What Does Mark 16:18 Mean?
They lift up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it does not harm them; they lay their hands upon the sick, and they are well.
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
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.THE KEY
The Greek names illness as a lack of strength and recovery as being well, making healing a passage between bodily states.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of deadly danger failing to harm and of hands laid on the sick as they return to wellness. Weakness is real, but it is not the body’s final description.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that weakness is the body’s essential or final state; here, the sick move toward wellness.
THE ROOT
ἀρρώστους
arrōstous
GROWS FROM
ῥώννυμι
rhōnnymi
Strengthen; be strong.
The Greek word for the sick is formed with a prefix meaning “without” attached to the strength-family: it pictures a person as without strength. A related word can mean being strong or well, so sickness and wellness appear as distinct bodily conditions rather than fixed identities.
ALSO GROWS
errōmai: Be strong; be well.
ἔρρωμαι
This branch names the strength and wellness absent in the description of the sick.
arrōstia: Weakness; sickness.
ἀρρωστία
This noun shares the same strength-family and makes explicit the weakness carried by the verse’s word for the sick.
ἐπιθήσουσιν
epithēsousin
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
Place; set; put.
“lay their hands upon” in this verse is epithēsousin. The verb translated “lay” combines the sense of “upon” with the verb “place.” The verse describes hands being physically placed upon the sick, making touch part of the healing scene.
ALSO GROWS
epithesis: Laying on; placement.
ἐπίθεσις
This noun uses the same “place upon” formation and makes the action of laying hands especially visible.
thesis: A placing; position.
θέσις
This branch carries the basic sense of setting something in place that underlies the verse’s verb.
καλῶς ἕξουσιν
kalōs hexousin
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
echō
Have; hold; possess.
“are well” in this verse is kalōs hexousin. The Greek phrase means “they will be well” and uses the verb “have” with an adverb meaning “well.” Recovery is expressed as a condition the body comes to have: wellness.
ALSO GROWS
katechō: Hold fast; possess.
κατέχω
This compound carries the same “hold or have” verb found in the phrase describing recovery.
metechō: Partake; share.
μετέχω
This compound shows the verb’s sense of having or sharing in something, which illuminates wellness as a state the body comes to possess.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance becomes visible when a body survives lethal danger or moves from sickness toward restored well-being.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm.THE THREAD
And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay down, gripped by fever and a bloody flux, and Paul went in to him, prayed, laid his hands on him, and healed him.Mark’s “lay” and Acts’ “laid” use forms of ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi, “place upon”). Both verses name hands placed on a sick body before describing healing, making the physical contact part of the shared picture.
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