Questions And Parables

Et cum esset singularis, interrogaverunt eum hi qui cum eo erant duodecim, parabolam. Et dicebat eis: Vobis datum est nosse mysterium regni Dei: illis autem qui foris sunt, in parabolis omnia fiunt: Ut videntes videant et non videant, et audientes audiant et non intelligant, ne quando convertantur, et dimittantur eis peccata. Et cum esset singularis, a turbis sequestratus, interrogaverunt eum plus ei familiares, hi qui cum eo erant, caeteris familiarius, duodecim, Apostoli, de quibus dicitur: Vobis datum est nosse mysterium regni Dei, caeteris autem in parabolis: ut exponeret parabolam. Hic agitur de parabolae interpretatione. Dividitur autem in tres partes: in quarum prima causam dicit de parabolae propositione: in. secunda, dat increpationem de discipulorum caecitate: in tertia, tangit de parabolae compendiosa interpretatione. De primo dicit: Et dicebat eis, causam dans parabolicae praedicationis. Vobis datum est, per me, multa spiritualia documenta quae feci vobis, nosse, per spiritum, mysterium, hoc est, secretum intellectum, regni Dei, hoc est, praedicationis justitiae divinae: per quam et in coelo et in terra regnat Deus. Illis autem, idiotis, qui foris sunt, extra mysticum intellectum, et doctrinas spirituales non recipiunt quibus ad iidem sunt introducti, in parabolis datum est praedicari divina: quia spiritualia intelligere non possunt, nisi in corporalium rerum similitudinibus. Ego, fratres, non potui vobis loqui quasi spiritualibus, sed quasi carnalibus: tamquam parvulis in Christo, lac vobis potum dedi, non escam, nondum enim poteratis: sed nec nunc quidem potestis. Omnia fiunt, spiritualia, in parabolis: quia et tabernaculum, et templum, et omnia vasa, et festa, et gesta, et sacra legis parabolice proposita sunt, ut spiritualia intelligantur in ipsis. Ut videntes, in figuris parabolarum, coelestia videant involuta. Propter quod etiam velum expansum est ante sancta sanctorum. Et non videant spiritualia nuda et exposita: quia sic ea intelligere non possunt. Et ideo praecipitur, ut Levitae portantes utensilia tabernaculi prius involvant ea, ne a rudi populo videantur: quia talis rudis populus quod non intelligit lacerat dente canino, et non ut sanctum veneratur. Nolite dare sanctum canibus: neque mittatis margaritas vestras ante porcos. Et audientes, in parabolis involuta, audiant,  et sicut magna venerentur: et non intelligant involuta, quia intelligere talia non possunt. Et melius est eis involuta ut magna venerari, quam evoluta despicere. Unde cum evoluta et expressa Hiram videret dona Salomonis magna quidem. et praecipua, tamen non valens capere doni pretiositatem, despexit, dicens: Haeccine sunt civitates quas dedisti mihi, frater? Et appellavit eas Terram Chabul: et ea in quibus fideles habitabant amici Dei, fecit gentilis erroris habitationes: et ad gentilem transtulit ritum ea in quibus ipse fidem Dei discere potuisset, si paulatim parabolarum intellectum per spiritum investigasset. Haec enim oppida sunt symbola in quibus fideles idiotae habitant, sacra involuta venerantes, quae dum incaute idiotis exposita proponuntur, non valentes capere virtutem eorum, haeretici efficiuntur. Nequando convertantur. Hoc de duris intelligitur, qui ex parabolis proficere nolunt: sicut Judaei, carnali sensui adhaerentes. Et dimittantur eis peccata, caecitatis. Et adducitur auctoritas de prophetia Isaiae: Excaeca cor populi hujus , et aures ejus aggrava, et oculos ejus claude: ne forte videat oculis suis, et auribus suis audiat, et corde suo intelligat, et convertatur, et sanem eum. Et ait illis: Nescitis parabolam hanc? et quomodo omnes parabolas cognoscetis? Secundum est, in quo increpat ruditatem cordis eorum. Nescitis parabolam hanc? Ac si dicat: Hoc est mirum post tot documenta suscepta, post tot miracula visa, post tot testimonia adhibita. Adhuc et vos sine intellectu estis? Cum deberetis magistri esse propter tempus, rursus indigetis ut vos doceamini quae sint elementa exordii sermonum Dei: et facti estis quibus lacte opus sit, et non solido cibo. Ei quomodo omnes parabolas cognoscetis? cum istam quae facilior est inter alias, et seipsam offert ad interpretationem, non intelligitis. Vos enim magistri esse debetis aliorum: et ideo capaciori sensu, perfectiora intelligere deberetis. Tu es magister in Israel, et haec ignoras? Sanctus Albertus Magnus Commentarium In Evangelium Divi Marci, Caput IV Source: Here p42

