What Does Mark 5:40 Mean?
And they laughed at him. But he threw them all out, and took the father and the mother of the child and those with him, and went in where the child was lying.
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 they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.THE KEY
Before the girl rises, Jesus removes the crowd whose laughter treats its reading of her body as final.
THE MEANING
When people around you decide what your condition means, their scorn can fill the room without owning the outcome. Jesus sends the crowd out, keeps the parents and his companions with him, and enters where the girl lies; her visible state is real, but it is not the only thing unfolding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that what looks dead has already reached its only possible meaning.
THE ROOT
ἐκβαλών
ekbalōn
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast; in ἐκβάλλω (ekballō), to cast out.
“put them all out” in this verse is ekbalōn. The verb carries the force of casting out: ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) combines ἐκ (ek, out) with βάλλω (ballō, throw). Mark uses this same verb for casting out demons in Mark 1:34; here the crowd is the object sent out, and the room’s boundary changes before Jesus enters.
ALSO GROWS
emballō: To throw or put into.
ἐμβάλλω
This compound uses the same throwing root for movement into a space; here that movement turns outward.
apoballō: To cast away or throw off.
ἀποβάλλω
The same root also names forceful removal, deepening the sense of the crowd being sent out.
κατεγέλων
kategelōn
GROWS FROM
γελάω
gelaō
To laugh.
“laughed him to scorn” in this verse is kategelōn. The verb is καταγελάω (katagelaō, mock or laugh at), so the laughter has a target: Jesus himself. The word family holds ordinary laughter and directed scorn together, making the crowd’s reaction a verdict on his words, not a neutral sound.
ALSO GROWS
gelaō: To laugh.
γελάω
This is the basic laughter in the word family; the verse’s form makes that laughter scornful and directed at Jesus.
gelōs: Laughter.
γέλως
The noun shares the same word family, showing how the root can name laughter broadly while this verse gives it a particular target.
THE PATTERN
A visible condition of death does not exhaust the life that can still unfold.
Then he returned, and walked back and forth in the house, and went up, and bent himself over him. And the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.Is any word too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will turn back to you, at this season of life, and Sarah will have a son.And when he had said these things, he cried out with a great voice, Lazarus, come out!THE THREAD
And he healed many who were sick with various sicknesses, and threw out many demons. He did not let the demons speak, because they knew him.Mark uses ἐκβάλλω (ekballō, cast out) for casting out unclean spirits there and for putting the crowd out here. The objects differ, but the same verb draws a boundary around what leaves the space where healing is taking place.
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