Mark 5:31
in Mark 5His disciples answered, “You can see the crowd pressing in on You, and yet You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
KJV
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
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This verse in Mark 5
Commentary
15 notes on this verseThey further maintain that the passion which took place in the case of the twelfth Aeon is pointed at by the apostasy of Judas, who was the twelfth apostle, and also by the fact that Christ suffered in the twelfth month. For their opinion is, that He continued to preach for one year only after His baptism. The same thing is also most clearly indicated by the case of the woman who suffered from an issue of blood.
This site's exposition
Jesus was aware that power had gone out from Him
on Mark 5:30-34
Jesus asked Who touched My garments, though the disciples could see the crowd pressing in on Him. Many pressed and one touched, and He calls her Daughter, the only woman He so addresses in the Gospels.
This site's exposition
You can see the crowd pressing in on You
John Gill, following Luke 8:45, notes that Peter spoke for the disciples after everyone near denied touching him. Adam Clarke applies the scene to worship: many come near Jesus and go away unhealed because they come without faith. Faith, he says, carries Christ's power into the soul.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
But see how the crowd pressed upon Him from all sides, and yet not one of them touched Him; on the contrary, the woman, who did not press upon Him, touched Him. From this we learn the mystery that of people occupied with a multitude …
And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" The crowd pressing around Him in every direction, one believing woman touches the Lord, because those burdened by various disordered heresies or perverse habits, only the …
(ubi sup.) Wherefore one believing woman touches the Lord, whilst the crowd throngs Him, because He, who is grieved by divers heresies, or by wicked habits, is worshipped faithfully with the heart of the Catholic Church alone. But the Church of the Gentiles came behind Him; because though it did not see the Lord present in the flesh, for the mysteries of His Incarnation had been gone through, yet it attained to the grace of His faith, and so when by partaking of His sacraments, it merited salvation from its sins, as it were the fountain of its blood was dried up by the touch of His garments. And the Lord looked round about to see her who had done this, because He judges that all who deserve to be saved are worthy of His look and of His pity.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He needed not that any should inform him, for he had presently his eye upon her. Note, As secret acts of sin, so secret acts of faith, are known to the Lord Jesus, and are under his eye. If believers derive virtue from Christ ever so closely, he knows it, and is pleased with it.
And his disciples said unto him,.... Peter, and they that were with him; after the crowd that were about him denied that any of them had touched him; see Luk 8:45, thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou who touched me?
7 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The miserable condition that this poor creature was in; he was under the power of an unclean spirit, the devil got possession of him, and the effect of it was not, as in many, a silent melancholy, but a raging frenzy; he was raving mad; his condition seems to have been worse than any of the possessed, that were Christ's patients.
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
Thou seest the multitude thronging then, etc. - Many touch Jesus who are not healed by him: the reason is, they do it not by faith, through a sense of their wants, and a conviction of his ability and willingness to save them. Faith conveys the virtue of Christ into the soul, and spiritual health is the immediate consequence of this received virtue.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
This and this only Jesus acknowledges and seeks out. Even so, as AUGUSTINE long ago said, multitudes still come similarly close to Christ in the means of grace, but all to no purpose, being only sucked into the crowd. The voluntary, living contact of faith is that electric conductor which alone draws virtue out of Him.
quarantine:near-duplicate (2026-07-29) — near-dup(71%, same voice, 2 anchors)
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
The main subject of these verses is the miraculous healing of a sick woman. Great is our Lord's experience in cases of disease! Great is his sympathy with His sick and ailing members! The gods of the heathen are generally represented as terrible and mighty in battle, delighting in bloodshed, the strong man's patrons, and the warrior's friends. The Savior of the Christian is always set before us as gentle, and easy to be entreated, the healer of the broken hearted, the refuge of the weak and helpless, the comforter of the distressed, the sick man's best friend.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
The main subject of these verses is the miraculous healing of a sick woman. Great is our Lord's experience in cases of disease! Great is his sympathy with His sick and ailing members! The gods of the heathen are generally represented as terrible and mighty in battle, delighting in bloodshed, the strong man's patrons, and the warrior's friends. The Savior of the Christian is always set before us as gentle, and easy to be entreated, the healer of the broken hearted, the refuge of the weak and helpless, the comforter of the distressed, the sick man's best friend. And is not this just the Savior that human nature needs? The world is full of pain and trouble. The weak on earth are far more numerous than the strong. Let us mark, in these verses, what misery sin has brought into the world . We read of one who had had a most painful disease "for twelve years." She had "suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse." Means of every kind had been tried in vain. Medical skill had proved unable to cure. Twelve long weary years had been spent in battling with disease, and relief seemed no nearer than at first. "Hope deferred" might well "make her heart sick." (Prov. 13:12.) How incredible it is that we do not hate sin more than we do! Sin is the cause of all the pain and disease in the world. God did not create man to be an ailing and suffering creature. It was sin, and nothing but sin, which brought in all the ills that flesh is heir to. It was sin to which we owe every racking pain, and every loathsome infirmity, and every humbling weakness to which our poor bodies are liable. Let us keep this ever in mind. Let us hate sin with a godly hatred. Let us mark, in the second place, how different are the feelings with which people draw near to Christ .
