Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: Jesus goes again (see Mark 3:7–9) to the lake (the Sea of Galilee).

He begins to teach by the sea or "on the shore",[1] and then sits in a boat, and speaks to "a great multitude" (Mark 4:1).

The Pulpit Commentary notes that "the Greek adjective, according to the most approved reading, is πλεῖστος, pleistos, the superlative of πολὺς, polus, and should be rendered 'a very great' multitude.

"[2] From there the text suggests that "he spoke many things in parables"; from the many, Heinrich Meyer argues that Mark presents "a selection".

It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."

Early Christians used this passage from Isaiah "...to explain the lack of a positive response to Jesus and his followers from their fellow Jews" (Miller 21).

(29) This is partially replicated in Thomas 21 The mustard seed, says Jesus, is like the kingdom of God because it starts out as the smallest seed and yet "...becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

Mark probably intends to demonstrate the greatness of Jesus' authority (ἐξουσíα, exousia).

[12] Dr. R. A. Cole, author of the commentary on Mark in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series, writes: The story of the calming of the sea[13] and the miracles which follow demonstrate Jesus' authority over nature.

At the climax of these miracle accounts, Jesus does not merely heal the sick, but he raises the dead girl, all of which sets the reader up for a greater contrast when Jesus is rejected in his home town of Nazareth (6:1-6) in Mark 6 (see France for an extended discussion).