1Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him,so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
This extended section of teaching Jesus introduces us to parables. The discourse is bracketed by the phrase many parables (Mark 4:2, Mark 4:33) and we are probably meant to understand that this was Jesus’ normal way of teaching people (Mark 4:11).
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.