Luke 8:4-8

The following passage contains: 1 st. The parable (Luke 8:4-8); 2 d. The explanations given by Jesus respecting this mode of teaching (Luke 8:9-10); 3 d. The exposition of the parable (Luke 8:11-15); 4 th. A warning to the apostles as to the course they must pursue in regard to truths which Jesus teaches them in this way (Luke 8:16-18).

1 st. Luke 8:4-8. The Parable.

Matthew and Mark place this parable after the visit of the mother and brethren of Jesus (Matthew 13:1; Mark 4:1). In Luke it immediately precedes the same narrative (Luke 8:19 et seq.). This connection may be the result of a real chronological relation, or of a moral relation as well; comp. Luke 8:15, “those who keep the word and bring forth fruit,” with Luke 8:21, “those who hear the word of God and practise it.”

We might make τῶν ἐπιπορευομένων, coming together unto Him, the complement of ὄχλου, a multitude, by giving καί the sense of even. But this construction is forced; the two genitives are parallel. Luke's meaning is: “As a great multitude was gathered about Him, and as it was continually increasing, owing to fresh additions, which were arriving more or less from every city.” This prefatory remark contains a great deal. Jesus goes through the country, stopping at every place; the Twelve are His immediate attendants; the cities are emptied, so to speak; their entire populations accompany Him. We have evidently reached a crisis. But the more the number of His hearers increases, the more clearly Jesus sees that the time has come to set some sifting process to work amongst them; if, on the one hand, it is necessary to draw the spiritual into closer attachment, on the other, it is of importance to keep the carnal at a distance. The parables, in general, have this tendency; that of the sower, by its very meaning, has a direct application to this state of things.

It appears from Matthew and Mark that Jesus was seated in a vessel on the sea-shore, and that from this kind of pulpit He taught the people who stood upon the banks. He could therefore easily discern the various expressions of the persons composing the multitude.

The art. ὁ before σπείρων designates that one of the servants who has been entrusted with this work. Gess points out the contrast between this sower, who commences the work of establishing the kingdom of God by means of the Word alone, and the Messiah, as pictured by John the Baptist, having His fan in His hand.

Jesus divides His hearers into four classes, and compares them to four kinds of soil, of which the surrounding country furnished Him with illustrations at the very time He was speaking. From the edge of the lake the soil rises very rapidly; now, on such slopes, it easily happens that the higher portion of a field has only a thin layer of mould, whilst, going down towards the plain, the bed of earth becomes deeper. Hence the differences indicated. The first soil (by the wayside) is the part nearest the path which is freely used by passers-by. The second (on the rock, according to Luke; in stony places, in Matthew and Mark) does not denote, as is often thought, a soil full of stones; but, as is well expressed by Luke, and confirmed by the explanation, because there was no depth of earth (Matthew and Mark), that portion of the field where the rock is only covered with a thin layer of earth. The third is a fertile soil, but already choke-full of the seeds of thorns and briars. There remains the good soil (Mark and Matthew, καλή). This last land is neither hard as the first, nor thin as the second, nor unclean as the third; it is soft, deep, and free from other seeds. The four prep. employed by Luke well describe these different relations of the seed with the soil: παρά, by the side; ἐπί, upon; ἐν μέσῳ, in the midst; εἰς, into (ἐπί in the T. R., Luke 8:8, has only very insufficient authorities).

The fate of the seed is determined by the nature of the soil. On the first soil it does not even spring up. The φυέν, having sprung up (Luke 8:6-8), is passed over in silence in the 5th verse. Not having germinated, the seed is destroyed by external causes, the passers-by and the birds. Matthew and Mark mention only the latter. On the second soil the seed springs up; but the root, immediately meeting with the rock, cannot develope itself in proportion to the stem, and, as soon as the sun has dried up the thin layer of earth, the plant perishes. The seed on the third soil grows into ear; but briars choke it before the grain is formed. Thus in the first case there are two external causes of destruction; in the second, an external and an internal cause; in the third, a single cause, and this altogether internal. On the fourth soil the plant successfully accomplishes the entire cycle of vegetation. Luke only mentions the highest degree of fertility, a hundred-fold. Matthew and Mark speak of lesser degrees; Mark in an ascending, and Matthew in a descending order. How puerile and unworthy of earnest men these trifling variations would be, if the evangelists worked upon a common document!

The Lord invites the serious attention of the multitude to this result; ἐφώνει, He raises His voice [He cried, A.V.], these are the words which He emphasizes. He endeavours to awaken that inward sense for divine things, without which religious teaching is only an empty sound.

The design of Jesus is, first of all, to show that He is not deceived by the sight of this crowd, which is apparently so attentive; then to put His disciples on their guard against the expectations which such a large concourse might create in their minds; lastly, and more than all, to warn His hearers of the perils which threatened the holy impressions they were then experiencing.