What Does Mark 5:19 Mean?
But Jesus did not allow him, and said to him, "Go to your house, to your own, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you."
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
Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.THE KEY
The man who wants to remain beside Jesus is sent home as a messenger, so his own life becomes the report of the Lord’s compassion.
THE MEANING
Your own relationships become the place where the Lord’s work is spoken aloud: what has been done for you is the message. The verb translated “tell” belongs to the Greek messenger word-family, so the one who receives compassion also carries its report.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closeness to Jesus requires remaining beside him: Jesus sends this delivered man back to his own people.
THE ROOT
ἀπάγγειλον
apangeilon
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
To announce or carry a message.
The verb translated “tell” belongs to the ἀγγελ- word-family, which also gives ἄγγελος, “messenger.” The man who asks to stay with Jesus is sent home carrying the report himself: his experience makes him a messenger among his own.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: Messenger
ἄγγελος
The messenger word shares the family behind the command to tell, linking the man’s return home with carrying a message.
angellō: Announce, report
ἀγγέλλω
This verb shares the announcement family in ἀπαγγέλλω, the word used for the man’s report.
apangellō: Report, announce
ἀπαγγέλλω
This is the verb behind “tell”: the man is to announce what has been done for him.
ἠλέησεν
ēleēsen
GROWS FROM
ἐλε-
ele-
To show compassion or mercy toward someone in need.
“hath had compassion” in this verse is ēleēsen. This verb belongs to the ἔλεος family, which includes concrete acts of mercy. The sentence names compassion as something the Lord has done for the man, binding mercy to an enacted deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
eleos: Compassion, mercy
ἔλεος
The noun names the mercy-family from which the verse’s verb for showing compassion comes.
eleēmosynē: An act of mercy; almsgiving
ἐλεημοσύνη
This related word shows the family extending from compassion to mercy expressed in action.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance becomes testimony when the person who receives it tells what God has done.
Come and hear, all you who stand in awe of God, and I will recount what he has done for my living soul.Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he has redeemed from the hand of the one who presses.For you will be his witness to all humankind, of what you have seen and heard.THE THREAD
And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!Mark’s word for “tell,” ἀπαγγέλλω (apangellō, report or announce), shares the ἀγγελ- message-family with the word for announcing good news in Romans. The man’s own account carries the good news of what the Lord has done into the place where he lives.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us