that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”
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That when they se they shall se and not discerne: and when they heare they shall heare and not vnderstonde: leste at any tyme they shulde tourne and their synnes shuld be forgeve them.
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That they seeing, may see, and not discerne: and they hearing, may heare, and not vnderstand, least at any time they should turne, and their sinnes should be forgiuen them.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Mark 4:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 6:9-10 He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”
- Isaiah 44:18 They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
- Matthew 13:14-15 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive: for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’
- Jeremiah 5:21 ‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:
- Deuteronomy 29:4 But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
- John 12:37-41 But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they didn’t believe in him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, “Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For this cause they couldn’t believe, for Isaiah said again, “He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.
- Luke 8:10 He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest in parables; that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
- 2 Timothy 2:25 in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
- Ezekiel 12:2 “Son of man, you dwell in the middle of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.
- Romans 11:8-10 According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.” David says, “Let their table be made a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Always keep their backs bent.”
- Hebrews 6:6 and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame.
- Jeremiah 31:18-20 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God. Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’ Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
- Acts 28:25-27 When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive. For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, then I would heal them.’
- Ezekiel 18:27-32 Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he will save his soul alive. Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ House of Israel, aren’t my ways fair? Aren’t your ways unfair? “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
- Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 12 That seeing they may see, and not perceive;…
12 That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
Ver. 12. {See Trapp on "Mat 13:14"} {See Trapp on "Mat 13:15"} {See Trapp on "Mat 13:16"} {See Trapp on "Mat 13:17"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The sower soweth the word. Though our Lord thought…
The sower soweth the word. Though our Lord thought fit to give the above gentle rebuke to his disciples for their dulness; yet he condescends to favour them with an interpretation of the above parable, which here begins: by this it appears, that the seed in the parable, before delivered, and which fell on different sorts of ground, is the word of God, which was preached to hearers of different dispositions: the word is the word of life and truth; the word of peace and reconciliation; the word of faith and righteousness; the word of salvation; the word which publishes and declares all these to be in and by Jesus Christ.
The sower soweth the word. Though our Lord thought fit to give the above gentle rebuke to his disciples for their dulness; yet he condescends to favour them with an interpretation of the above parable, which here begins: by this it appears, that the seed in the parable, before delivered, and which fell on different sorts of ground, is the word of God, which was preached to hearers of different dispositions: the word is the word of life and truth; the word of peace and reconciliation; the word of faith and righteousness; the word of salvation; the word which publishes and declares all these to be in and by Jesus Christ.
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Mark 4:15
mar 4:15
mar 4:15
mar 4:15And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown,.... Such hearers are represented by the way side, in which the seed fell; who, coming where the Gospel is preached, stop awhile and hear it, and so are only casual and accidental hearers of it:
but when they have heard; and indeed whilst they are hearing, and before they are well got out of the place of hearing,
Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. The devil, signified by the fowl, or fowls of the air, immediately takes notice of such hearers, and is very busy with them; filling their minds with other things suitable to their dispositions, and setting before them other objects, whereby their minds are, at once, taken off from what they have been hearing; so that all that they have observed, and laid up in their memories, is lost at once, and never thought of any more.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain So that seeing they see and do not perceive…
So that seeing they see and do not perceive - They would not see before now they could not, God having given them up to the blindness which they had chosen.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain That seeing they may see, &c. In punishment of…
