Jesus answered, “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.”
Parallel translations
- WEB He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.”
- KJV And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
- NKJV So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
- NASB And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer.”
- NLT Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
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 such cases yield only to prayer. The point is that spiritual power flows from dependence on God, not from method.
Overview
Jesus diagnoses the disciples' failure as a lack of prayerful reliance on God. The added phrase "and fasting" appears in many manuscripts but is absent from the earliest, so translations differ; faithful readers should note the variant without overstating it. Either way, the teaching is clear: kingdom authority over evil comes through humble communion with God, the kind of dependence Jesus himself perfectly embodied.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jas 5:15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
- Dan 9:3So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
- Matt 17:20“Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
- Eph 6:18Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
- 2 Cor 12:8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
- 2 Cor 11:27in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
- Luke 11:26Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first.”
- 1 Kgs 17:20–22Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on this widow who has opened her home to me, by causing her son to die?”
- 1 Cor 9:27No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
- Acts 14:23Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.
- Matt 12:45Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there; and the final plight of that man is worse than the first. So will it be with this wicked generation.”
- Acts 9:40–41Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down and prayed, and turning toward her body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.
- 2 Kgs 4:33–34So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.
- 2 Cor 6:5in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:29 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.