What Does Mark 5:24 Mean in the King James?

And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.

Mark 5:24 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The crowd does not merely surround Jesus; it presses him, while he moves with one person.

THE MEANING

You can be accompanied personally while surrounded by collective pressure. Jesus moves with one person as the crowd follows and presses him; the crowd’s nearness and his company are different kinds of closeness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that pressure from the many makes an individual disappear: the crowd closes around Jesus, and he still goes with one person.

THE ROOT

συνέθλιβον

synethlibon

GROWS FROM

θλιβ-

thlib-

to press, squeeze, or make tight

“thronged” in this verse is synethlibon. The crowd’s action is physical pressure, not simply presence around Jesus. This same Greek word family names affliction, letting the scene’s bodily compression echo into the pressure a person can carry.

ALSO GROWS

synthlibō: to press together, crowd, or crush

συνθλίβω

This is the compound verb used here: ⁨συν-⁩ (syn-, “together”) joins the root’s pressing, making the crowd’s closeness bodily compression.

thlipsis: pressure, affliction, or distress

θλῖψις

This noun belongs to the same recognized word family, with a ⁨β⁩/⁨ψ⁩ stem alternation; the root’s physical squeezing also names lived pressure.

ἠκολούθει

ēkolouthei

GROWS FROM

ἀκολουθ-

akolouth-

to follow or accompany along a path

“followed” in this verse is ēkolouthei. The verb presents the crowd’s following as ongoing while Jesus goes with Jairus. The verse distinguishes movement behind Jesus from the direct company he gives to one person.

ALSO GROWS

akolouthos: a follower or companion

ἀκόλουθος

This noun shares the same consonantal stem and makes the follower a person in relation to the one being followed.

akoloutheō: to follow or accompany

ἀκολουθέω

This is the verb’s lexical form; its shared stem links the crowd’s continuing pursuit to the broader idea of following a path with someone.

THE PATTERN

Pressure can be real without having the final word over movement toward life and spaciousness.

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

Psalm 118:5 · KJVThe speaker moves from distress into a large place, showing constriction opening into spaciousness.

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Matthew 7:14 · KJVThe Greek word ⁨τεθλιμμένη⁩ (tethlimmenē, “pressed or narrowed”) shares the pressure root, yet the way it describes leads to life.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

2 Corinthians 4:8 · KJVThe verse holds pressure on every side alongside a continuing way through it.

THE THREAD

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Matthew 7:14 · KJV

The Greek ⁨τεθλιμμένη⁩ (tethlimmenē, “pressed or narrowed”) comes from ⁨θλίβω⁩ (thlibō, “to press”), the root inside “thronged” here. In Mark, the root presses a body in a crowd; in Matthew, that same pressure describes a way that leads to life.

This reading is from Selah Verse.

You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.

Get Selah Verse

A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us