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Mark 5:25

in Mark 5

And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years,

KJV

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

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This verse in Mark 5

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

A commentator

Bede

On the Gospel of Mark · Written before 735.

And a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years. The woman flowing with blood, but cured by the Lord, is the Church gathered from the Gentiles, which was polluted by the innate flow of carnal pleasures and was already separated from the …

This site's exposition

suffered from bleeding for twelve years

on Mark 5:25-29

The woman had suffered from bleeding for twelve years, which made her unclean under Leviticus 15:25-27. Mark adds a detail Luke softens: She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Bede

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 735.

proposed

(ubi sup.) Again, the Lord going to the child, who is to be healed, is thronged by the crowd, because though He gave healthful advice to the Jewish nation, he is oppressed by the wicked habits of that carnal people; but the woman with an issue of blood, cured by the Lord, is the Church gathered together from the nations, for the issue of blood may be either understood of the pollution of idolatry, or of those deeds, which are accompanied by pleasure to flesh and blood. But whilst the word of the Lord decreed salvation to Judæa, the people of the Gentiles by an assured hope seized upon the health, promised and prepared for others.

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on Mark · Written before 1107.

proposed

Meanwhile, on the Lord's way, the woman with the flow of blood is also healed. This woman had great faith, because she hoped to be healed by the Lord's garment alone; and for this she received healing.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And a certain woman which had an issue of blood twelve years. See Gill on Mat 9:20. This woman was in the crowd that thronged Jesus, as he passed through the streets of Capernaum.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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 Century1 voice

BRIEFLY consider this poor woman's case. She was afflicted with a disease of exceedingly long standing which not only wasted her strength and threatened to bring her speedily to the grave, but rendered her, according to the Jewish ceremonial Law, unclean, and therefore unable to mix in company. Thus she was doomed to be a poor, suffering, desponding, desolate woman. The physicians of those days were bold enough to attempt impossible cures, but their skill was not at all commensurate with their courage. They tormented their patients, but seldom relieved them of anything but their money.
3 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

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.
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 .
BRIEFLY consider this poor woman's case. She was afflicted with a disease of exceedingly long standing which not only wasted her strength and threatened to bring her speedily to the grave, but rendered her, according to the Jewish ceremonial Law, unclean, and therefore unable to mix in company. Thus she was doomed to be a poor, suffering, desponding, desolate woman. The physicians of those days were bold enough to attempt impossible cures, but their skill was not at all commensurate with their courage. They tormented their patients, but seldom relieved them of anything but their money. Even a few hundred years ago many of the articles which were given to patients as medicines, and cried up as drugs of sovereign efficacy, were so unutterably disgusting that I should not like to repeat their names. And the processes of surgery, then common among practitioners, would have been exceedingly satisfactory if they had been intended to kill, but were both absurd and inhuman if proposed as salutary operations. The science of medicine, indeed, did not then exist. And in the age of our Lord, surgery and medicine were just a mass of quackery and daring pretension, without anything of skill or knowledge to support their claims. This poor woman had, however, in her anxious desire to be restored to society and to health, gone first to one and then to another, and yet another—although all caused her suffering by acrid medicines or by severe operations. And after the end of 12 years she found herself penniless as well as worse in health. Just then, her physical state being still the highest thought in her mind, she heard that there was a Prophet who healed diseases.

The words behind it

8 Greek words

Every 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.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

10 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Leviticus 15:25–27When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days at a time other than her menstrual period, or if it continues beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, just as she is during the days of her menstruation.24 worksLuke 8:43–44including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.22 worksMatthew 9:20–22Suddenly a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.18 worksLeviticus 15:19–20When a woman has a discharge consisting of blood from her body, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.14 worksJohn 5:5–6One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.10 worksLuke 13:11and a woman there had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was hunched over and could not stand up straight.8 works
The other 4 cross-references, with their words ▾
Acts 9:33–34There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years.5 worksActs 4:22For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.5 worksLeviticus 15:2“Say to the Israelites, ‘When any man has a bodily discharge, the discharge is unclean.2 worksMark 9:21Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been with him?” “From childhood,” he said.2 works

Where this verse is studied

About Mark

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
Mark: the study guide →Read Mark 5 →
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 827: “The Faculty Baffled, The Great Physician Successful” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Mark; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.

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