What Does Mark 5:39 Mean in the King James?
And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
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 names the girl as asleep while the room is full of grief, making waking the hidden next movement of the scene.
THE MEANING
For the reader now, grief is real, but it does not define the limit of what Jesus can do. He calls the girl asleep, and the next movement is waking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what appears final lies beyond Jesus’ power to change.
THE ROOT
καθεύδει
katheudei
GROWS FROM
εὕδω
heudō
Sleep; be asleep.
“sleepeth” in this verse is katheudei. This is the ordinary word for sleep, distinct from the verse’s word for dying: Jesus places sleep against the room’s grief and sense of finality. Elsewhere the same verb can describe bodily sleep or unwatchfulness; here it leaves waking as the action Jesus is about to perform.
ALSO GROWS
katheudō: Sleep; be asleep.
καθεύδω
This is the verb’s dictionary form; the form in the verse describes the girl as sleeping.
katheudontas: Sleeping; being asleep.
καθεύδοντας
In Mark 13:36, this form describes someone found sleeping, showing that the same verb can also picture unwatchfulness.
θορυβεῖσθε
thorybeisthe
GROWS FROM
θόρυβ-
thoryb-
Tumult; uproar; noisy disturbance.
The word translated “ado” belongs to a family centered on tumult, so Jesus addresses the uproar filling the room, not only private sadness. The verse holds that noise and the tears beside it while refusing to let them determine his naming of the girl.
ALSO GROWS
thorybos: Tumult; uproar.
θόρυβος
The noun names the commotion carried by the verb translated “make ado.”
thorybeō: Make a tumult; disturb.
θορυβέω
This is the verb behind the plural form addressed to the mourners.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses sleep as an image of death held open to awakening.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.THE THREAD
And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.Jesus’ next words turn “sleepeth” from a naming into an action: he takes her hand and tells her to arise. The scene shows what waking means here without erasing the grief in the room.
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