What Does Mark 3:1 Mean?
And he entered again into the gathering place, and a man was there whose hand had dried up.
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 entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.THE KEY
The hand is withered, but the man is still there: the verse keeps a person’s presence larger than the condition of one part.
THE MEANING
A visible limitation does not erase a person’s presence: someone can be within the gathering while a capacity is dried up. The verse holds both truths together, the man is there, and his hand is withered.
THE ROOT
ἐξηραμμένην
exērammenēn
GROWS FROM
ξηρ-
xēr-
dry; the related verb means to dry up or wither
The Greek form ἐξηραμμένην (exērammenēn, dried up or withered) carries the concrete image of dryness. The hand’s condition is named plainly, while the verse identifies the person as a man present in the gathering.
ALSO GROWS
xēros: dry, withered
ξηρός
This related word keeps the image rooted in dryness, adding texture to the hand’s condition.
xērainō: to dry up, wither
ξηραίνω
This verb is the word family behind the hand’s description and gives it the image of something dried up.
συναγωγή
synagōgē
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
to bring, lead
“gathering place” in this verse is synagōgē. The place-name carries the language of gathering: people are brought together. The man with the withered hand is inside that gathering, not outside it.
ALSO GROWS
synagō: to gather together
συνάγω
This verb makes the gathering within the setting’s name visible.
synagōgē: gathering, synagogue
συναγωγή
The location itself is named for gathering, placing the man within a community assembled together.
THE PATTERN
Bodily limitation remains visible within the life of gathering and welcome.
Look, I will bring them from the north land, and I will gather them from the flanks of the earth. With them, the blind and the limping, the pregnant and the one in labor, together. A great assembly will turn back here.But when you make a feast, call the emptied, the maimed, the lame, the blind.THE THREAD
In these lay a great crowd of those without strength, the blind, the lame, and the withered, waiting for the stirring of the waters.John’s “withered” (ξηρῶν, xērōn: dry or withered) belongs to the same ξηρ- (xēr-: dry) word family as the description of the hand here. The shared root keeps the image bodily and concrete: a capacity is described as dried up while the person remains in view.
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