What Does Mark 9:17 Mean in the King James?
And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
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 father carries his son’s silence into Jesus’ presence: even what cannot speak is brought and named.
THE MEANING
A need that cannot speak for itself is still carried into Jesus’ presence and named. The father’s voice bears the plea where his son’s voice is absent, so silence does not erase the need.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a need must find its own words before it can be heard: the father brings his son and speaks for him.
THE ROOT
ἄλαλον
alalon
GROWS FROM
λαλ-
Speak, utter
“dumb” in this verse is alalon. The word means speechless: it describes the absence of utterance. Its root keeps the silence connected to speech itself, making the child’s condition something the father can name aloud.
ALSO GROWS
laleō: To speak, utter
λαλέω
This verb shares the speech-root that ἄλαλον negates.
laliá: Speech, utterance
λαλιά
This noun names what is absent in the child’s muteness.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ- (from πνέω)
Blow, breathe
The word translated “spirit” also names breath, keeping the phrase close to embodied life. Beside “speechless,” it holds together the child’s silenced speech and the breath-language carried by πνεῦμα.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To blow, breathe
πνέω
This verb shares the root beneath the word for spirit and breath.
pnoē: Breath, blast of wind
πνοή
This related word makes audible the breath meaning carried by πνεῦμα.
THE PATTERN
Speechlessness is made visible in scripture: it can be named, carried, and addressed.
And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.THE THREAD
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.The Greek word translated “dumb” is ἄλαλος (alalos) in both verses. Here Jesus addresses what the father names, and the child’s speechlessness is treated as something that can be directly addressed and expelled.
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