Mark 4:8

4:8 But¹ other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.”

Mark 4:32

4:32 when it is sown, it grows up,² becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds³ can nest in its shade.”⁴

Mark 10:33

10:33 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law.⁵ They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles.

¹tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the final stage of the parable.

²tn Mark 4:31-32 is fairly awkward in Greek. Literally the sentence reads as follows: “As a mustard seed, which when sown in the earth, being the smallest of all the seeds in the earth, and when it is sown, it grows up…” The structure has been rendered in more idiomatic English, although some of the awkward structure has been retained for rhetorical effect.

³tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

⁴sn The point of the parable seems to be that while the kingdom of God may appear to have insignificant and unnoticeable beginnings (i.e., in the ministry of Jesus), it will someday (i.e., at the second advent) be great and quite expansive. The kingdom, however, is not to be equated with the church, but rather the church is an expression of the kingdom. Also, there is important OT background in the image of the mustard seed that grew and became a tree: Ezek 17:22-24 pictures the reemergence of the Davidic house where people can find calm and shelter. Like the mustard seed, it would start out small but grow to significant size.

³tn Or “chief priests and scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.