What Does Mark 3:27 Mean?
No one can enter the house of a strong man and snatch away his vessels, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he will strip his house.
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
No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.THE KEY
The order is the revelation: the grip must be broken before what it holds can be carried away.
THE MEANING
What seems securely held is not beyond reach: the keeper is bound, and then the house is plundered. The verse keeps the force of that image visible, the release of what is held comes through overcoming the power that holds it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever is strongly guarded can never be reclaimed.
THE ROOT
δέω
deō
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
To bind or tie.
“binds” in this verse is deō. The binding comes first: the house cannot be plundered while its keeper remains free to hold it. The same word family names bonds and the people bound by them, making the verse’s change in control concrete.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: Bond, fetter
δεσμός
A bond is the restraint made by binding; it echoes the verse’s first move against the householder’s control.
desmōtēs: Prisoner, one who is bound
δεσμώτης
This branch names the condition binding creates: a person held in restraint.
ἰσχυρός
ischyros
GROWS FROM
ἰσχυ-
ischy-
Strength, might.
The “strong man” is defined by his capacity to hold the house and its goods. The same strength-family also supplies the word “stronger” in Luke’s parallel, where the contest that changes the house’s control is made explicit.
ALSO GROWS
ischys: Strength, might
ἰσχύς
This noun exposes the force beneath “strong”: the householder’s grip rests on might.
ischyroteros: Stronger
ἰσχυρότερος
Luke uses this comparative from the same family for the one who overcomes the armed householder.
διαρπάζω
diarpazō
GROWS FROM
ἁρπάζω
harpazō
To seize or carry off by force; διαρπάζω intensifies this as plundering.
“snatch away” in this verse is diarpazō. The verb translated “spoil” is used for taking the goods and then the house: this is a thorough seizure, not a gentle release. The image does not conceal the force of what happens after the keeper is bound.
ALSO GROWS
harpazō: Snatch, seize, carry off
ἁρπάζω
This verb is the base of διαρπάζω and shows the force carried into the verse’s repeated act of plundering.
harpax: Robber, rapacious one
ἅρπαξ
This related word names one who seizes by force, reinforcing the hard edge of the verse’s image.
THE PATTERN
What is held captive is carried out when the power securing it is overcome.
But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the terrifying one will slip free. For I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will deliver your children.He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.But when a stronger one comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him his full armor, in which he trusted, and distributes his spoils.THE THREAD
But when a stronger one comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him his full armor, in which he trusted, and distributes his spoils.Luke’s “stronger” comes from the same Greek strength-family as Mark’s “strong man,” and makes the contest between them explicit. The armor is stripped and the spoils divided, extending Mark’s sequence from binding the keeper to plundering the house.
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