What Does Mark 6:55 Mean?
And they ran through all that land around, and began to carry the sick about on mats, wherever they heard he was.
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 ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.THE KEY
The sick are not asked to reach Jesus under their own power; the whole region turns the report of his presence into a way of carrying them.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where strength is limited: people move through the region and carry the sick toward the place where they hear Jesus is. When one person cannot make the journey, others can bring them within reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that needing to be carried makes someone an obstacle; here, the vulnerable are the reason people move.
THE ROOT
περιφέρω
peripherō
GROWS FROM
φερ-
pher-
carry, bear, bring
English makes “carry about,” “bring,” and “bear” sound like separate actions, while Greek keeps the stem φερ- (pher-, carry or bear) beneath them. Here bodies are carried toward Jesus; elsewhere this verb family names bringing the sick near and bearing a burden, making care a literal act of carriage.
ALSO GROWS
prospherō: bring toward; offer
προσφέρω
Matthew 8:16 uses this compound when people bring the sick to Jesus, echoing the movement of carrying people within reach of help.
anapherō: carry up; bear
ἀναφέρω
In 1 Peter 2:24, this verb describes Jesus bearing sins in his body; the verse also names healing, extending the image of a burden borne.
THE PATTERN
When a person cannot move toward help alone, restoration can begin with others carrying them within reach.
And they came to him, bringing a paralyzed man, lifted by four.And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, and each day they laid him at the gate of the temple called Beautiful, to ask for gifts from those entering the temple.Who himself carried our shortcomings in his own body on the tree, that we, dead to shortcomings, might live to alignment; and by his bruises you were healed.THE THREAD
And they came to him, bringing a paralyzed man, lifted by four.Mark uses φέροντες (pherontes, bringing) for the man’s approach; it shares the φερ- (pher-, carry or bear) stem with περιφέρειν (peripherein, carry about) in this verse. In both scenes, other people carry someone who is sick toward Jesus.
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