Mark 5
The full text of Mark 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 They came to the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gerasenes.
2 As soon as Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out from the tombs to meet him.
3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.
4 For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles shattered, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
5 Always, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he would cry out and gash himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell down before him,
7 He shrieked, "Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I put you under oath before God — don't torment me!"
8 For Jesus had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
9 He asked him, "What is your name?" "My name is Legion," he replied, "because we are many."
10 And he begged him repeatedly not to send them out of the region.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside.
12 And they begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs so we can enter them."
13 He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd—about two thousand of them—rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.
14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported it in the town and in the countryside, and people came out to see what had happened.
15 They came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man sitting there, clothed and in his right mind—the man who had had the legion—and they were afraid.
16 Those who had seen it told them what had happened to the demon-possessed man, and about the pigs.
17 And they began to beg him to leave their region.
18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.
19 But Jesus would not let him. Instead he said, "Go home to your family and tell them all that the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
20 So the man went off and began to proclaim throughout the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.
21 When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed by the sea.
22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet
23 He kept begging him, "My little girl is dying. Please come and place your hands on her, so she may be saved and live."
24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed in around him.
25 And there was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.
26 She had suffered much under many doctors and had spent everything she had, yet she was no better—in fact, she had only grown worse.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.
28 For she was telling herself, "If I just touch even his clothes, I will be saved."
29 Immediately the source of her bleeding dried up, and she knew in her body that she was healed of her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31 His disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you, and you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
32 He looked around to see who had done it.
33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came trembling with fear, fell at his feet, and told him the whole truth.
34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."
35 While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader's house and said, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any further?"
36 But Jesus, paying no attention to what was said, told the synagogue leader, "Don't be afraid; only believe."
37 He let no one follow along with him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.
38 They come to the synagogue leader's house, and he sees a commotion—people weeping and wailing loudly.
39 He went in and said to them, "Why are you wailing and weeping? The child is not dead — only asleep."
40 But they ridiculed him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and his companions, and went in where the child was.
41 Grasping the child's hand, he said to her, "Talitha koum!" — which means, "Little girl, I'm telling you, get up."
42 The girl got up at once and started walking around (she was twelve years old). And they were instantly overcome with utter astonishment.
43 He warned them sternly to let no one find out, and told them to give her something to eat.
Translation notes (27)
- Mark 5:1a Earliest witnesses read 'Gerasenes' (NA28); later manuscripts read 'Gadarenes' or 'Gergesenes' (cf. Matt 8:28; Luke 8:26).
- Mark 5:4a The Greek language distinguishes between pedai, meaning 'foot-shackles,' and halyseis, meaning 'chains.' The original word order forms a chiasm, which is a literary device where elements are presented in an A-B-B-A pattern: shackles-chains-chains-shackles.
- Mark 5:5a This can also be translated as 'continually, night and day.' The Greek phrase dia pantos literally means 'through all [time].'
- Mark 5:7a Greek: "What to me and to you?" — a Semitic idiom of protest against unwanted intervention (cf. Judg 11:12; 1 Kgs 17:18; John 2:4).
- Mark 5:7b The title "Most High God" (ho theos ho hypsistos in Greek) was commonly used by Gentiles for Israel's God. This is fitting given the Decapolis setting (compare Acts 16:17).
- Mark 5:7c The phrase "I put you under oath" translates the Greek word horkizō, which is technical language for a solemn appeal or command. Here, the demon attempts to bind Jesus in the same way exorcists bound demons.
- Mark 5:7d "Torment" (βασανίζω) carries eschatological / judicial force, not generic physical pain (cf. Matt 8:29; Rev 14:10; 20:10).
- Mark 5:9a A "Legion" was a Roman military unit made up of several thousand soldiers. Here, the name signals both the multitude of demons and evokes the Roman occupying force.
- Mark 5:15a A "Legion" was a Roman military unit of roughly 5,000–6,000 soldiers. Here, the demons themselves use this name in Mark 5:9 to signal their great multitude.
