What Does Mark 5:23 Mean?
And he pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter lies at the very edge; come and lay your hands on her, that she may be delivered and will live."
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 besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.THE KEY
The word for “healed” holds deliverance inside it: the plea is for her to be brought out of danger and into life.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks at the edge where life feels almost gone: the need is named plainly, presence, touch, deliverance, and life. “Healed” is σωθῇ (sōthē), from σώζω (sōzō), a verb that also carries the sense of deliverance and preservation; “live,” ζήσῃ (zēsē), names life itself. The plea holds being brought out of danger and living together.
THE ROOT
σωθῇ
sōthē
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
to deliver, rescue, preserve, or make whole
“delivered” in this verse is sōthē. The word rendered “healed” carries the wider sense of deliverance and preservation. Beside “live,” it opens healing as being brought out of danger into life.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēria: deliverance, rescue
σωτηρία
The noun names the same movement out of peril as deliverance.
sōtēr: deliverer, rescuer
σωτήρ
This related word names the one who brings someone through danger.
ζήσῃ
zēsē
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
to live, be alive
The request names life separately from deliverance: she is to be brought through danger and to live. The distinction keeps restoration from shrinking to a cure alone.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life
ζωή
The noun names the life the plea asks to continue.
zōopoieō: make alive, give life
ζωοποιέω
This related verb carries the same life root into the act of making alive.
THE PATTERN
Healing appears as deliverance from danger that restores a person to life.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And he gave her his hand and stood her up, and calling the set-apart ones and the widows, he stood her beside them, alive.THE THREAD
But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Do not fear. Only lean your full weight, and she will be delivered.Luke records the same plea in parallel, and “made whole” translates σώζω (sōzō), the same verb rendered “healed” here. The Greek root holds both deliverance and wholeness together.
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