And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
Parallel translations
- WEB He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.”
- BSB Jesus answered, “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.”
- 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 of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
- Dan 9:3And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
- Matt 17:20And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
- Eph 6:18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
- 2 Cor 12:8For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
- 2 Cor 11:27In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
- Luke 11:26Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
- 1 Kgs 17:20–22And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
- 1 Cor 9:27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
- Acts 14:23And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
- Matt 12:45Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
- Acts 9:40–41But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
- 2 Kgs 4:33–34He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD.
- 2 Cor 6:5In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;
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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.