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Mark 9:21

in Mark 9

Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been with him?” “From childhood,” he said.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And he asked his father, How long time is it since this hath come unto him? And he said, From a child.

KJV

And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.

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This verse in Mark 9

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Bede

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 735.

Let Juliang blush, who dares to say that all men are born in the flesh, without the infection of sin, as though they were innocent in all respects, just as Adam was when he was created. For what was there in the boy, that he should be troubled from infancy with a cruel devil, if he were not held at all by the chain of original sin? since it is evident that he could not yet have had any sin of his own.

This site's exposition

foaming at the mouth

on Mark 9:20-24

Jesus echoes If You can and moves the question from the case to faith: All things are possible to him who believes. The father cries, I do believe; help my unbelief, faith and its lack confessed in one breath.

This site's exposition

From childhood

Matthew Henry notes that a trouble of such long standing made the case sadder and the cure harder. He applies it to every person. The evil works in us from childhood, and only the grace of Christ can cast it out.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 1107.

He also permits the child to be vexed, that in this way we might know the devil's wickedness, who would have killed him, had he not been assisted by the Lord. It goes on: And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child; and offtimes it has cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him.

A commentator

Bede

On the Gospel of Mark · Written before 735.

proposed

And he asked his father: How long has it been since this happened to him? And he said: From childhood. And often it cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. Let Julian be ashamed who dares to say that all …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), which made the case the more sad, and the cure more difficult. We are all by nature children of disobedience, and in such the evil spirit works, and has done so from our childhood; for foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, and nothing but the mighty grace of Christ can cast it out. The pressing instances which the father of the child makes with Christ for a cure (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

And he asked his father,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

The contrast between these verses and those which precede them in the chapter is very striking. We pass from the mount of transfiguration to a melancholy history of the work of the devil. We come down from the vision of glory — to a conflict with Satanic possession. We change the blessed company of Moses and Elijah — for crude interaction with unbelieving Scribes.
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

The contrast between these verses and those which precede them in the chapter is very striking. We pass from the mount of transfiguration to a melancholy history of the work of the devil. We come down from the vision of glory — to a conflict with Satanic possession. We change the blessed company of Moses and Elijah — for crude interaction with unbelieving Scribes. We leave the foretaste of millennial glory, and the solemn voice of God the Father testifying to God the Son, and return once more to a scene of pain, weakness, and misery — a boy in agony of body, a father in deep distress, and a little band of feeble disciples restrained by Satan's power, and unable to give relief. The contrast, we must all feel, is very great. Yet it is but a faint emblem of the change of scene that Jesus voluntarily undertook to witness, when He first laid aside His glory and came into the world. And it is after all a vivid picture of the life of all true Christians. With them, as with their Master, work, conflict, and scenes of weakness and sorrow will always be the rule. With them too, visions of glory, foretastes of heaven, seasons on the mount, will always be the exception. Let us learn from these verses, how dependent Christ's disciples are on the company and help of their Master . We see this truth brought out in a striking manner in the scene which meets our Lord's eyes, when He came down from the mount. Like Moses, when he came down from Mount Sinai, He finds his little flock in confusion. He sees His nine apostles beset by a party of malicious Scribes, and baffled in an attempt to heal one who had been brought to them possessed with a devil. The very same disciples who a short time before had done many miracles and "cast out many devils," had now met with a case too hard for them. They were learning by humbling experience the great lesson, "without me you can do nothing."

The words behind it

17 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

14 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.

John 5:5One 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.5 worksActs 9:33There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years.3 worksJohn 9:20–21His parents answered, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind.3 worksJob 5:7Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.2 worksActs 4:22For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.2 works
The other 8 cross-references, with their words ▾
John 9:1Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth,2 worksLuke 13:16Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”2 worksMark 5:25And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.2 worksLuke 8:43including 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.2 worksActs 14:8In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked.2 worksJob 14:1“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.2 worksActs 3:2And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts.2 worksPsalms 51:5Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.1 works

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

    Job 5:7

    Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

    it leads to

    • Job 14:1

      “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

    • Genesis 3:17–19

      And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because…

    • Ecclesiastes 5:15–17

      As a man came from his mother’s womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labor to carry in his hands.

  • Through

    Acts 4:22

    For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

    it leads to

    • John 5:5

      One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Acts 9:33

      There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years.

    • Acts 3:2

      And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts.

    • Matthew 9:20

      Suddenly a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.

    • Luke 13:11

      and a woman there had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was hunched over and could not stand up straight.

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 9 →

This page draws on Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; 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); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.

Read on in Mark 9 →