What Does Mark 8:13 Mean?
And he let them go, and stepping into the ship again, he departed to the other side.
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 left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.THE KEY
The Greek word for “left” belongs to the same word family as “release” and “forgiveness”: Jesus lets the encounter go and crosses onward.
THE MEANING
A demand remains unanswered: Jesus leaves, boards the ship again, and goes to the other side. The verse holds departure as a release of the encounter, while the journey continues.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an unanswered demand must keep the journey from continuing.
THE ROOT
ἀφείς
apheis
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + ἵημι (apo + hiēmi)
To send away or let go; the compound ἀφίημι carries meanings including leave, release, and forgive.
“let them go” in this verse is apheis. The word for Jesus leaving belongs to the same Greek family as ἄφεσις, meaning release or forgiveness. The departure is not itself called forgiveness, but the shared word family lets “he left them” carry the added sense of letting the encounter go.
ALSO GROWS
aphiēmi: To leave, release, or forgive.
ἀφίημι
This is the verb behind “left,” holding departure and release within one word family.
aphesis: Release, remission, or forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
The related noun names release directly, as in Luke’s words about release for captives.
THE PATTERN
Leaving can end a charged encounter while the journey keeps moving.
And Saul sought to strike David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped away from Saul's face, and he struck the javelin into the wall, and David fled, and slipped free that night.But he passed through the midst of them, and went on his way.When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and snatch him to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.THE THREAD
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.The Greek word translated “deliverance” here, ἄφεσις (aphesis), belongs to the same word family as “left” in Mark. In Mark, Jesus releases an encounter; here, the same family names release for captives.
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