What Does Mark 4:40 Mean?
And he said to them, Why are you so timid? Do you not yet have trust?
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 said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?THE KEY
The storm’s danger is real, but the question asks whether it has become more convincing than the one already with you.
THE MEANING
A real threat can fill your attention until it feels like the only thing present. The Greek wording includes οὔπω (oupo, “not yet”), leaving trust open as something still forming. The one with you remains present even when the danger is real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a frightened moment proves trust is permanently unavailable.
THE ROOT
πίστιν
pistin
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
Persuade, win over, or be persuaded.
Here “faith” is trust: the heart persuaded enough to lean its full weight. This word family links persuasion with reliance, so the question reaches the voice currently winning your confidence.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, convince; be persuaded or trust.
πείθω
The verb shows the movement behind trust: something wins the heart’s confidence.
pepoithēsis: Confidence, reliance.
πεποίθησις
This related noun makes explicit the reliance carried within the trust named here.
δειλοί
deiloi
GROWS FROM
δειλ-
deil-
Timid, shrinking back under threat.
“timid” in this verse is deiloi. This word depicts more than a passing feeling: it pictures shrinking before danger. Beside the word for trust, it makes the contrast visible as shrinking back versus leaning your weight.
ALSO GROWS
deilia: Timidity, cowardice.
δειλία
The noun names the inward shrinking present in the adjective.
deiliaō: Be cowardly, lose heart.
δειλιάω
The verb shows shrinking as a response under threat, not a permanent identity.
THE PATTERN
When threat rises, trust can anchor the heart beyond what fear can see.
On the day I tremble, I lean my weight upon you.You will keep in wholeness upon wholeness the one whose shaped mind rests upon you, for in you he leans his full weight.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.THE THREAD
For we walk by trust, not by sight.The same noun, πίστις (pistis, trust), appears in both verses. Mark shows trust questioned in the face of a storm; this line describes its ongoing shape, moving by trust when sight alone cannot carry the whole weight.
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