Mark 4:10 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And when he was alone,— Many writers of harmonies, thinking this inconsistent with the acknowledged circumstances of the history, havesupposed, that the interpretation of the parable was not given now, but on some other occasion, though, for the sake of perspicuity, it is related together with the parable; yet the nature of the thing, as well as the testimony of St. Matthew, Matthew 13:10 prove sufficiently, that the question which occasioned this interpretation was put immediately after the parable was delivered; for the question took its rise from the concluding words of the parable, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; which were no sooner pronounced, than the disciples came from their several stations in the vessel, and asked the reason why he spake in parables, since he desired his hearers to understand what he said? To remove this difficulty, therefore, we may suppose, that in addressing Jesus the disciples spake with such a tone of voice as they used in conversation, and that Jesus answered in the same key; so that the people on the shore not hearing distinctly what passed, Jesus and his disciples were to all intents and purposes alone; or after finishing the parable he might, as on former occasions of this kind, (see Luke 5:1-3.) order his disciples, to thrust out a little further from the land, that the people might have time to consider what they had heard; and the disciples, embracing this opportunity, might speak to him in private concerning the manner of his preaching. Either of these suppositions seems fully to come up to the import of St. Mark's phrase; which, however, some would render, and when he was in private, they that were about him, or his disciples, with the twelve, &c. See Luke 9:18.