Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Therefore speak I to them in parables - which our Lord, be it observed, did not begin to do until His miracles were malignantly ascribed to Satan.
Because they seeing, see not. They "saw," for the light shone on them as never light shone before; but they "saw not," for they closed their eyes.
And hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand. They "heard," for He taught them who "spake as never man spake;" but they "heard not," for they took nothing in, apprehending not the soul-penetrating, life-giving words addressed to them. In Mark and Luke, what is here expressed as a human fact is represented as the fulfillment of a divine purpose - "that seeing they may see, and not perceive," etc. The explanation of this lies in the statement of the foregoing verse-that, by a fixed law of the divine administration, the duty men voluntarily refuse to do, and in point of fact do not do, they at length become morally incapable of doing.