What Does Mark 5:40 Mean in the King James?

And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.

Mark 5:40 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Before the girl rises, Jesus removes the crowd whose laughter treats its reading of her body as final.

THE MEANING

When people around you decide what your condition means, their scorn can fill the room without owning the outcome. Jesus sends the crowd out, keeps the parents and his companions with him, and enters where the girl lies; her visible state is real, but it is not the only thing unfolding.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie is that what looks dead has already reached its only possible meaning.

THE ROOT

ἐκβαλών

ekbalōn

GROWS FROM

βάλλω

ballō

To throw or cast; in ⁨ἐκβάλλω⁩ (ekballō), to cast out.

“put them all out” in this verse is ekbalōn. The verb carries the force of casting out: ⁨ἐκβάλλω⁩ (ekballō) combines ⁨ἐκ⁩ (ek, out) with ⁨βάλλω⁩ (ballō, throw). Mark uses this same verb for casting out demons in Mark 1:34; here the crowd is the object sent out, and the room’s boundary changes before Jesus enters.

ALSO GROWS

emballō: To throw or put into.

ἐμβάλλω

This compound uses the same throwing root for movement into a space; here that movement turns outward.

apoballō: To cast away or throw off.

ἀποβάλλω

The same root also names forceful removal, deepening the sense of the crowd being sent out.

κατεγέλων

kategelōn

GROWS FROM

γελάω

gelaō

To laugh.

“laughed him to scorn” in this verse is kategelōn. The verb is ⁨καταγελάω⁩ (katagelaō, mock or laugh at), so the laughter has a target: Jesus himself. The word family holds ordinary laughter and directed scorn together, making the crowd’s reaction a verdict on his words, not a neutral sound.

ALSO GROWS

gelaō: To laugh.

γελάω

This is the basic laughter in the word family; the verse’s form makes that laughter scornful and directed at Jesus.

gelōs: Laughter.

γέλως

The noun shares the same word family, showing how the root can name laughter broadly while this verse gives it a particular target.

THE PATTERN

A visible condition of death does not exhaust the life that can still unfold.

Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

2 Kings 4:35 · KJVThe child opens his eyes after the scene has been treated as death, showing that the visible condition does not exhaust what unfolds.

Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

Genesis 18:14 · KJVSarah’s age makes the promised birth seem impossible, but impossibility does not set the final boundary.

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

John 11:43 · KJVJesus addresses a man already in the tomb with a command to come out, refusing death’s apparent finality.

THE THREAD

And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.

Mark 1:34 · KJV

Mark uses ⁨ἐκβάλλω⁩ (ekballō, cast out) for casting out unclean spirits there and for putting the crowd out here. The objects differ, but the same verb draws a boundary around what leaves the space where healing is taking place.

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