004:008 But some of the seed falls into good ground, and gives a return: it comes up and increases, and yields thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold."
004:009 "Listen," He added, "every one who has ears to listen with!"
004:010 When He was alone, the Twelve and the others who were about Him requested Him to explain His figurative language.
004:011 "To you," He replied, "has been entrusted the secret truth
concerning the Kingdom of God; but to those others outside
your number all this is spoken in figurative language;
004:012 that "'They may look and look but not see, and listen and
listen but not understand, lest perchance they should return
and be pardoned.'"
004:013 "Do you all miss the meaning of this parable?" He added; "how then will you understand the rest of my parables?"
004:014 "What the sower sows is the Message.
004:015 Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom
the Message is sown, but, when they have heard it, Satan comes
at once and carries away the Message sown in them.
004:016 In the same way those who receive the seed on the rocky
places are those who, when they have heard the Message,
at once accept it joyfully,
004:017 but they have no root within them. They last for a time;
then, when suffering or persecution comes because of the Message,
they are immediately overthrown.