When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”
Parallel translations
- WEB When he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”
- KJV And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
- BSB He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep.”
- NASB And after entering, He *said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child has not died, but is asleep.”
- NLT He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus says the child is not dead but sleeping, provoking the mourners.
Overview
Jesus calls death 'sleep,' not denying her death but declaring that for him it is as easily reversed as waking from rest. From his vantage, death holds no finality. This teaches that for those whom Christ raises, death becomes a sleep from which he will surely awaken them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Acts 20:10Paul went down, and fell upon him, and embracing him said, “Don’t be troubled, for his life is in him.”
- 1 Th 5:10who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
- John 11:11–13He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”
- Dan 12:2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- 1 Th 4:13–14But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
- 1 Cor 11:30For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 5:39 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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