WE just now read the story of this woman who was immediately healed. Spiritual persons know that the miracles recorded by the Evangelist are true because they have seen them reproduced. That is to say, we have not seen an issue of blood stopped by the touch of Christ's garments, but we have seen the spiritual counterpart of it. We have seen men and women healed of all kinds of spiritual and moral diseases by coming into contact with our Lord Jesus.
WE just now read the story of this woman who was immediately healed. Spiritual persons know that the miracles recorded by the Evangelist are true because they have seen them reproduced. That is to say, we have not seen an issue of blood stopped by the touch of Christ's garments, but we have seen the spiritual counterpart of it. We have seen men and women healed of all kinds of spiritual and moral diseases by coming into contact with our Lord Jesus. They have touched Jesus and they have been made whole, for Jesus lives still and His healing work is not ended, but has only entered on another phase. Jesus has said, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." And, being with us, He is not here inactively or ineffectually, but He is here—the same yesterday, today and forever—to work the same miracles, only not on men's bodies, but on their souls. Jesus is present to heal leprosies of the mind and to open the eyes of the understanding. Yes, He is still among us to raise those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Though we live in a great leper house, yet are we comforted because we see that Jesus walks the hospitals and still heals on the right hand and on the left, all those who come into contact with Him. At the sight of His wonders of Grace, we cry out as they did in the days of His flesh, "He has done all things well!" As the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ are pictures of His wondrous works in the spiritual kingdom, so are they instructive because they set forth much impressive and precious Truths of God most vividly. Tonight I have but one desire and that is to lead some poor sin-sick soul to Jesus. And I shall not be satisfied unless very many shall, this evening, for the first time, break through this crowd and press forward to touch the hem of Christ's robe and find immediate healing! I shall speak upon three things.
The words behind it
16 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἔλεγον | elegon | were saying | G3004 → | 1325 times |
| αὐτῷ | auto | to Him | G846 → | 5565 times |
| οἱ | hoi | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μαθηταὶ | mathetai | disciples | G3101 → | 260 times |
| αὐτοῦ· | autou | of Him; | G846 → | 5565 times |
| βλέπεις | blepeis | You see | G991 → | 132 times |
| τὸν | ton | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ὄχλον | ochlon | crowd | G3793 → | 175 times |
| συνθλίβοντά | sunthlibonta | pressing in on | G4918 → | |
| σε | se | You | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| λέγεις· | legeis | You say | G3004 → | 1325 times |
| τίς | tis | Who | G5101 → | 563 times |
| μου | mou | Me | G3165 → | 1936 times |
| ἥψατο; | hepsato | touched? | G681 → | 39 times |
ΚαὶAnd
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἔλεγονwere saying
elegonG3004 →1325 times
αὐτῷto Him
autoG846 →5565 times
οἱthe
hoiG3588 →19766 times
μαθηταὶdisciples
mathetaiG3101 →260 times
αὐτοῦ·of Him;
autouG846 →5565 times
βλέπειςYou see
blepeisG991 →132 times
τὸνthe
tonG3588 →19766 times
ὄχλονcrowd
ochlonG3793 →175 times
συνθλίβοντάpressing in on
sunthlibontaG4918 →
σεYou
seG4771 →2973 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
λέγεις·You say
legeisG3004 →1325 times
τίςWho
tisG5101 →563 times
μουMe
mouG3165 →1936 times
ἥψατο;touched?
hepsatoG681 →39 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Luke 8:45“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked. But they all denied it. “Master,” said Peter, “the people are crowding and pressing against You.”
it leads to
- Luke 9:13
But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.”
- Luke 5:5
“Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.”
- Mark 5:30–32
At once Jesus was aware that power had gone out from Him. Turning to the crowd, He asked, “Who touched My garments?”
- Luke 9:13
Through
Luke 9:12As the day neared its end, the Twelve came to Jesus and said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside for lodging and provisions. For we are in…
it leads to
- Matthew 15:23
But Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
- John 6:5–15
When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”
- John 6:1
After this, Jesus crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias).
- Mark 6:35–44
By now the hour was already late. So the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late.
- Hosea 13:5
I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.
- Matthew 15:23
Where this verse is studied
About Mark
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Mark; Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1640: “The Touch” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book I; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.