What Does Mark 13:35 Mean?
Stay awake therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house comes, in the evening, or at midnight, or at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning.
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
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:THE KEY
Because the arrival can break into any watch of the night, vigilance here is an unbroken state of wakefulness, not a prediction.
THE MEANING
The master may come at evening, midnight, cockcrow, or morning; the uncertainty spans the night and reaches dawn. Your readiness lives in that interval as wakefulness that cannot be reduced to a predicted hour.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that you can know enough to schedule your alertness for the moment you expect.
THE ROOT
γρηγορεῖτε
grēgoreite
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω (egeirō), through the related form ἐγρήγορα (egrēgora)
To wake, rouse, or raise.
“Stay awake” in this verse is grēgoreite. The word translated “watch” carries the sense of being awake: the verse centers on a state of wakefulness through uncertainty. Its Greek word is historically connected to ἐγείρω, which can mean both waking and raising, so watchfulness here is active presence rather than a way to calculate the hour.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: Wake, rouse, or raise.
ἐγείρω
This related verb makes the root image behind “watch” vivid: remaining awake rather than letting attention fall asleep.
grēgoreō: Stay awake, keep watch; the verb behind γρηγορεῖτε.
γρηγορέω
The same verb appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, where watchfulness is set against sleep.
THE PATTERN
When the night’s end or an arrival cannot be timed, watchfulness spans the whole interval rather than waiting for a predicted hour.
My living soul stretches toward the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.Keep your eyes open, stay awake, and pray, for you do not know when the season is.Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay awake and be sober.THE THREAD
Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay awake and be sober.Mark’s γρηγορεῖτε and Thessalonians’ γρηγορῶμεν are forms of the same Greek verb, γρηγορέω: to stay awake, to keep watch. Mark stretches that wakefulness across every possible hour; Thessalonians places it directly against sleep.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us