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Mark 5:36

in Mark 5

But Jesus overheard their conversation and said to Jairus, “Do not be afraid; just believe.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

But Jesus, not heeding the word spoken, saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Fear not, only believe.

KJV

As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.

This verse in Mark 5

Commentary

13 notes on this verse

A commentator

Aphrahat the Persian Sage

DEMONSTRATION 4.17-19 · Written before 345.

When the chief of the synagogue asked him about his daughter, Jesus said to him: "Only firmly believe and your daughter shall live." He believed and so his daughter lived and arose. Similarly when Lazarus died, our Lord said to Martha, "If you believe, your brother shall rise." Martha said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe." And he raised him after four days.… So let us draw near then, my beloved, to faith, since its powers are so many. For faith raised up [Enoch] to the heavens and conquered the deluge. Faith causes the barren to sprout forth.

This site's exposition

Thy daughter is dead

on Mark 5:35-40

Thy daughter is dead: the delay in the crowd has cost, humanly speaking, everything, and the message adds why troublest thou the Master any further. Jesus overhears and answers the ruler before despair can, Be not afraid, only believe, the word the interrupting woman's story had just illustrated. He takes only Peter, James, and John, meets the hired tumult of weeping and wailing, and declares the damsel not dead but sleeping; the mourners' laughter proves at least that the death was real and publicly known. The bench reads sleepeth as the Lord's own word for a death he is about to reverse, not a denial of it, the same usage he gives Lazarus.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

(ubi sup.) It is not said that he assented to his friends who brought the tidings and wished to prevent the Master from coming, so that our Lord's saying, Fear not, only believe, is not a rebuke for his want of faith, but was intended to strengthen the belief which he had already. But if the Evangelist had related, that the ruler of the synagogue joined the friends who came from his house, in saying that Jesus should not be troubled, the words which Matthew relates him to have said, namely, that the damsel was dead, would then have been contrary to what was in his mind. It goes on, And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.

The Medieval Church4 voices

A commentator

Bede

On the Gospel of Mark · Written before 735.

proposed

"But Jesus, overhearing the word that was spoken, said to the synagogue leader, 'Do not be afraid; only believe.'" The synagogue leader is understood as the teacher of the law, about whom the Lord says, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat" (Matthew …

A commentator

Bede

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 735.

proposed

(ubi sup.) Mystically; the woman was cured of a bloody flux, and immediately after the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue is reported to be dead, because as soon as the Church of the Gentiles is washed from the stain of vice, and called daughter by the merits of her faith, at once the synagogue is broken up on account of its zealous treachery and envy; treachery, because it did not choose to believe in Christ; envy, because it was vexed at the faith of the Church. What the messengers told the ruler of the synagogue, Why troublest thou the Master any more, is said by those in this day who, seeing the state of the synagogue, deserted by God, believe that it cannot be restored, and therefore think that we are not to pray that it should be restored.

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on Mark · Written before 1107.

proposed

The people of the ruler of the synagogue regarded Christ as one of the ordinary teachers, which is why they asked Him to come and pray over the girl, and in the end, when she died, they thought that He was no longer needed after …

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 1107.

proposed

But the Lord Himself persuades the father to have confidence. For it goes on, As soon as Jesus heard the word which was spoken, he saith to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid; only believe.
6 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

As soon as Jesus had heard the word that was spoken,....

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 Century4 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Jesus - saith - These words were spoken by our Lord to the afflicted father, immediately on his hearing of the death of his child, to prevent that distress which he otherwise must have felt on finding that the case was now, humanly speaking, hopeless.
A great miracle is recorded in these verses. A dead girl is restored to life. Mighty as the "King of terrors" is, there is One mightier than he. The keys of death are in our Lord Jesus Christ's hands. He will one day "swallow up death in victory." (Isaiah 25:8.) Let us learn from these verses, that rank places no man beyond the reach of sorrow . Jairus was a "ruler;" yet sickness and trouble came to his house.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe--Jesus, knowing how the heart of the agonized father would sink at the tidings, and the reflections at the delay which would be apt to rise in his mind, hastens to reassure him, and in His accustomed style: "Be not afraid, only believe"--words of unchanging preciousness and power!

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A great miracle is recorded in these verses. A dead girl is restored to life. Mighty as the "King of terrors" is, there is One mightier than he. The keys of death are in our Lord Jesus Christ's hands. He will one day "swallow up death in victory." (Isaiah 25:8.) Let us learn from these verses, that rank places no man beyond the reach of sorrow . Jairus was a "ruler;" yet sickness and trouble came to his house. Jairus probably had wealth, and all the medical help that wealth can command; yet money could not keep death away from his child. The daughters of rulers are liable to sickness, as well as the daughters of poor men. The daughters of rulers must die. It is good for us all to remember this. We are too apt to forget it. We often think and talk as if the possession of riches was the great antidote to sorrow, and as if money could secure us against sickness and death. But it is the very extreme of blindness to think so. We have only to look around us and see a hundred proofs to the contrary. Death comes to palaces, as well as to cottages — to landlords as well as to tenants — to rich as well as to poor. It tarries no man's leisure or convenience. It will not be kept out by locks and bars. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Heb. 9:27.) All are going to one place, the grave. We may be sure there is far more equality in the portions appointed to men than at first sight appears. Sickness is a great leveler. It makes no distinction. Heaven is the only place where "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." (Isa. 33:24.) Happy are they who set their affections on things above! They, and they only, have a treasure which is incorruptible. Yet a little while, and they will be where they shall hear no more evil tidings. All tears shall be wiped from their faces. They shall mourn no more.

The words behind it

14 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.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Mark 9:23

    “If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!”

    it leads to

    • John 11:40

      Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Hebrews 11:6

      And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

    • Matthew 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,’…

    • Mark 11:23

      “Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will…

    • Matthew 21:21–22

      “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain,…

  • Through

    John 11:40

    Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

    it leads to

    • John 11:4

      When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

    • John 11:23–26

      “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

    • Romans 4:17–25

      As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead…

Where this verse is studied

About Mark

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633. Public domain.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633. Public domain.
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Aphrahat the Persian Sage, DEMONSTRATION 4.17-19; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; 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; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.