For Teaching

Mark 9: What the Passage Says

152 claims across 50 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Mark 9 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

On a high mountain Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, appears with Elijah and Moses, and a voice from a cloud calls him God's beloved Son and tells them to listen to him. Coming down, he answers their question about Elijah, drives an unclean spirit out of a boy his disciples could not help, and tells them again that the Son of Man will be handed over, killed, and rise. In Capernaum he corrects the disciples' argument about who is greatest, tells John not to stop an outsider driving out demons in his name, and warns in strong terms against causing believers to stumble.

Claim by Claim

9:1
- Jesus said this to them.
- Jesus introduced the statement with a solemn assurance to his hearers.
- Jesus said that some of those standing there would not taste death until they had seen the kingdom of God come with power.
9:2
- Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him.
- Jesus led the three up a high mountain by themselves, apart from others.
- Jesus was transfigured in front of them.
9:3
- Jesus' clothing became dazzling and intensely white, like snow.
- No launderer on earth could whiten cloth that white.
9:4
- Elijah appeared to them together with Moses.
- Elijah and Moses were talking with Jesus.
9:5
- Peter responded and spoke to Jesus.
- Peter addressed Jesus as Teacher.
- Peter said it was good for them to be there.
- Peter proposed making three shelters.
- Peter said one shelter would be for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
9:6
- Peter did not know what to say.
- They were terrified.
9:7
- A cloud came and overshadowed them.
- A voice came out of the cloud.
- The voice said that Jesus is his beloved Son.
- The voice commanded them to listen to Jesus.
9:8
- Suddenly they looked around.
- They no longer saw anyone except Jesus alone with them.
9:9
- They were coming down from the mountain.
- Jesus ordered them to tell no one what they had seen.
- Jesus set the limit of the silence at the time when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
9:10
- They kept the matter to themselves.
- They discussed with one another what rising from the dead meant.
9:11
- They asked Jesus a question.
- They asked why the scribes say that Elijah must come first.
9:12
- Jesus answered them.
- Jesus said Elijah does come first.
- Jesus said Elijah restores all things.
- Jesus spoke of how it is written of the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt.
9:13
- Jesus said to them that Elijah has already come.
- Jesus said they did to Elijah whatever they wanted.
- Jesus said this happened as it is written about him.
9:14
- Jesus came to his disciples.
- Jesus saw a large crowd around them.
- Jesus saw scribes disputing with the disciples.
9:15
- Immediately, when all the crowd saw Jesus, they were greatly astonished.
- They ran to Jesus.
- They greeted Jesus.
9:16
- Jesus asked the scribes what they were disputing with the disciples.
9:17
- One person from the crowd answered Jesus.
- The man addressed Jesus as Teacher.
- The man said he had brought his son to Jesus.
- The man said his son has a spirit that makes him mute.
9:18
- The man said that wherever the spirit seizes the boy, it throws him down.
- The man said the boy foams at the mouth.
- The man said the boy grinds his teeth.
- The man said the boy becomes rigid.
- The man said he asked Jesus' disciples to cast the spirit out.
- The man said the disciples were unable to do it.
9:19
- Jesus answered the man.
- Jesus called them a generation without faith.
- Jesus asked how long he would be with them.
- Jesus asked how long he would put up with them.
- Jesus told them to bring the boy to him.
9:20
- They brought the boy to Jesus.
- When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately convulsed the boy.
- The boy fell on the ground.
- The boy rolled around foaming at the mouth.
9:21
- Jesus asked the boy's father how long this had been happening to him.
- The father said it had been since childhood.
9:22
- The father said the spirit has often thrown the boy into fire and into water.
- The father said the spirit did this in order to destroy him.
- The father said that if Jesus can do anything, he should have compassion on them and help them.
- The father's request was conditional on Jesus being able.
9:23
- Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe'.
- Jesus said all things are possible to the one who believes.
9:24
- Immediately the child's father cried out.
- The father spoke with tears.
- The father addressed Jesus as Lord.
- The father said he believes.
- The father asked Jesus to help his unbelief.
9:25
- Jesus saw that a crowd was running together toward them.
- Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit.
- Jesus addressed it as a mute and deaf spirit.
- Jesus commanded it to come out of the boy.
- Jesus commanded it never to enter the boy again.
9:26
- The spirit cried out.
- The spirit convulsed the boy violently.
- The spirit came out of the boy.
- The boy was like a corpse.
- Many people said the boy was dead.
9:27
- Jesus took the boy by the hand.
- Jesus raised him up.
- The boy stood up.
9:28
- Jesus went into the house.
- His disciples asked him privately why they had not been able to cast the spirit out.
9:29
- Jesus said to them that this kind can come out by nothing except prayer and fasting.
9:30
- They left that place.
- They passed through Galilee.
- Jesus did not want anyone to know about it.
9:31
- Jesus was teaching his disciples.
- Jesus said the Son of Man is being handed over into the hands of men.
- Jesus said they will kill him.
- Jesus said that after he is killed he will rise on the third day.
9:32
- The disciples did not understand what he said.
- The disciples were afraid to ask him about it.
9:33
- Jesus came to Capernaum.
- Jesus was in the house.
- Jesus asked them what they had been arguing about on the way.
9:34
- The disciples said nothing.
- On the way the disciples had argued among themselves about which of them was the greatest.
9:35
- Jesus sat down.
- Jesus called the twelve.
- Jesus said that if anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all.
- Jesus said such a person shall be servant of all.
9:36
- Jesus took a child.
- Jesus set the child in the middle of them.
- Jesus took the child in his arms.
- Jesus spoke to them.
9:37
- Jesus said that whoever receives one such child in his name receives him.
- Jesus said that whoever receives him receives not him but the one who sent him.
9:38
- John answered Jesus.
- John addressed him as Teacher.
- John said they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus' name.
- John said that man does not follow them.
- John said they tried to stop the man.
- John said they stopped him because he does not follow them.
9:39
- Jesus said not to stop him.
- Jesus said no one who performs a miracle in his name can quickly afterward speak evil of him.
9:40
- Jesus said that whoever is not against them is on their side.
9:41
- Jesus said that whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in his name because you belong to Christ will be treated a certain way.
- Jesus introduced the statement with a solemn assurance.
- Jesus said such a person will not lose his reward.
9:42
- Jesus said that whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in him to stumble faces a consequence.
- Jesus said it would be better for that person to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.
9:43
- Jesus said that if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.
- Jesus said it is better to enter life maimed than to go into hell with two hands.
- Jesus said hell is the fire that is never quenched.
9:44
- In hell their worm does not die.
- In hell the fire is not quenched.
9:45
- Jesus said that if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off.
- Jesus said it is better to enter life lame than to be thrown into hell with two feet.
- Jesus said hell is the fire that is never quenched.
9:46
- In hell their worm does not die.
- In hell the fire is not quenched.
9:47
- Jesus said that if your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out.
- Jesus said it is better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two eyes.
- Jesus called it the fire of hell.
9:48
- In hell their worm does not die.
- In hell the fire is not quenched.
9:49
- Everyone will be salted with fire.
- Every sacrifice will be salted with salt.
9:50
- Salt is good.
- If salt loses its saltiness, there is nothing to season it with again.
- Jesus asked with what they would season it.
- Jesus told them to have salt in themselves.
- Jesus told them to be at peace with one another.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