That seeing they may see, &c. In punishment of their wilfully shutting their eyes, (Matthew xiii. 15.) God justly withdrew those lights and graces which otherwise he would have given them, for their effectual conversion. (Challoner) --- these speeches here and elsewhere, we are not to understand as if the spoke in parables to this end that the hearers might not understand, lest they should be converted; but we must learn the true sense from the corresponding texts in Matthew xiii, and Acts xxviii, where our Saviour and St. Paul render it thus: with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut. lest, perhaps, they may see, and understand, and be converted, and I heal them. Whereby it is evident, that the speaking in parables was not the cause, (for many besides the apostles heard and understood) but themselves, who would not hear and understand, and be converted: and thus they were the real cause of they own wilful and obstinate infidelity. And therefore also he spoke in parables, because they were not worthy to understand, as the others were to whom he expounded them. (Bristow)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. That — Many learned men understand this that…
12. That — Many learned men understand this that to mean so that. Others interpret it in order that. The former meaning indicates that parables were here used so that the effects described in this verse do really follow, but not with the divine intention that they should follow. The latter indicates that parables are used with the intention and purpose that such results should follow. Now the latter is the more ordinary sense, though not the necessary one, of the Greek word here rendered that. It here indicates that parables were used for the purpose that men who chose might remain blind. Not that their blindness is a primary purpose of the Almighty; but that blindness which is their choice may be accorded to them. These negative verbs not perceive and not understand, express intentional unintelligence. These men do not fall into passive ignorance, but they actively ignore. Lest — This lest depends upon this ignoring. They ignore lest they should be converted. Obdurate sinners are sometimes afraid they will be converted. They fear that the truth will become so clearly truth that they cannot stand, and will in the trying moment yield to it. To prevent the evil use they would make of his truth Jesus wraps it in parables, and so accommodates their wish to his truth in order to avoid conversion. And their sins should be forgiven them — Silly are these men who are so afraid of conversion. For what is the worst that would happen if they should be converted? Simply this: their sins would be forgiven, and they would be healed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. that seeing they may see, and not perceive]…
12. that seeing they may see, and not perceive] At the beginning of His ministry our Lord did not teach by Parables. “The Sermon on the Mount may be taken as the type of the ‘words of grace’ which He spake ‘not as the Scribes.’ Beatitudes, laws, promises were uttered distinctly, not indeed without similitudes, but with similitudes that explained themselves.” And so He continued for some time. But His direct teaching was met with scorn, unbelief, and hardness. From this time forward “parables” entered largely into His recorded teaching, and were at once attractive and penal. (a) Attractive, as “instruments of education for those who were children in age or character,” and offering in a striking form much for the memory to retain, and for the docile and truth-loving to learn; (b) Penal, as testing the disposition of those who listened to them; withdrawing the light from such as loved darkness and were wilfully blind, and protecting the truth from the mockery of the scoffer; finding out the fit hearers, and leading them, but them only, on to deeper knowledge. See Article on Parables in Smith’s Bible Dict.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) That seeing they may see. . . .—St.…
(12) That seeing they may see. . . .—St. Mark characteristically gives the words of Isa_6:9, but not as a quotation, and perhaps in a less accurate form, and omits the addition in Matthew, “Blessed are your ears . . .” The form in this instance, at first sight, suggests the thought that our Lord’s purpose was to produce the blindness and deafness of which He speaks. The real meaning of the words is, however, plain. This was to be the result of the wilful blindness of those who rejected Him; and the acceptance of a foreseen result was, in Hebrew forms of thought, expressed as the working out of an intention. (See Notes on Mat_13:14-15.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain That seeing, they may see, and not perceive.
Mar_4:12
That seeing, they may see, and not perceive.
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The derelict
Terrible, but just and adorable, is this conduct of God towards those who have deserved to be left to themselves. This dereliction has several degrees-
1. Their being abandoned to their own darkness.
2. Their not being able to understand the truths of salvation.
3. Their not obeying them.
4. Their remaining in their sins.
5. Their being condemned.
God is pleased to give examples of this, that the children of promise may know how much they owe to grace. It is a mistake to imagine that whatever appears most severe and rigorous in the conduct of God ought to be concealed from Christians. He Himself instructs us in it, on purpose that we should take great notice of it on proper occasions, and glorify Him on the account of all the good we do, and of all the evil which we avoid. (Quesnel.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 12. That seeing they may see. Matthew gives this…
12. That seeing they may see. Matthew gives this saying more fully and clearly. See note on Matt. 13:13.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
sins
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.