--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 250 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/250/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 250. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/250/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 250. Mark · 6 of 22 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/250/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/250/#p-N ### Verse 33 [¶1] Who is my mother? - See on [Mat 12:46-50] (note). ### Introduction [¶3] The parable of the sower, [Mar 4:1-9]. Its interpretation, [Mar 4:10-20]. The use we should make of the instructions we receive, [Mar 4:21-26]. The parable of the progressively growing seed, [Mar 4:26-29]. Of the mustard seed, [Mar 4:30-34]. Christ and his disciples are overtaken by a storm, [Mar 4:35-38]. He rebukes the wind and the sea, and produces fair weather, [Mar 4:39-41]. ### Verse 2 [¶5] He taught them many things by parables - See every part of this parable of the sower explained on [Mat 13:1] (note), etc. ### Verse 4 [¶7] The fowls - Του ουρανου, of the air, is the common reading; but it should be omitted, on the authority of nine uncial MSS., upwards of one hundred others, and almost all the versions. Bengel and Griesbach have left it out of the text. It seems to have been inserted in Mark, from [Luk 8:5]. ### Verse 9 [¶9] And he said - He that hath ears to hear, let him hear - The Codex Bezae, later Syriac in the margin, and seven copies of the Itala, add, και ὁ συνιων συνιετω, and whoso understandeth, let him understand. ### Verse 10 [¶11] They that were about him - None of the other evangelists intimate that there were any besides the twelve with him: but it appears there were several others present; and though they were not styled disciples, yet they appear to have seriously attended to his public and private instructions. ### Verse 11 [¶13] Unto you it is given to know - Γνωναι, to know, is omitted by ABKL, ten others, the Coptic, and one of the Itala. The omission of this word makes a material alteration in the sense; for without it the passage may be read thus: - To you the mystery of the kingdom of God is given; but all these things are transacted in parables to those without. Griesbach leaves it doubtful. And Professor White says, probabiliter delendum. I should be inclined to omit it, were it not found in the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke, in neither of whom it is omitted by any MS. or version. See the dissertation on parabolical writing at the end of [Mat 13:58]. ### Verse 13 [¶15] Know ye not this parable? - The scope and design of which is so very obvious. [¶16] How then will ye know all parables? - Of which mode of teaching ye should be perfect masters, in order that ye may be able successfully to teach others. This verse is not found in any of the other evangelists. ### Verse 15 [¶18] These are they - Probably our Lord here refers to the people to whom he had just now preached, and who, it is likely, did not profit by the word spoken. [¶19] Where the word is sown - Instead of this clause, four copies of the Itala read the place thus - They who are sown by the way side, are they Who Receive The Word Negligently. There are thousands of this stamp in the Christian world. Reader, art thou one of them? ### Verse 19 [¶21] The deceitfulness of riches - This is variously expressed in different copies of the Itala: the errors - delights of the world - completely alienated (abolienati) by the pleasures of the world. The lusts of other things - which have not been included in the anxious cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches. All, all, choke the word! ### Verse 21 [¶23] Is a candle - put under a bushel! - The design of my preaching is to enlighten men; my parables not being designed to hide the truth, but to make it more manifest. ### Verse 22 [¶25] For there is nothing hid, etc. - Probably our Lord means, that all that had hitherto been secret, relative to the salvation of a lost world, or only obscurely pointed out by types and sacrifices, shall now be uncovered and made plain by the everlasting Gospel. See on [Mat 5:15] (note); [Mat 10:26] (note). ### Verse 24 [¶27] And unto you that hear shall more be given - This clause is wanting in DG, Coptic, and four copies of the Itala; and in others, where it is extant, it is variously written. Griesbach has left it out of the text, and supposes it to be a gloss, Whosoever hath, to him shall be given. ### Verse 25 [¶29] He that hath - See on [Mat 13:12] (note). ### Verse 26 [¶31] So is the kingdom of God - This parable is mentioned only by Mark, a proof that Mark did not abridge Matthew. Whitby supposes it to refer to the good ground spoken of before, and paraphrases is thus: - "What I have said of the seed sown upon good ground, may be illustrated by this parable. The doctrine of the kingdom, received in a good and honest heart, is like seed sown by a man in his ground, properly prepared to receive it; for when he hath sown it, he sleeps and wakes day after day, and, looking on it, he sees it spring and grow up through the virtue of the earth in which it is sown, though he knows not how it doth so; and when he finds it ripe, he reaps it, and so receives the benefit of the sown seed. So is it here: the seed sown in the good and honest heart brings forth fruit with patience; and this fruit daily increaseth, though we know not how the Word and Spirit work that increase; and then Christ the husbandman, at the time of the harvest, gathers in this good seed into the kingdom of heaven." I see no necessity of inquiring how Christ may be said to sleep and rise night and day; Christ being like to this husbandman only in sowing and reaping the seed. ### Verse 27 [¶33] And should sleep and rise night and day - That is, he should sleep by night, and rise by day; for so the words are obviously to be understood. [¶34] He knoweth not how - How a plant grows is a mystery in nature, which the wisest philosopher in the universe cannot fully explain. ### Verse 28 [¶36] Bringeth forth - of herself - Αυτοματη. By its own energy, without either the influence or industry of man. Similar to this is the expression of the poet: - [¶37] Namque aliae, Nullis Homlnum Cogentibus, ipsae [¶38] Sponte Sua veniunt. [¶39] Virg. Geor. l. ii. v. 10 "Some (trees) grow of their own accord, without the labor of man." [¶40] All the endlessly varied herbage of the field is produced in this way. [¶41] The full corn - Πληρη σιτον, Full wheat; the perfect, full-grown, or ripe corn. Lucian uses κενος καρπος, Empty fruit, for imperfect, or unripe fruit. See Kypke. [¶42] The kingdom of God, which is generated in the soul by the word of life, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, is first very small; there is only a blade, but this is full of promise, for a good blade shows there is a good seed at bottom, and that the soil in which it is sown is good also. Then the ear - the strong stalk grows up, and the ear is formed at the top; the faith and love of the believing soul increase abundantly; it is justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ; it has the ear which is shortly to be filled with the ripe grain, the outlines of the whole image of God. Then the full corn. The soul is purified from all unrighteousness; and, having escaped the corruption that is in the world, it is made a partaker of the Divine nature, and is filled with all the fullness of God. ### Verse 29 [¶44] He putteth in the sickle - ΑποϚελλει, he sendeth out the sickle, i.e. the reapers; the instrument, by a metonomy, being put for the persons who use it. This is a common figure. It has been supposed that our Lord intimates here that, as soon as a soul is made completely holy, it is taken into the kingdom of God. But certainly the parable does not say so. When the corn is ripe, it is reaped for the benefit of him who sowed it; for it can be of little or no use till it be ripe: so when a soul is saved from all sin, it is capable of being fully employed in the work of the Lord: it is then, and not till then, fully fitted for the Master's use. God saves men to the uttermost, that they may here perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his name. To take them away the moment they are capable of doing this, would be, so far, to deprive the world and the Church of the manifestation of the glory of his grace. "But the text says, he immediately sendeth out the sickle; and this means that the person dies, and is taken into glory, as soon as he is fit for it." No, for there may be millions of cases, where, though to die would be gain, yet to live may be far better for the Church, and for an increase of the life of Christ to the soul. See [Phi 1:21], [Phi 1:24]. Besides, if we attempt to make the parable speak here what seems to be implied in the letter, then we may say, with equal propriety, that Christ sleeps and wakes alternately; and that his own grace grows, he knows not how, in the heart in which he has planted it.