Mark 4:15

4:15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: Whenever they hear, immediately Satan ¹  comes and snatches the word ²  that was sown in them.

Mark 4:20

4:20 But ³  these are the ones sown on good soil: They hear the word and receive it and bear fruit, one thirty times as much, one sixty, and one a hundred.”

Mark 6:3

6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son ⁴  of Mary ⁵  and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.

Mark 9:1

9:1 And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, ⁶  there are some standing here who will not ⁷  experience ⁸  death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” ⁹ 

¹ sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for Satan here: Matt 13:19 has “the evil one,” while Luke 8:12 has “the devil.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.

² sn The word of Jesus has the potential to save if it germinates in a person’s heart, something the devil is very much against.

³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

⁵ tc Evidently because of the possible offensiveness of designating Jesus a carpenter, several mss ([Ì^45vid] ˹³ 33^vid [565 579] 700 [2542] pc it vg^mss) harmonize the words “carpenter, the son” to the parallel passage in Matt 13:55, “the son of the carpenter.” Almost all the rest of the mss read “the carpenter, the son.” Since the explicit designation of Jesus as a carpenter is the more difficult reading, and is much better attested, it is most likely correct.

⁶ sn The reference to Jesus as the carpenter is probably derogatory, indicating that they knew Jesus only as a common laborer like themselves. The reference to him as the son of Mary (even though Jesus’ father was probably dead by this point) appears to be somewhat derogatory, for a man was not regarded as his mother’s son in Jewish usage unless an insult was intended (cf. Judg 11:1-2; John 6:42; 8:41; 9:29).

⁷ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁸ tn The Greek negative here (οὐ μή, ou mh) is the strongest possible.

⁹ tn Grk “will not taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

¹⁰ sn Several suggestions have been made as to the referent for the phrase the kingdom of God come with power: (1) the transfiguration itself, which immediately follows in the narrative; (2) Jesus’ resurrection and ascension; (3) the coming of the Spirit; (4) Jesus’ second coming and the establishment of the kingdom. The reference to after six days in 9:2 seems to indicate that Mark had the transfiguration in mind insofar as it was a substantial prefiguring of the consummation of the kingdom (although this interpretation is not without its problems). As such, the transfiguration was a tremendous confirmation to the disciples that even though Jesus had just finished speaking of his death (8:31; 9:31; 10:33), he was nonetheless the promised Messiah and things were proceeding according to God’s plan.