What Does Mark 6:53 Mean?
And when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret, and moored at the shore.
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 they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore.THE KEY
The crossing ends with the boat moored: the far side is not just a direction, but a place where movement can come to rest.
THE MEANING
You are not defined by the waters you cross; arrival can become tangible, a named shore and a place to anchor. This verse holds movement and rest together: the crossing reaches a point where the vessel is moored.
THE ROOT
προσωρμίσθησαν
prosōrmisthēsan
GROWS FROM
ὁρμ- (horm-), in ὅρμος
Anchorage; a place where a vessel can be moored.
“moored at the shore” in this verse is prosōrmisthēsan. The verb belongs to the language of bringing a ship to an anchorage. The crossing therefore has a concrete completion: they reach the shore and the vessel is brought to rest.
ALSO GROWS
hormos: Anchorage or roadstead.
ὅρμος
The noun names the sheltered place toward which this verb of mooring points.
hormizō: To bring to anchor or moor.
ὁρμίζω
This related verb makes the action in the verse plain: arrival includes securing the vessel.
διαπεράσαντες
diaperasantes
GROWS FROM
πέραν (peran), in διαπεράω
Beyond; on the far side.
“passed over” in this verse is diaperasantes. The crossing word carries the far side inside it: passing over means reaching what lies beyond the water. The verse links that passage with mooring, joining movement across with arrival at a place.
ALSO GROWS
peran: Beyond or on the other side.
πέραν
The word names the far side as the destination of the crossing.
diaperaō: To cross over.
διαπεράω
This is the verb family behind “passed over,” connecting the crossing here with other passages across water.
THE PATTERN
Passage through waters reaches resolution when movement comes to rest on land or in a harbor.
And the children of Israel came into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them, on their right hand and on their left.Then they are glad, for they are quiet; and he leads them to the harbor of their delight.And the rest, some on planks, and some on pieces of the ship. And so it came about that they were all delivered safely to land.THE THREAD
And when Jesus had crossed back over in the ship to the other side, a great crowd gathered to him, and he was beside the sea.Mark uses the same Greek verb διαπεράω (diaperaō, to cross over) here and in Mark 5:21. There, the crossing opens onto a crowd gathered by the sea; here, it reaches an anchorage, a passage across water that arrives at a place of encounter.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us