according to Mark - 21

Pericope 25 - a likeness of the rule or reign of God...

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And he was saying that the rule, or reign 

of God is like a man who casts his grain

upon the earth, then sleeps at night again,

then gets up in the day-time much the same,

and all the time the seed it sprouts and grows

though how it does the farmer hardly knows

and by itself the earth brings fruit that shows,

at first the plant, then head, where grain it stows.

And then the farmer, when the fruit is off-

ered of itself, he straightaway then sends 

the sickle in, to take the harvest off,

because it's come, and keeps on 'til it ends.

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26Καὶ ἔλεγεν· οὕτως ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ὡς ἄνθρωπος βάλῃ τὸν σπόρον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς 27καὶ καθεύδῃ καὶ ἐγείρηται νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν, καὶ ὁ σπόρος βλαστᾷ καὶ μηκύνηται ὡς οὐκ οἶδεν αὐτός. 28αὐτομάτη ἡ γῆ καρποφορεῖ, πρῶτον χόρτον εἶτα στάχυν εἶτα πλήρη [ς] σῖτον ἐν τῷ στάχυϊ. 29ὅταν δὲ παραδοῖ ὁ καρπός, εὐθὺς ἀποστέλλει τὸ δρέπανον, ὅτι παρέστηκεν ὁ θερισμός. Mark 4:26-29  NA28

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