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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Mark 5:21 - 5:24
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar_5:21-24
21When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. 22One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet 23and implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live." 24And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.
Mar_5:22 "One of the synagogue officials named Jairus" His name means "YHWH has enlightened." This was the person in charge of administrative tasks like the maintenance of a synagogue building. He would have been a man of some religious standing in the community.
▣ "fell at His feet" This was a gesture of reverence as well as worship (cf. Mar_5:6; Mar_5:22; Mar_5:33 where different words are used, but the same gesture). An Oriental leader prostrate in the street before an unofficial rabbi would have been very unexpected!
▣ "My little daughter is at the point of death" Mat_9:18 says she had died. This man believed that Jesus' presence and touch would heal/restore his daughter.
Mar_5:23
NASB, TEV "she will get well"
NKJV "she will be healed"
NRSV "she may get well"
NJB "she may be saved"
This is an aorist passive subjunctive of the term sôzô, used in its OT sense of physical deliverance (cf. Jas_5:15). In the NT it takes on the sense of spiritual salvation. It is theologically uncertain whether all of the ones Jesus healed were spiritually saved. His actions may have started a process that culminated later in the person's spiritual life and is not recorded in Scripture.
As an example look at this chapter where the demoniac's faith is seen after his being healed, not before. The young girl is helped because of her father's faith and the woman with a bleeding problem was willing to make Jesus ceremonially unclean in a selfish (even superstitious) act of touching a rabbi. Where does self-interest end and faith begin?
Mar_5:24 "pressing in on Him" Luk_8:42 adds that the press of the crowd was so great that it was at the point of being hard to breathe.