What Does Mark 1:25 Mean?
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be muzzled, and come out of him."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.THE KEY
“Hold thy peace” is literally “Be muzzled”: the occupying voice is silenced before it is ordered out.
THE MEANING
This verse names a boundary between the person and the unclean presence speaking through him: the presence is silenced and sent out. Jesus’ name carries deliverance, and here deliverance means release from an occupying force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that an unclean voice has the right to define or occupy a person is undone: Jesus commands the voice, and the person remains distinct from it.
THE ROOT
Φιμώθητι
Phimōthēti
GROWS FROM
φιμ-
phim-
Muzzle; restrain by placing a muzzle over the mouth.
“Be muzzled” in this verse is Phimōthēti. The command carries the concrete image of being muzzled. The same Greek verb is used for muzzling an ox, so the verse’s command to silence the voice is forceful and direct.
ALSO GROWS
phimóō: To muzzle; silence by restraint.
φιμόω
This is the verb behind the command, showing the concrete action inside “Hold thy peace.”
phimōseis: You shall muzzle.
φιμώσεις
The same verb appears in “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox” (1 Corinthians 9:9), preserving the image of a mouth forcibly stopped.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēshūaʿ Iēsous
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-š-ʿ
Deliver; bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
“Jesus” in this verse is Yēshūaʿ Iēsous. The name carries deliverance within it. Here that nature is visible in the sequence: the force is silenced, then sent out of the person.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuʿah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
The word names the release enacted when the unclean presence is driven out.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings a person out of what holds them.
πνεῦμα
Pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-/πνε- (pneu-/pne-)
Breathe, blow, move as air.
The Greek word rendered “spirit” can also mean breath and wind, holding together meanings that English often separates. Here it names the unclean presence Jesus silences and orders out.
ALSO GROWS
pnéō: To breathe or blow.
πνέω
This verb keeps the sense of air moving inside the word translated “spirit.”
pnoē: Breath or blast of air.
πνοή
This related word makes the breath meaning of pneuma audible.
THE PATTERN
A commanding voice sets a limit on chaotic power, and the force that overwhelms must yield.
And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.And said, This far shall you come, but no further, and here shall your swelling waves be held?He makes the storm stand in stillness, and its waves are hushed.THE THREAD
And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.“Be still” in this verse uses the same Greek root as “Hold thy peace” in Mark 1:25: both commands carry the image of muzzling. One silences the unclean presence in a person; the other silences the wind.
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