What Does Mark 5:30 Mean?
And at once Jesus, knowing in himself that strength had gone out from him, turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?"
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 Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?THE KEY
Healing is an outflow Jesus can feel, and one person’s touch becomes visible inside the crowd.
THE MEANING
Here, healing moves outward from Jesus, and he perceives the touch that receives it. Even in the press of the crowd, that contact is distinct enough to draw a question into the open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a person’s reaching disappears inside the crowd dissolves: Jesus perceives the touch and the power that has gone out.
THE ROOT
δύναμις
dynamis
GROWS FROM
δυνα-
dyna-
The capacity to be able; power or ability.
“strength” in this verse is dynamis. The Greek noun here, δύναμις (dynamis, power or capacity), is described as going out from Jesus and being perceived. Its word family links capacity with being able and being strengthened, showing power active enough to flow outward and be felt.
ALSO GROWS
dynamai: To be able; to have power.
δύναμαι
This verb makes the root’s sense of capacity explicit: power is the ability to act.
dynatos: Able; capable; powerful.
δυνατός
This branch describes the capacity as a quality that can be present in someone or something.
dynamoō: To strengthen; to empower.
δυναμόω
Here the same word family names capacity being strengthened, illuminating the active force that goes out from Jesus.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness moves through embodied contact, and its arrival registers as an outward flow of power.
And he went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and bent himself over the child. And the flesh of the child warmed.And they pleaded with him that they might only take hold of the fringe of his garment, and as many as took hold of it were brought all the way through.And the whole crowd sought to touch him, for strength went out from him and healed them all.THE THREAD
And the whole crowd sought to touch him, for strength went out from him and healed them all.Luke uses the same word, δύναμις (dynamis, power or capacity), and says it goes out from Jesus and heals the crowd. The single touch noticed in Mark belongs to a wider pattern of power flowing outward and making people whole.
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