What Does Mark 6:31 Mean?
And he said to them, Come away by yourselves into an empty place, and rest a while, for many were coming and going, and they did not have a well-timed moment even to eat.
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 he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.THE KEY
The Greek calls rest a stopping, because the constant traffic has consumed even the opportunity to eat.
THE MEANING
When arrivals and demands fill every opening, even eating can disappear; this verse recognizes that constriction plainly. Rest appears as a brief interruption that makes room for the body’s most basic nourishment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that constant availability proves worth or faithfulness: here, a pause is necessary when the demands have crowded out eating.
THE ROOT
ἀναπαύσασθε
anapausasthe
GROWS FROM
παύω
pauō
to stop, cease
The verb for rest is built on stopping: here, rest is a real interruption in the stream of activity. The same word family names the rest offered to those who labor and carry heavy burdens.
ALSO GROWS
pauō: to cease or stop
παύω
This root gives the requested rest the sense of an actual halt in the ongoing traffic.
anápausis: rest or repose
ἀνάπαυσις
This related noun appears in Jesus’ promise of rest, joining bodily respite with relief from burden.
εὐκαίρουν
ēukairoun
GROWS FROM
καιρός
kairos
an opportune or fitting time
“had no leisure” in this verse is ēukairoun. The verb means they could not find an opportunity, even to eat. The passage describes demands taking up not merely recreation, but the time needed for basic nourishment.
ALSO GROWS
kairos: a fitting time or opportunity
καιρός
It reveals the kind of time the crowd leaves them without: a moment suitable even for eating.
eukairia: a favorable opportunity or occasion
εὐκαιρία
This related word makes the lost opening concrete: no suitable occasion remains for a basic need.
ἔρημον
erēmon
GROWS FROM
ἐρημ-
ērēm-
deserted, solitary, uninhabited
“empty place” in this verse is erēmon. The setting holds both wilderness and solitude: a place apart from the continuous coming and going. The withdrawal is spatial as well as temporal.
ALSO GROWS
erēmos: deserted or solitary; a wilderness
ἔρημος
It names the quiet setting that contrasts with the stream of people.
erēmoō: to make desolate or deserted
ἐρημόω
This related verb carries the same sense of a place emptied of its usual inhabitants.
THE PATTERN
Rest takes shape through a withdrawal from ongoing activity that makes room for life to continue.
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.But he himself pulled back into the wilderness and prayed.THE THREAD
Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.“I will give you rest” uses the same Greek word family as “rest” here: ἀναπαύω, built on παύω, to stop or cease. In both verses, rest meets people amid labor and demands as a release from the ongoing strain.
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