What Does Mark 4:15 Mean in the King James?
And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word is not lost because it was never heard; it is taken while it still lies exposed on the surface.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you, but hearing alone does not mean it has settled within you. While it lies exposed, the Adversary can carry it off before it takes hold in your heart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that hearing a word means it has already become yours.
THE ROOT
ἐσπαρμένον
esparmenon
GROWS FROM
σπείρω (speirō; σπειρ-)
to sow or scatter seed
“sown” in this verse is esparmenon. The Greek word belongs to a family that also names seed and scattering. The verse holds both images at once: the word has been spread onto the heart, yet it remains vulnerable while it lies on the roadside.
ALSO GROWS
spérma: seed; offspring
σπέρμα
This related noun preserves the verse’s image: what is sown is living potential, not a finished result.
diasporá: dispersion; scattering
διασπορά
This related word carries the sowing family into the image of scattering: something can be spread out yet remain exposed before it takes root.
αἴρει
airei
GROWS FROM
αἴρω (airō; αἰρ-)
to lift, carry, or take away
“taketh away” in this verse is airei. The Greek verb can mean lifting or carrying something off. The word does not simply disappear here: the Adversary carries it away immediately, before it takes hold in the heart.
ALSO GROWS
aron: raise; take up and carry
ἆρον
In Mark 2:9 the same verb tells a man to “take up thy bed,” showing its concrete sense of lifting and carrying.
airōn: lifting; carrying away
αἴρων
In John 1:29 the same verb is rendered “taketh away,” showing how it can describe something being removed.
THE PATTERN
A word’s presence in the heart marks the difference between merely hearing it and its continuing effect.
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.THE THREAD
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.Matthew uses the same Greek sowing verb and the same roadside image, and names the seed as “the word of the kingdom.” It adds that the word is snatched away before it is understood, showing what this exposed state permits.
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