“What then comes of this seed? Three parts perish, and one is saved. "And when He sowed, some seeds fell," He saith, "by the way side; and the fowls came and devoured them up." He said not, that He cast them, but that "they fell." A fourth part is saved; and not this all alike, but even here great is the difference. No…”
John Chrysostom, 5th c. — Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 44
Original
4And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
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In context
2And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
3And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
— Matthew 13:4 —
5Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
6And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.