Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only 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.
- 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.”
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 will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
- Dan 9:3I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
- Matt 17:20He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
- Eph 6:18with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:
- 2 Cor 12:8Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
- 2 Cor 11:27in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
- Luke 11:26Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
- 1 Kgs 17:20–22He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”
- 1 Cor 9:27but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
- Acts 14:23When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.
- Matt 12:45Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”
- Acts 9:40–41Peter sent them all out, and knelt down and prayed. Turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
- 2 Kgs 4:33–34He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.
- 2 Cor 6:5in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;
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.