What Does Mark 1:40 Mean?
And a leper came to him, pleading with him, falling to his knees before him, and saying, "If you will, you are able to make me clean."
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 there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.THE KEY
The speaker trusts that cleansing is possible, yet wonders whether Jesus is willing to meet his need.
THE MEANING
You can believe that wholeness is possible and still wonder whether it is within reach for you. The speaker names that split plainly: he trusts Jesus can make him clean, but asks whether Jesus is willing. He brings his condition and his desire for cleansing into the open.
THE ROOT
καθαρίσαι
katharisai
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
clean, pure
The Greek word family joins making clean with the state of being clean. Cleansing is a removal that leaves the person clean, not an added quality.
ALSO GROWS
katharizō: to cleanse, make clean
καθαρίζω
This is the verb behind the request: the desired change is cleansing itself.
katharos: clean, pure
καθαρός
This names the state that follows the action in the same word family.
katharismos: cleansing, purification
καθαρισμός
The family names the process as well as the resulting state.
θέλῃς
thelēs
GROWS FROM
θελ-
thel-
to want, wish, or will
“wilt” in this verse is thelēs. The question concerns willingness, not ability: the speaker already says cleansing can happen. The Greek word carries the sense of wanting or desiring, so the uncertainty is whether this cleansing is wanted for him.
ALSO GROWS
thelō: to want, wish, or will
θέλω
The verb names the willingness the speaker is unsure of.
thelēma: will, desire
θέλημα
This related noun shows that the question turns on desire or intention, not power.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, cleansing removes uncleanness and leaves the person clean.
Remove my falling short with hyssop, and I am clean; tread me, and I am whiter than snow.Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.THE THREAD
And Jesus, stirred in his inward parts, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will. Be clean."The next verse answers the uncertainty this request leaves open: willingness meets ability in the words, “I will.” “Be thou clean” uses the same word family for cleansing, turning the request into an enacted removal.
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