And when He was alone, the twelve who were with Him questioned Him about the parable. And He said to them: 'To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything is in parables, so that seeing they may see and not see, and hearing they may hear and not hear, lest they be converted and their sins are forgiven them. 1 'And when He was alone,' withdrawn from the crowd, 'they questioned him,' those more familiar with Him, 'those who were with him,' more familiar than others, 'the twelve' the Apostles, concerning whom it is then said 'To you is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, but for the others it is in parables,' so that He might explain 'the parable' Here the intrepretation of the parable is performed. It is divided into three parts, the first of which concerns the proposition of the parable, in the second the blindness of the disciples is reproved, in the third he touches on the profit of understanding the parable. Concerning the first it is said, 'And He said to them,' giving the reason for the telling of the parable. 'It is given to you,' through me, the many spiritual teaching which I have made for you, 'to know,' through the spirit, 'the mystery' that is, the hidden understanding, 'of the kingdom of God,' that is, of the preaching of Divine righteousness, through which God reigns in heaven and on earth. 'For to those,' the foolish, 'who are outside,' outside the spiritual understanding, and they do not receive the spiritual teaching by which they are introduced to the same, 'in parables,' is the preaching of Divine things because they are not able to understand spiritual things, unless they are given under the likeness of material things. 'I, brothers, have not spoken to you as spiritual men, but as men of flesh, as children in Christ, I have given the drink of milk to you, not solid food, because you were not yet capable, and you are still not yet capable.' 2 'Everything,' spiritual things, 'is in parables' since the tabernacle and the temple and every vessel and feast and deed and sacred law was proposed as a parable, that they understand the spiritual things in them. 'That seeing,' in the figures of the parables, heavenly things, 'they see' obscurely. On account of which the veil was spread before the holy of holies. 'And they do not see,' spiritual things openly and plainly, because they are not able to understand these things. Therefore it is commanded that the Levites who bear the vessels to the tarbernacle should cover them lest they be seen by an ignorant people, 3 for what an ignorant people do not understand they will tear with the fangs of the dog, not venerating it as something holy. 'Do not give holy things to dogs, do not cast your pearls before swine.' 4 'And hearing,' those things hidden in parables, 'they hear,' even as revering great things, 'and they do not understand,' the hidden things, because they are not able to understand such things. And better it is for them to venerate great things as hidden, than to despise things revealed. Whence when Hiram looked on the revealed and openly great gifts of Solomon, and especially as he was not able to grasp the value of them, he scorned them, saying, 'Are these the cities you are giving me, brother? And he called that land Chabul.' 5 And these in which the faithful friends of God dwell, he made into the dwellings of the gentile error, and he brought in the gentile rite, even there where he was able to learn the faith of God, if little by little he had investigated the understanding of parables through the spirit. For these towns are symbols in which the foolish faithful dwell, venerating sacred things in obscurity, which when they are incautiously explained to the simple, they cannot grasp the power of them and they become heretics. 'Lest they be converted.' This is understood as referring to their hardness, of those who do not wish to profit from the parables, as the Jews, who clung to the carnal senses. 'And their sins be forgiven them,' of blindness. And the authority is derived from the prophet Isaiah: 'This people is blind of heart, and its ears are heavy, and its eyes closed, lest perhaps they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and they turn and I heal them.' 6 'And He said to them, do you not understand this parable? How shall you understand all the parables?' In the second part He reproves the coarseness of their hearts. 'You do not understand this parable?' As if he said: 'This is indeed a wonder, after all the teaching you have received, after all the miracles you have seen, after all the testimony you have been given. 'Are you yet without understanding?' 'You who according to your age should be teachers are again so lacking that you must be taught the elements of the opening of the speech of God. You have become so that milk is needful instead of solid food.' 7 'How shall you understand all the parables?' When this one is easier than the others and offers itself to understanding, yet you do not understand. For you should be teachers of others and therefore have a more capable mind for the understanding of better things. 'You are a teacher of Israel and you do not know these things?' 8 Saint Albert The Great, Commentary On The Gospel of St Mark, Chapter 4 1 Mk 4.10-12 2 1 Cor 3.1-2 3 Numb 4.12 4 Mt 7.6 5 3 Kings 9.10-14 6 Isaiah 6.10 7 Mt 15.16, Heb 5.12 8 Jn 3.10