- Mark 5:15b This can also be translated as 'the man whom the legion had possessed.' The Greek word eschēkota (ἐσχηκότα), a perfect participle, indicates a state that began in the past and has now ended.
- Mark 5:20a The Greek word hosa (ὅσα) means 'how much,' referring to all that Jesus had done.
- Mark 5:23a The Greek phrase eschatōs echei (ἐσχάτως ἔχει) literally means 'has it at the last,' which is an idiom for being at the point of death.
- Mark 5:23b The Greek word sōthē (σωθῇ) carries both the meaning 'be healed' and 'be saved.' Mark uses this same verb when speaking of the bleeding woman in Mark 5:28 and Mark 5:34.
- Mark 5:25a Greek 'in a flow of blood'; refers to chronic uterine hemorrhage, rendering her ritually unclean (Lev 15:25–27).
- Mark 5:28a The Greek word sōthēsomai (σωθήσομαι) means both 'healed' and 'saved.' This is the same verb Jesus uses in Mark 5:34 when he says, 'your faith has saved you.' Mark intends both senses here, and the English word 'saved' preserves this double meaning.
- Mark 5:29a Greek πηγή, 'spring/fountain'; Mark's word choice (vs. Luke's ῥύσις in 8:44) echoes LXX Lev 15:25, signaling the source itself was stopped.
- Mark 5:29b The Greek word mastigos (μάστιγος) literally means 'scourge' or 'whip.' Here, it is used metaphorically to describe a tormenting illness.
- Mark 5:30a This can also be translated as 'sensed within himself.' The Greek phrase epignous en heautō (ἐπιγνοὺς ἐν ἑαυτῷ) describes Jesus's inward recognition in that moment.
- Mark 5:34a The Greek word sesōken (σεσώκεν) carries both the meaning 'saved' and 'healed.' Mark uses this same phrasing in Mark 10:52 for Bartimaeus, and Luke uses it in Luke 7:50 for the sinful woman, where no illness is in view. The double meaning is intentional.
- Mark 5:34b The Greek word mastix (μάστιξ) literally means 'whip' or 'scourge.' Mark uses it to describe a bodily illness as if it were a lash, as seen in Mark 3:10 and Mark 5:29. The translation 'affliction' preserves the sense of bodily suffering without suggesting a literal flogging.
- Mark 5:36a Or 'overhearing.' Greek παρακούσας can mean either 'disregard/pay no heed to' (so Matt 18:17; LXX Esth 3:3) or 'overhear by chance.' The narrative — Jesus refusing to credit the death report — favors the former.
- Mark 5:36b Some early manuscripts, including A, C, K, Π, and later Byzantine manuscripts, read akousas (ἀκούσας), meaning 'when he heard,' which replaces the ambiguous parakousas (παρακούσας) with a clearer verb. However, the critical Greek text prints parakousas, supported by manuscripts such as א, B, D, L, W, Δ, Θ, f¹, and f¹³.
- Mark 5:38a This can also be translated as 'wailing greatly.' The Greek word polla (πολλά), meaning 'much' or 'greatly,' likely modifies only alalazontas (ἀλαλάζοντας), indicating intensity of the wailing rather than its volume.
- Mark 5:38b The wailers were likely professional mourners customary in 1st-century Jewish funerals (cf. Matt 9:23).
- Mark 5:39a The word 'asleep' (katheudei, καθεύδει) is also used as a euphemism for death, as in Acts 20:10. Jesus' deliberate contrast with the word 'dead' (apethanen, ἀπέθανεν) maintains this wordplay.
- Mark 5:41a This is an Aramaic phrase, which Mark preserved untranslated and then explained for his Greek readers.
- Mark 5:41b The critical Greek text reads koum (κουμ), which is the spoken Aramaic imperative. The Majority Text, however, reads koumi (κουμι). The shorter form reflects everyday Aramaic speech.
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