What Does Mark 14:9 Mean?
Truly, I say to you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be spoken of for a remembrance of her.
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
Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.THE KEY
The gospel carries this woman’s act inside its own announcement, so her remembrance travels wherever the good news goes.
THE MEANING
Wherever the good message is announced, this woman’s act is spoken alongside it. She remains unnamed, yet what she does is carried into the present telling of the message.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that only a named person can be remembered: she remains unnamed, yet her act is joined to the message wherever it is proclaimed.
THE ROOT
μνημόσυνον
mnēmosynon
GROWS FROM
μνημ-
mnēm-
Memory; remembrance.
The Greek word means a memorial or remembrance and belongs to the word family of remembering. Here the woman’s act is not kept apart from the message: it is remembered wherever that message is announced.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory; remembrance.
μνήμη
This shares the memory word family and reveals the root beneath “memorial.”
mimnēskomai: To remember; to recall.
μιμνῄσκομαι
This verb makes the remembering in “memorial” active: her deed is recalled as the message is spoken.
εὐαγγέλιον
euangelion
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
Message; announcement.
The Greek word names good news as an announcement. This verse says the woman’s deed is spoken with that announcement, so her remembrance travels wherever the message travels.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: Messenger.
ἄγγελος
The message is something carried and announced, not merely held privately.
euangelizomai: To announce good news.
εὐαγγελίζομαι
This related verb shows the action of proclaiming the good message that carries her story.
THE PATTERN
A defining act can be carried into remembrance beyond the moment in which it happens.
And this day will be for you a remembrance. You will keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations, a statute for the ages.For he does not slip for the ages; the aligned one is in remembrance of the ages.For God is not out of alignment to forget your work and the toil of love, which you have shown toward his nature, in that you have served the set-apart ones, and still serve.THE THREAD
And when he stretched his gaze upon him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your acts of compassion have come up as a memorial before God.Acts uses the same Greek word, μνημόσυνον (mnēmosynon, memorial or remembrance), for prayers and acts of giving. Its use here opens Mark’s verse further: the woman’s deed is remembered as a concrete act, carried into the telling of the good message.
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