And when many people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spoke by a parable:
All Commentaries on Luke 8:4 Go To Luke 8
Bede
AD 735
The sower we can conceive to be none other but the Son of God, Who going forth from His Father's bosom, whither no creature had attained, came into the world that He might bear witness to the truth.
The rock, he says, is the hard and unsubdued heart. Now the moisture at the root of the seed is the same as what is called in another parable, the oil to trim the lamps of the virgins, that is, love and steadfastness in virtue.
For by fruit ahundred-fold, he means perfect fruit. For the number ten is always taken to imply perfection, because in ten precepts is contained the keeping, or the observance of the law. But the number ten multiplied by itself amounts to a hundred; hence by a hundred very great perfection is signified.
For asoften as the admonition occurs either in the Gospel or the Revelation of St. John, it signifies that there is a mystical meaning in what is said, and we must inquire more closely into it.Hence the disciples who were ignorant ask our Savior, for it follows, And his disciples asked him But let no one suppose that as soon as the parable was finished His disciples asked Him, but, as Mark says, When he was alone they asked him.
Rightly then do they hear in parables, who having closed the senses of their heart, care not to know the truth, forgetful of what the Lord told them. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
Who in truth deign to receive the word which they hear with no faith, with no understanding at least with no attempt to test the value of it.
