What Does Mark 11:11 Mean?
And Jesus entered Jerusalem and the temple, and when he had looked around at everything, and the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
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 entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.THE KEY
The pause after Jesus sees everything is part of the encounter: he takes it all in, then leaves.
THE MEANING
Your whole situation is held within a gaze that skips nothing. The verse leaves space between seeing and acting: the look is complete, and Jesus leaves as evening comes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a real encounter must produce an immediate visible change: here the gaze is complete, and Jesus still leaves as evening comes.
THE ROOT
περιβλεψάμενος
periblepsámenos
GROWS FROM
βλεπ
βλεπ (blép): see, look
“looked around” in this verse is periblepsámenos. περιβλέπω (periblépō, look around) is built on βλέπω (blépō, see) with περί (perí, around). The verb carries an encompassing gaze, and “upon all things” names the breadth of what it takes in.
ALSO GROWS
periblépō: look around, survey
περιβλέπω
This is the verse’s verb in its dictionary form; its περί (perí, around) prefix gives the seeing its encompassing movement.
anablépō: look up; regain sight
ἀναβλέπω
It shares the βλέπ (blép, see) root and shows that this family of words can describe not only looking, but sight returning.
THE PATTERN
A whole seeing can precede action, while the next movement need not be immediate.
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.And when he had looked around at them with swelling anger, pained together over the stoniness of their hearts, he said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was set back in place, whole as the other.THE THREAD
And when he had looked around at them with swelling anger, pained together over the stoniness of their hearts, he said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was set back in place, whole as the other.Mark uses the same verb, περιβλέπω (periblépō, look around), for Jesus’ gaze in both scenes. In this verse he surveys the temple and leaves; in Mark 3:5 that surrounding gaze precedes the man’s restored hand.
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