What Does Mark 4:1 Mean?
And he began again to teach beside the sea. A great crowd was gathered together to him, so that he entered a boat and sat in the sea, and the whole crowd was on the land beside the sea.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.THE KEY
The crowd’s “gathering” is already an assembly: they are brought together toward him before the first parable is spoken.
THE MEANING
You are with the multitude at the water’s edge: he takes his place in the boat, while the people gather on land. The shoreline becomes a shared place of attention before any parable is heard.
THE ROOT
συνάγεται
synagetai
GROWS FROM
συνάγω (synagō), σύν (syn) + ἄγω (agō)
Bring together: σύν (syn) means “together,” and ἄγω (agō) means “lead” or “bring.”
“was gathered together” in this verse is synagetai. The crowd is not only many people in one place; the word for gathering carries the sense of being brought together. The related word συναγωγή (synagōgē, “assembly”) grows from the same root, so this scene is already an assembly centered on him.
ALSO GROWS
synagōgē: Assembly; gathering
συναγωγή
The same root names the assembly itself, opening up “gathered” as people brought together for a shared meeting.
episynagō: Gather together
ἐπισυνάγω
This related verb keeps the image of people being brought into one gathering; here, the multitude’s movement is toward him.
THE PATTERN
Teaching meets people where they gather, making a public place into a shared place of hearing.
And he called aloud from it before the wide place that was before the gate of the waters, from first light until the middle of the day, facing the men and the women, and those who could tell the difference, and the ears of all the people were turned toward the book of the instruction.And he stepped into one of the boats, the one that was Simon's, and asked him to draw out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the crowd from the boat.On the next sabbath nearly the whole city came together to hear the word of God.THE THREAD
And great crowds were gathered together to him, so that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the shore.“Gathered” here and “gathered together” in Matthew come from the same Greek verb, συνάγω (synagō, “bring together”). Matthew makes the assembly’s shape visible: he sits in the boat, and the multitude stands together on shore.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us