9:1: "The kingdom of God" in this book means God's active rule breaking into the world, not a territory or a place people go after death. "Taste of death" is a Semitic idiom for simply dying.
9:2: KJV "transfigured" translates a Greek verb meaning to be changed in form; it is the word behind the English "metamorphosis". Mark never names the mountain.
9:3: A "fuller" was a tradesman who cleaned, thickened and whitened newly woven wool, working it in water with alkaline earth and stale urine. Producing a brilliant white was skilled, costly work, so "no fuller on earth" is the strongest comparison available.
9:4: KJV "Elias" is just the Greek spelling of the Hebrew name Elijah; the KJV keeps Greek forms of older names throughout the New Testament. Moses led Israel out of Egypt and received the law; Elijah was a prophet who confronted Israel's kings centuries later and, in 2 Kings 2, was taken up to heaven without dying.
9:5: The word behind KJV "Master" here is "Rabbi", a respectful title for a teacher. KJV "tabernacles" does not mean buildings: the Greek word means temporary shelters of branches, like those Israelites built to live in during the week-long Feast of Booths.
9:6: KJV "wist" is an old past tense meaning knew. "Sore afraid" means badly frightened; "sore" here means severely.
9:7: In the Hebrew scriptures a cloud repeatedly marks God's presence, as at Sinai and over the tent of meeting. The words spoken here largely repeat what the voice said at Jesus's baptism in Mark 1:11.
9:9: "Son of man" is the title Jesus uses of himself throughout Mark. In ordinary Hebrew and Aramaic the phrase can mean simply "a human being", and it also recalls the figure "like the Son of man" who is given authority in Daniel 7. Mark leaves both senses in play.
9:10: Rising from the dead means coming back to life after dying. The friends had never seen that happen, so they did not know what Jesus meant.
9:11: "Scribes" were the trained experts in the written law: professional copyists, students and teachers of scripture. The expectation they taught comes from Malachi 4:5, the closing lines of the Hebrew prophets, which promise that Elijah will be sent before the day of the LORD.
9:12: The Greek can be punctuated as either a statement or a question here, so translations differ on whether Jesus is asserting something about the Son of Man or asking the disciples about it. KJV "set at nought" means treated as worth nothing.
9:13: KJV "whatsoever they listed" means whatever they wanted; in 1611 to "list" was to choose or to please. Mark has already told the story of John the Baptist's arrest and execution (6:17-29). No surviving scripture explicitly predicts that fate, and what "as it is written of him" points to has been debated since antiquity.
9:14: His disciples were the friends who followed him and learned from him.
9:15: "Saluted him" means greeted him. In 1611 to salute someone was simply to say hello, with no military sense at all.
9:17: "Dumb" in 1611 meant unable to speak. It carried none of the modern sense of stupid.
9:18: KJV "pineth away" renders a Greek verb meaning dries up or goes rigid; it describes the boy stiffening, not slowly wasting. The cluster of symptoms listed, sudden seizure, foaming, grinding teeth and rigidity, matches what is now called epilepsy; in the ancient world such seizures were commonly attributed to a spirit.
9:19: "Faithless" means lacking trust or belief, not disloyal to a partner in the modern sense. "How long shall I suffer you" uses "suffer" in its older meaning of put up with or tolerate.
9:20: "Tare" is the old past tense of tear, used here for throwing the boy into violent convulsions. "Wallowed" means rolled about on the ground.
9:21: "Of a child" is the father's short answer. It means "since he was a little child."
9:22: "Ofttimes" means often. "Have compassion" means feel for us and act, not just feel sorry.
9:23: The manuscripts differ here. The oldest ones have Jesus throwing the father's own words back at him, roughly "If you can!", before answering; the manuscripts behind the KJV read "If thou canst believe", making it a condition laid on the father. The rendering follows the KJV.
9:25: KJV "foul spirit" and the commoner "unclean spirit" translate the same phrase. "Unclean" is a ritual term, marking something as outside the sphere of the holy and unfit to approach it. It does not mean physically dirty.
9:26: "Rent him sore" means convulsed him violently; rent is the old past tense of rend, to tear.
