hundred-fold was a common return in the plain of Babylon, while a kind of white maize often in Palestine returns several hundred-fold. Observe the four kinds of soil. In the first the seed did not spring up at all; in the second it sprang up, but soon withered away; in the third it sprang up and grew, but yielded no fruit; in the fourth it sprang up, grew, and brought forth fruit; and as there are three causes of unfruitfulness, so there are three degrees of fruitfulness, but only one cause of fruitfulness.