What Does Mark 3:15 Mean?
And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to throw out the demons.
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 to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:THE KEY
The verse’s authority works through two movements at once: tending what is sick and driving out what oppresses.
THE MEANING
“And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils” defines authority by what it does: it attends to sickness and expels oppressive forces. The verse presents authority as an active capacity for restoration and release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sickness and oppressive forces are beyond reach: here, authority meets both directly.
THE ROOT
ἐξουσία
exousia
GROWS FROM
ἔξεστιν
exesti
To be permitted or possible; ἐξουσία means authority, right, or authorized capacity.
The word for power carries the sense of a rightful capacity, associated with ἔξεστιν (exesti, it is permitted or possible). The actions that follow show what this authority is for: attending to sickness and expelling what oppresses.
ALSO GROWS
exeinai: To be permitted or possible.
ἐξεῖναι
It brings out the permission or authorization within the idea of power.
exousiazō: To exercise authority.
ἐξουσιάζω
It shows ἐξουσία as a capacity put into action.
θεραπεύειν
therapeuein
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
therapeu-
To attend, serve, or treat; the verb also means to heal.
“heal” in this verse is therapeuein. The Greek word holds attending and healing together, so healing is not detached from care for the one who is sick. This root gives the authority in the verse a restorative action.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: Care, service, treatment, or healing.
θεραπεία
Its range keeps the work of healing connected to attending and treatment.
therapeutēs: Attendant or healer.
θεραπευτής
It names the one who provides care, echoing the attentive force of the verb.
ἐκβάλλειν
ekballein
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast; with ἐκ (ek, out), ἐκβάλλω means to drive or cast out.
“throw out” in this verse is ekballein. The prefix ἐκ (ek, out) makes the direction explicit: what oppresses is driven out. The object is δαιμόνια (daimonia, demons or unclean spirits), a different Greek word from διάβολος (diabolos, the Slanderer).
ALSO GROWS
emballō: To put or throw into.
ἐμβάλλω
It shows the same root describing movement in the opposite direction: putting something in.
apoballō: To throw away or cast off.
ἀποβάλλω
It echoes the removal carried by “cast out” in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Authority takes form as care for what is afflicted and release from what oppresses.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.THE THREAD
And he called the twelve to himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over the unclean breaths.Mark 6:7 uses the same Greek word ἐξουσία (exousia, authority) as this verse. It makes the authority’s reach explicit over unclean spirits, while Mark 3:15 pairs that expulsion with healing sickness.
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