What Does Mark 1:30 Mean?
But Simon's wife's mother lay down, sick with a burning, and straightway they told him about her.
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
But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.THE KEY
The Greek names her fever as fire, while the first movement in the verse is that someone makes her burning known to Jesus.
THE MEANING
Fever has brought her low, and someone speaks of her condition to Jesus. The verse holds her vulnerability and her visibility together: she cannot rise, yet her need is carried into relationship with him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being too weak to speak for yourself does not mean your need cannot be made known.
THE ROOT
πυρέσσουσα
pyressousa
GROWS FROM
πυρ
pyr
Fire; the image of burning.
The Greek πυρέσσουσα (pyressousa) means having a fever and comes from πῦρ (pyr, fire). English names her condition as a fever; the Greek word carries the image of a body burning.
ALSO GROWS
pyr: Fire
πῦρ
This is the seed of the fever word, making its image of burning visible.
pyretos: Fever
πυρετός
This related word names the fever directly, echoing the condition described here.
λέγουσιν
legousin
GROWS FROM
λεγ
leg
Say, speak.
“tell” in this verse is legousin. They do not merely notice her; they speak of her condition to Jesus. This speech root also gives λόγος (logos, word), showing how a need that weighs on her becomes present in words.
ALSO GROWS
legō: Say, speak
λέγω
This is the verb behind “they tell,” the act that brings her condition into the open.
logos: Word, saying, account
λόγος
This related word shows how speech gives a report a form that can be heard.
THE PATTERN
A need becomes visible within relationship when it is brought into the open.
I pour out my murmuring before him; I set forth my narrow place before him.Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, look, the one you love is weak.And when evening came, when the sun had gone down, they brought to him all who were ill, and those held by demons.THE THREAD
Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, look, the one you love is weak.Mark’s “they tell” is λέγουσιν (legousin, they say), from λέγω (legō, say or speak); John uses another form of the same verb when the sisters report that Lazarus is sick. In both verses, someone carries another person’s illness to Jesus in words.
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