What Does Mark 10:50 Mean?
He threw off his cloak, stood up, and came to Jesus.
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 he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.THE KEY
Before his sight returns, Bartimaeus rises, and the Greek word for his rising belongs to the same word-family as resurrection.
THE MEANING
Bartimaeus releases his garment, rises, and comes to Jesus while his need remains. His rising shares a Greek word-family with resurrection, so this ordinary act of standing carries the language of life rising again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that healing must come before movement toward Jesus: Bartimaeus comes while he is still blind.
THE ROOT
ἀναστάς
anastas
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
stand, set in place
“stood up” in this verse is anastas. The verb for Bartimaeus rising belongs to the same word-family as ἀνάστασις (anastasis, resurrection). English presents this as a simple change of posture, while the Greek carries a word-family that also names rising from death.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: rise, stand up
ἀνίστημι
This is the verb behind Bartimaeus’s rising and shows the action as standing up into movement.
anastasis: resurrection, rising again
ἀνάστασις
This noun from the same word-family lets Bartimaeus’s small rising echo the larger language of resurrection.
ἀποβαλών
apobalōn
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
throw, cast
“threw off his cloak” in this verse is apobalōn. The word combines ἀπό (apo, away) with βάλλω (ballō, throw): Bartimaeus throws his garment away before he rises and comes. The sequence makes release part of his movement toward Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
apoballō: throw away, cast off
ἀποβάλλω
This is the verb whose participle describes Bartimaeus throwing off his garment.
ekballō: cast out, drive out
ἐκβάλλω
This related compound keeps the image of something being thrown from its place, clarifying the force of the action.
THE PATTERN
A new direction opens as what is held is laid aside and the body moves forward.
And the LORD said to Abram, Go away from your land, from your land of birth, and from your father's house, to the land I will let you see.And straightway they let go of their nets, and followed him.Therefore, since we also have so great a cloud of witnesses lying around us, setting down every weight and falling short that so easily wraps around us, let us run the race lying before us, remaining under it.THE THREAD
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be tested and cast off by the elders, and by the chief priests, and by the writers, and be killed, and after three days stand up again.The phrase “rise again” uses the same Greek word-family as Bartimaeus’s “rose”: ἀνίστημι (anistēmi, rise or stand up). The word that describes Bartimaeus getting to his feet also carries the language of rising after death.
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