Bible Strands
Mark 4:27
Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples in Mark 4, using an agricultural illustration immediately following the parable of the sower to describe how God's kingdom operates. The words — καθεύδῃ (katheudē) means "he may sleep" and ἐγείρηται (egeirētai) means "he may be risen," capturing the farmer's daily cycle of rest and activity. The thread — The limitation of human understanding regarding divine or natural processes appears in Ecclesiastes 11:5 and Ecclesiastes 8:17, while 2 Thessalonians 1:3 records the observable increase of faith and love. Why it lands — The text states that the earth yields a crop automatically while the farmer remains ignorant of the process, requiring the reader to recognize God's sovereign work independent of human management.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 11:5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:3 We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.
- Ecclesiastes 8:17 I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.
- 1 Corinthians 15:37 And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else.
- John 3:7 Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’
- 2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.