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The Parable Proper (Mk 4: 30-32) - The Parable of the Mustard Seed
Introduction to the text
This parable is located within the Galilean ministry of Jesus among the other parables of the
kingdom and saying about the parables (4:1-34). Mark sets this section of the Gospel
alongside the Sea of Galilee. Earlier, Jesus escaped the press of the crowd by withdrawing in
a boat (3:9). Now he goes out in the boat to teach the crowd on the sea shore (4: 1). This
parable begins with a double question which is a Markan style. This method is known both in
the biblical (Isa 40: 18) and in the rabbinic world. This parable emphasizes the contrast
between the smallness of the seed and the height of the final plant. 1 The repetition of the
word “ground or earth” is the result of the constant usage of the word in all the parabolic
discourse of Mark (4: 1, 5, 8, 20, 26, 28, 31).2 In the parable of the kingdom one of the most
important things is the change of audience. In the first part of the parable of the kingdom
section there was a great crowd to listen to Jesus (in the parable of the sower Mk4: 1-10).
The next group is the disciples and some of them who followed Jesus and it is to them that
Jesus explains the parable of the sower and other parables.
This parable can be structured as under.
Structurally this similitude opens with a double question (4: 30). The answer comes in the
form of an antithetical parallelism contrasting the comparatively small size of the seed (4: 31)
and the comparatively large size of the mature plant (4: 32ab). An Old Testament allusion
illustrate plant’s size (4: 32c) and concludes the parable. The repetition statement about the
sowing (4: 32a) and the two statement about largeness one explicit (4: 32b) and the other
implicit (4: 32c) disturb the balance of the story. That is to say the smallest of all seed
becomes the greatest of all shrubs. There is a structural progress in this parable in the first
stage the seed is sown on the ground and it has a surprising growth and in the final stage it
becomes greater than a shrub.
Parallels of the parable
A shorter version of the Markan type appears in Gospel of Thomas 20, in which seed from a
wild mustard bush, the “smallest of all seeds,” happens to fall on tilled ground and grows into
a large bush. Mark speaks of large branches designed to enable the birds to nest in its shade;
the Gospel of Thomas merely speaks of birds taking shelter in the plant. Matthew 13:31-32
and Luke 13:18-19 represent another version of the parable (Q) in which a person sows the

1
Camille Focant, The Gospel According to Mark: A Commentary, trans. Robert Keylock (Eugene:
Pickwick Publication, 2012), 181.
2
Ibid, 182.
seed, which grows into a tree. The shade f the bush has been replaced by the branches as a
place for the birds to make their nests.3
Comparison from Old Testament
The end of the parable is supported by the OT passages in which the great tree symbolizes a
kingdom which provides protection for all the bird, all the beasts and all the peoples of the
world. These passages drawn from the Ancient Near East image of the “cosmic tree” to
describe a worldwide empire. In Ezekiel 17: 23 the restored kingdom of David is compared to
a tree which has become so “great” that “under its shade” (Mk4: 32) “every bird” will rest.
There is a reference to “every bird of every kind”, probably refers to peoples of all nations,
not only “Israel”. Also in Ezekiel 31:6 the kingdom of pharaoh is compared to a tree which
has become so great that in its boughs “all the birds of air” nested, under its “long branches”
all the beasts etc4. In Daniel (4: 12, 21) the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar is symbolizes by a
great tree of global significance whose “top reached to heaven and was visible to the end of
the whole earth” and” under” which and whose “branches” the “beasts” and the “birds of
air” dwelt and “all people” were fed from it.5 These texts indicates that how the mustard
shrub, the greatest of all the shrubs on earth has a worldwide and universal significance as a
place where all the birds of the air and thus symbolically all peoples of the word can live in.
Some scholars comments that the “birds of air” as symbol for the Gentiles. The picture in
4:32 of birds of air gathering under the shelter of the mustard plant remind the Markan
audience of their own situations, in which good news is proclaimed to all nations and the
many gentiles become the followers of Jesus.6
Key words
a. The sowing of the seed - In Mark it is “upon the ground” (Mk 4: 31) in Mathew it is
“in the field” (Mt 13:31) and in Luke it is “in the garden” (Lk 13: 18)
b. Description of the seed - The size of the seed is “smaller than all seeds” in both
Mathew, Luke and in the Gospel of Thomas. But in the description of Mark it is the
“smallest of all seeds on the earth”.
c. The growth - In the canonical and non- canonical gospel there is an interesting
difference in the size of the plant. In Mathew and Luke the seed grows and “becomes

