What Does Mark 10:49 Mean?
Jesus stood still and said to call him. They called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up, he is calling you.
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 stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.THE KEY
The crowd’s voice becomes the path by which Jesus’ summons reaches the man.
THE MEANING
Jesus stops, and his call reaches the blind man through other people’s voices. “Be of good comfort, rise” meets him where he is, with courage and movement arriving together. The name Jesus carries the sense of deliverance moving from constriction toward spaciousness; here, the summons opens that movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a call is absent when it comes through another person’s voice: the crowd’s words carry Jesus’ summons to the man.
THE ROOT
φωνεῖ
phōneî
GROWS FROM
φων-
Voice, sound; to call aloud.
“calleth” in this verse is phōneî. The Greek repeats this root as Jesus directs them to call, the crowd calls, and the verse says Jesus calls the man. Its connection to the noun for “voice” makes the summons a voiced address that travels through other people.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: Voice, sound.
φωνή
This noun shares the φων- root and names the sound carried by the call.
prosphōneō: Address or call to someone.
προσφωνέω
This compound retains φων- and shows the root in an address directed toward another person.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēshūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver; bring out from constriction into spaciousness.
The name Jesus preserves the Hebrew name Yeshua, from the י-ש-ע family. Here, the name’s sense of deliverance meets a scene where Jesus stops and sends a call toward the man.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: Deliver, bring out.
יָשַׁע
This verb shares the root and gives the name its sense of deliverance.
yeshuʿāh: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun shares the same root and names the movement the name carries.
ἔγειρε
égeire
GROWS FROM
ἐγερ-
Wake, raise, get up.
“get up” in this verse is égeire. The command to rise belongs to a Greek verb family that also speaks of waking and raising. The word therefore carries awakening alongside the bodily movement from one posture to another.
ALSO GROWS
égersis: Raising, resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This noun shares the ἐγερ- family and names an act of rising.
egertheís: Having been raised or awakened.
ἐγερθείς
This participle shares the same verb family and carries its sense of being raised.
THE PATTERN
A voiced summons crosses distance and opens into response or movement.
And the LORD called Samuel, and he answered, Here I am.To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.And when he had said these things, he cried out with a great voice, Lazarus, come out!THE THREAD
To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.Mark repeats the Greek φων- root as Jesus directs a call, the crowd voices it, and Jesus is said to call the man. John 10:3 uses that same family for both “voice” and “calleth,” then joins the call to leading out.
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