9:29: Fasting is deliberately going without food for a set period as a religious discipline. The earliest manuscripts of Mark read only "by prayer"; "and fasting" appears in later copies, including the ones the KJV translators worked from.
9:30: Galilee was the northern region where Jesus grew up and did most of his teaching, roughly a three day walk from Jerusalem in the south.
9:31: "Delivered into the hands of men" uses a verb that also means handed over or betrayed, and it is passive, leaving unsaid who does the handing over. KJV's "the third day" and the Greek's "after three days" describe the same span in ancient reckoning, where any part of a day counted as a whole day.
9:33: Capernaum was a fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. In Mark it functions as Jesus's home base.
9:34: "They held their peace" means they stayed silent. It has nothing to do with peace between people.
9:35: "The twelve" are the twelve followers Jesus appointed and named in Mark 3:13-19; the number matches the twelve tribes of Israel. The word behind "servant" is the ordinary term for someone who waits on a table, a household job of low status.
9:36: In that society a child had no legal standing, no property and no social weight, which makes a child a natural example of someone who can give nothing back in return. KJV "in the midst" simply means in among them.
9:37: "In my name" is a Semitic idiom rather than a spoken formula. It means on my account, on the strength of my authority, or because of a person's connection to me.
9:38: KJV renders the Greek word daimonia as "devils"; modern translations say "demons" and keep "the devil" for Satan alone. Exorcists in the ancient world routinely invoked a powerful name as the source of their authority, which is what this man is doing with Jesus's name.
9:39: KJV "lightly" here means quickly or readily, not casually or carelessly.
9:40: "On our part" means on our side.
9:41: "Christ" is a title, not a surname. It is the Greek word for "anointed one", translating the Hebrew word that gives us "Messiah". "Belong to Christ" means being counted as one of his people.
9:42: KJV "offend" translates a Greek verb meaning to trip someone up or make them fall. It has nothing to do with the modern sense of hurting someone's feelings. A millstone is one of the stone disks used to grind grain, and the word here specifies the larger kind turned by a donkey, weighing hundreds of pounds, so the image is of certain drowning.
9:43: "Hell" here translates "Gehenna", the name of an actual place: the Valley of Hinnom, the ravine along the south side of Jerusalem. It had a grim history as a site of child sacrifice under earlier kings, and by this period its name was used as an image for the place of final punishment. It is a different word from "Hades", which means the general realm of the dead. KJV "maimed" means with a limb missing.
9:44: Verses 44 and 46 are absent from the earliest manuscripts of Mark. They repeat verse 48 word for word and were most likely added by later copyists who wanted the refrain after each saying. That is why many modern Bibles print verse 43, then verse 45, and skip these numbers.
9:45: KJV "halt" means lame, unable to walk properly.
9:46: See the note at verse 44: this line is missing from the earliest manuscripts and repeats verse 48.
9:47: "Pluck it out" means pull it out. Jesus is making a shocking picture, not giving instructions.
9:48: These words quote Isaiah 66:24, the last line of that book, which pictures people looking out at the unburied corpses of the rebellious outside Jerusalem. "Their worm" means the maggots feeding on the dead, the standard ancient image of a body denied proper burial.
9:49: This is one of the most obscure sentences in Mark, and the manuscripts vary considerably here; the second half, about every sacrifice being salted, is missing from the earliest copies. It alludes to Leviticus 2:13, which requires salt on every grain offering brought to the altar. What "salted with fire" means has never been settled.
9:50: Salt in that region was not refined. It was gathered from deposits around the Dead Sea and came mixed with gypsum and other minerals, so the salt itself could dissolve away and leave a residue that still looked like salt but had no taste. Salt also preserved food and was used in sealing agreements, so "have salt in yourselves" can carry more than one sense.

Where the Manuscripts Differ

Worth knowing before you stand up: a listener following a modern translation may not have these verses in front of them.

9:44: Most modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.
9:46: Most modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.

Read Mark 9