3
Leander E. Keck ,The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary: New Testament Articles: Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, ed. Pheme perkins, Vol.7 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015), 682.
4
John Paul Heil, The Gospel of Mark as a Model for Action: A Reader-Response Commentary, (New
York: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001), 110-111.
5
Peter Rhea Jones, Studying the Parable of Jesus, (Macon: Smyth & Helwy publication, 1999), 84.
6
Robert A. Guelich , “Mark 1-8:26”, Vol. 34a, in The Word Biblical Commentary (Zondervan: Word
Books, 1989), 331.
a tree” but in Mark it becomes “greater than all shrubs” and in the gospel of Thomas it
is said that it “produces a large branch”.
Distinguishing Mark from the Parallels
The “mustard seed” stood proverbially in Jewish folklore for the smallest seed 7 as a symbol
of smallness. The subject of this parable is the idea of smallness. Some scholars describes it
as a harder plant that tends to germinate rapidly to take over garden by which he mean that
kingdom is both hardy and instructive8 .
“Smallest of all seeds” this statement in horticultural (Botany) is not correct, because there
are other seeds smaller than mustard seed such as the orchard. The seeds of orchids are
minute and extremely numerous.9 So we cannot say that the mustard seed is the smallest of
all seeds. The mustard seed would indeed have been the smallest of those likely to have been
noticed by the people at the time of Christ. This may be one of the reasons why other
canonical gospels do not include this statement.10
“Greater than all shrubs” usually the fully grown mustard plants’ height is around eight to ten
feet and large enough to accommodate nests of the birds. Here an eschatological connotation
is given to these verses11. At the end the kingdom of God will spread over all the nations like
a tree and all the people of the earth will be taking refuge in Jesus Christ and in his words.
Theological Reflections
This parable is understood most often as referring to the growth and development of the
church so to say the triumph of the church over nation or of the individual progress in the
maturity of faith. Many scholars have different views about this parable. According to C.H
Dodd12 this parable of the kingdom represents the people (birds) who have accepted the faith
and are flocking to find shelter (tree) in Jesus. Daniel Fuller states that Jesus referred to the
mustard seed as the smallest of seeds when, in fact, the mustard seed is not the smallest seed

7
H. Hunzinger, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol.7, (Michigan Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1971), 288.
8
John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, “The Gospel of Mark” In Sacra Pagina (Collegeville:
Liturgical Press, 2002), 152.
9
L. H. Bailey, "Orchids" in Standard Cyclopaedia of Horticulture (California: Macmillan, 2011) 23.
10
Joel Marus, “Mark 1-8 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary” In The Anchor Bible,
Vol. 27, ( Newyork: Doubledy, 2000), 323.
11
C. H. Dodd, The Parables Of The Kingdom, (London: Collins 1946), 190-191.
12
C. H. Dodd, The Parables Of The Kingdom, (C.H. Dodd is recognized as one of the great New
Testament scholars of the twentieth century. he was for many years Professor of New Testament at Cambridge
University. He was known for promoting realized eschatology, the belief that Jesus' references to the kingdom
of God meant a present rather than future reality.)
known botanically to man. Daniel Fuller argues that Jesus was accommodating his language
to the knowledge of the people of his time especially to the peasants who are his listeners.13
The parable of the mustard seed lays emphasis on the power of God and the scale of the final
outcome. The growth of the mustard seed, symbol of the word of God (4:14) from its
insignificant beginnings through inevitable growth to its full stature as the greatest of all the
shrubs foreshadows the universal and global dimension towards which the kingdom of God is
moving through the inevitable growth effected the preaching of the word of God.14 If
Markan parable is interpreted allegorically the birds may represent the gentiles, who will one
day have a place in the kingdom of God and indeed, in Mark’s day were perhaps already
flocking in. The important point in this Markan parable is the contrast between the almost
invisible seed and the enormous bush.15
Conclusion
Mark uses the parable of mustard seed to conclude the discourse on parables. The message
that these parable can give us is that they confront us with the demand to respond and to bear
fruit. The kingdom of God is not about sitting around waiting for God to act, but about doing
his will in our daily life. This parable should have been of enormous encouragement to the
believers in the early days when persecution began to rear its ugly head and when it might
have been thought that the kingdom was in danger of collapsing. From the study of this
parable what I have assimilated is that everything springs from the small beginnings. What
really matters is the patient enduring and faithfulness, the reward will be surprising. It is God
who grants the power and grace. The purpose of the parables of Jesus is to make the simple
folk understand the meaning of the kingdom.
In the liturgical calendar the Location of the Parable falls in the 11th Sunday of the
ordinary time. After Lent, the Easter season, and three Sundays of feast days i.e., Pentecost,
Holy Trinity, and Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Church returns to Ordinary Time.
The readings are I. Ezk 17:22–24- the Lord, bring low the high tree and lift high the lowly
tree. II. 2 Cor 5:6–10- The lives of all are to be revealed before the tribunal of Christ. III. Mk
4:26–34- The reign of God is like a mustard seed.

13
John A. Sproule, “The Problem of The Mustard Seed” in Grace Theological Journal, 1.1 (Winona
Lake: Grace Theological Seminary, 1980), 37-42. (In his journal he quotes the theological scholar Daniel Fuller
of Fuller Theological Seminary, stating about the mustard seed that mustard seed was the smallest seed used in
the Middle East for consumption. The plant has been known to grow to a height of fifteen feet and have a thick
main stem; with branches sufficiently thick to bear the weight of a bird).
14
John Paul Heil, The Gospel of Mark as a Model for Action, 111.
15
Richard N. Longenecker, The Challenges of Jesus’ Parables, (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans
publishing comopny, 2000), 97.

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