What Does Mark 5:31 Mean in the King James?
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
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
Jesus distinguishes one touch that reaches him from the crowd pressing around him.
THE MEANING
You can be surrounded and pressed without being reduced to the crowd. Jesus’ question makes one person’s touch distinct within the mass, holding that particular contact apart from the pressure around it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being surrounded or pressed means your particular reach cannot be noticed.
THE ROOT
συνθλίβοντά
synthlibonta
GROWS FROM
θλίβω
thlibō
to press, squeeze, or constrict
“thronging” in this verse is synthlibonta. The word combines συν- (syn-, together) with θλίβω (thlibō, press): the crowd is pressing in together, not simply standing near Jesus. This same root carries the sense of pressure into words for affliction and constriction, opening a connection between this crowd and the language of a pressed or narrow way.
ALSO GROWS
thlipsis: pressure, affliction
θλῖψις
The same root names pressure as distress, showing how the crowd’s physical press also carries the sense of constriction.
tethlimmenē: pressed, constricted; rendered “narrow” in Matthew 7:14
τεθλιμμένη
This form carries the same root into the image of a constricted way, linking the crowd’s press to the language of narrowness.
ἥψατο
hēpsato
GROWS FROM
ἅπτω
haptō
to fasten or attach; in the middle voice, to touch or lay hold
The word translated “touched” belongs to a family that includes fastening and attachment; a related noun names a joint, a bodily point of connection. That shading lets Jesus’ question mark a contact that reaches him, distinct from the pressure of bodies around him.
ALSO GROWS
haptō: fasten, attach, kindle
ἅπτω
The sense of attachment gives the touch a quality of contact and connection amid the crowd’s undirected pressing.
haphē: joint, point of connection
ἁφή
This related word names a bodily connection point, illuminating the specific contact Jesus distinguishes from the crowd around him.
THE PATTERN
A touch can carry a consequence beyond the bodies merely surrounding it.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.THE THREAD
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.The Greek word rendered “narrow” here is τεθλιμμένη (tethlimmenē, pressed or constricted), from the same θλίβω (thlibō, press) root behind “thronging” in Mark. The shared root lets the crowd’s press echo the image of constriction, while Jesus’ question singles out one touch within it.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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