<p>8:21 <i>But he answered and said to them: My mother and my relatives are these that hear the word of God and do it</i>- This refers back to His recent parable of the good seed that &ldquo;did&rdquo; the word which they heard (8:15). But surely that group of fascinated, surface-interested onlookers didn&rsquo;t all come into the good seed category, who held the word to the end, all their lives? He was so positive about others&rsquo; faith. It has been observed that &ldquo;in a kinship-oriented society like Israel, it must have been startling for people to hear of a bond that was even deeper than that of the natural family&rdquo;. And so it is in many parts of the world today.</p><p>The parallel records speak of hearing and doing the will of God; Luke has &quot;the word of God&quot;. We can too easily assume that every reference to &quot;the word of God&quot; is to the book known as the Bible. The Bible is indeed &quot;the word of God&quot;, but the idea is used in other ways within Biblical language; and here it seems to mean the will or intention of God.</p>