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and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Mag'dalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
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and Joan'na, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
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And when a great crowd came together and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable:
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"A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
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And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
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And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
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And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold." As he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
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And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
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he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
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Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
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The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved.