He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29, NIV
At the risk of repeating myself, I don’t understand how a community with such a commitment to verbal inspiration, pays so little attention to the specific meaning of words. It seems to me that each time we are just a little off-beam with the way we render a word, the net result is complete passages of scripture which are in danger of pointing in the wrong direction.
The passage above, from Mark 4, is by no means the most extreme example of this; and yet when we sharpen the language a little, I certainly find the picture far more gripping.
So here is my rendering, deliberately left with its awkward rough edges:
And He said, “The Kingdom of God is like this, like a man should cast the sowing upon the earth, and should he lie down or get up, night and day, the sowing sprouts (or possibly, comes to light) and lengthens – how, he doesn’t know.
Acting of itself, the earth bears fruit, first the fodder (ie the green crop), then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
But when the fruit is set (literally “fastened alongside“), immediately he sends the scythe, because the harvest is standing there right next to him.”
A few notes of interest, in the order they appear.
First, τὸν σπόρον is not seed, it is “the sowing” (i.e. “the store of seed to be sown); which I admit is not common usage in modern English, although we do have “the harvest” (in the sense of “what has been harvested”) for the other end of the cycle. Does this matter? Well, it matters that we understand that the man didn’t go out with half a dozen seeds he found in his pocket and throw them on the ground. This is the major commercial and financial commitment of his farming year; until this moment he could change his mind and use the seed for food, but now he is all in: once cast on the ground, the sowing is his future crop and no longer accessible as a current store of seed. So yes, I think this does matter.
The picture continues : “sprouts and grows” is okay, but really we are meant to see the first green hue as the sowing breaks surface and starts to get longer and more obviously a growing green crop against the brown or grey soil.
The Greek is always specific – “all by itself, the soil” lacks the force of “acting of itself, the earth”. Of course, we do now realise that the soil is an active and indispensable partner in this process, not an inert matrix. And for the farmer, the first stage of growth represents ‘an option’: it is indeed fodder, and could be used as such. But of course he won’t, except in the most dire circumstances. This sowing is not for cattle feed, it is for grain. And that is still two steps away. No point harvesting the ears when they are yet to fill with grain. Farming is waiting.
But when the desired fruit is set – “secured alongside” – the cycle of “sleeping and getting up and not knowing how” ends. The farmer sees the harvest – as concrete and commercially significant as his sowing – standing alongside him.
And he immediately sends, not the sickle (δρέπανη) but the scythe (δρέπανον). If you don’t understand the huge significance of this one, Google “sickle versus scythe” and you should see some videos from India comparing the efficacy of these two technologies. Sickles are definitely for those who threw a few seeds (or who have no other option); scythes are the combine harvester of the ancient world.
And my overarching point would be: when you mean business – as we must in the Kingdom of God – send a scythe. And if you have cast a serious commitment in God’s word onto the soil of your heart and are waiting with expectancy until you arrive at the day where you realise your harvest is fully secured and standing right alongside you: don’t dawdle one moment. Immediately, send the scythe!
[If you have run into the curious fiction that scythes were unknown in Israel, Iron Age scythes, plural, have been recovered from a 332BC site at Nahal Tut as described in American Journal of Archaelogy, vol 100 no 4 Oct 1996 in the summary Archaelogy in Israel by Samuel R Wolff)]
Seeing the Kingdom 