What Does Mark 9:16 Mean?
And he asked the scribes, What are you seeking together with them?
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 asked the scribes, What question ye with them?THE KEY
The verb translated “question” keeps a search inside the dispute: the people are seeking together, even as they contend.
THE MEANING
Jesus asks the scribes to name what they are disputing with the disciples. The question brings the contention into view, making its subject speakable.
THE ROOT
συζητεῖτε
syzēteite
GROWS FROM
ζητέω (zēteō, “seek”), joined with σύν (syn, “together”)
Seek or look for; in this compound, seek together, discuss, or dispute.
“seeking together” in this verse is syzēteite. The English “question” can sound like a neutral request for information, but συζητέω (syzēteō, “seek together; discuss or dispute”) names an exchange that can become contentious. The shared search remains inside the argument: disagreement is the shape their seeking takes here.
ALSO GROWS
syzēteō: Discuss or dispute; literally, seek together.
συζητέω
This is the verb behind the verse’s “question,” showing how a shared exchange can take the form of an argument.
epizēteō: Seek after or earnestly seek.
ἐπιζητέω
It keeps the same ζητέω (zēteō, “seek”) root, showing the search that remains beneath the verse’s compounded dispute.
THE PATTERN
A direct question brings a hidden state into speech.
And the LORD God called to Adam, and said to him, Where are you?And he said to them, What are these words you throw back and forth with one another as you walk, and why are your faces dark?Then Jesus turned and watched them following, and said to them, What do you seek? They said to him, Teacher, where do you stay?THE THREAD
And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and the scribes seeking together with them.The Greek συζητοῦντας (syzētountas, “questioning or disputing”) in verse 14 and συζητεῖτε (syzēteite, “question or dispute”) in verse 16 are forms of συζητέω (syzēteō, “seek together; discuss or dispute”). Verse 14 shows the argument around the disciples; verse 16 asks the scribes to name its subject.
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