What Does Mark 5:39 Mean?
And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why make this uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeps."
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 when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.THE KEY
Jesus names the girl as asleep while the room is full of grief, making waking the hidden next movement of the scene.
THE MEANING
For the reader now, grief is real, but it does not define the limit of what Jesus can do. He calls the girl asleep, and the next movement is waking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what appears final lies beyond Jesus’ power to change.
THE ROOT
καθεύδει
katheudei
GROWS FROM
εὕδω
heudō
Sleep; be asleep.
“sleepeth” in this verse is katheudei. This is the ordinary word for sleep, distinct from the verse’s word for dying: Jesus places sleep against the room’s grief and sense of finality. Elsewhere the same verb can describe bodily sleep or unwatchfulness; here it leaves waking as the action Jesus is about to perform.
ALSO GROWS
katheudō: Sleep; be asleep.
καθεύδω
This is the verb’s dictionary form; the form in the verse describes the girl as sleeping.
katheudontas: Sleeping; being asleep.
καθεύδοντας
In Mark 13:36, this form describes someone found sleeping, showing that the same verb can also picture unwatchfulness.
θορυβεῖσθε
thorybeisthe
GROWS FROM
θόρυβ-
thoryb-
Tumult; uproar; noisy disturbance.
The word translated “ado” belongs to a family centered on tumult, so Jesus addresses the uproar filling the room, not only private sadness. The verse holds that noise and the tears beside it while refusing to let them determine his naming of the girl.
ALSO GROWS
thorybos: Tumult; uproar.
θόρυβος
The noun names the commotion carried by the verb translated “make ado.”
thorybeō: Make a tumult; disturb.
θορυβέω
This is the verb behind the plural form addressed to the mourners.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses sleep as an image of death held open to awakening.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake, some to the life of the ages, and some to exposure and contempt for the ages.He said these things, and after this he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go, so that I may wake him from sleep.For if we trust that Jesus died and rose, so also God will lead those who have slept through Jesus along with him.THE THREAD
And he grasped the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cumi, little girl, I say to you, arise."Jesus’ next words turn “sleepeth” from a naming into an action: he takes her hand and tells her to arise. The scene shows what waking means here without erasing the grief in the room.
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