Mark
5:21-43
With thanks to page sponsor:
The First Congregational Church of Dunbarton NH,
United Church of Christ.
- Reading the Text:
- NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
- Greek Interlinear Bible, ScrTR, ScrTR t, Strong, Parsing, CGTS, CGES id, AV.
- The Bible Gateway: NRSV, RSV, NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
- The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Greek text with concordance, commentaries.
- The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary & sermons.
- Historical References, Commentary and
Comparative Texts:
- Comparative World Scriptures from United Communities of Spirit: Healing.
- The Five Gospels Parallels, John W. Marshall, University of Toronto.
- I.III.3, II.XXII, V.XIII.1, Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons. (c. 180)
- IV.25, VI.14, Stromata, Clement of Alexandria (c 200)
- From the Catena Aurea, Patristic Commentary by St Thomas Aquinas.
- From the Geneva Notes.
- "By faith fathers apprehended the promises of life even for their children."
- From
Matthew
Henry's Commentary.
- "We may suppose Jairus hesitating whether he should ask Christ to go on or not, when told that his daughter was dead. But have we not as much occasion for the grace of God, and the comfort of his Spirit, for the prayers of our ministers and Christian friends, when death is in the house, as when sickness is there?"
- From
Wesley's Notes.
- "He commanded something should be given her to eat - So that when either natural or spiritual life is restored, even by immediate miracle, all proper means are to be used in order to preserve it."
- From the
Commentary on the Whole Bible
(Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
- "Jairus by name--or "Jaeirus." It is the same name as Jair, in the Old Testament (Nu 32:41; Jud 10:3; Es 2:5)."
- From The People's
New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.
- "Christ, conscious of the approach and condition of this woman, voluntarily healed her. His language that follows is to bring out the moral issue. He cured her, not by touch or word, as was usual with him, but by act of will. By his question he called out her public confession. Faith saves. It may not be intelligent faith, for this woman was not well instructed, but is a faith strong enough to lead to action."
- Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
- "Jairus' Daughter," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.
- "Who knows what kind of story Mark is telling here, but the enormously moving part of it, I think, is the part where Jesus takes the little girl's hand and says, 'Talitha cum' - 'Little girl, get up' - and suddenly we ourselves are the little girl."
- Commentary,
Mark 5:21-43, Emerson Powery, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2012.
- "Can the Christian community alter the conditions of people's lives? Can it, too, bring healing into troubled circumstances? Must it not also cross boundaries -- whether they are related to ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, politics or any other boundaries that divide our society -- and advocate life-giving meaning and change?"
- "Come As You Are," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2012.
- "...the only way to trust God's great 'I love you' is to first hear God's equally important 'I know you.' Because as long as we think we're fooling someone – a loved one, a co-worker or neighbor, or God – we can never really trust that they accept us for who we really are."
- "...the only way to trust God's great 'I love you' is to first hear God's equally important 'I know you.' Because as long as we think we're fooling someone – a loved one, a co-worker or neighbor, or God – we can never really trust that they accept us for who we really are."
- "Begging Believers and Scrorning Skeptics," D Mark Davis, raw translation and exegesis/questions, Left Behind and Loving It, 2012.
- "She is as defined by her determination as by her suffering. That is the value of respecting Mark’s string of participles and being patient for the main verb. After all that she suffered and did, she grabbed his garment."
- "Taking Jesus Seriously," Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2012.
- "When we experience the abundance of God's grace, we can't help but take Jesus seriously."
- "The Encounter More than the Cure," Brian Volck, Ekklesia Project, 2012.
- "The encounter is far more important than the cure, or perhaps it is better to say that the cure is the outward sign of an inward transformation."
- "To Know, To Love, To Heal," Debra Dean Murphy, Intersections, 2012.
- "In Touch with Jesus," AlyceM. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2012.
- "Though we are not called to go around curing people's symptoms and raising them from physical death, we are called to seek Jesus' touch."
- Lectionary Blogging, John Petty, Progressive Involvement, 2012.
- "Mark does not explicitly mention violations of the "purity code," but there are two of them in this reading. First, the woman with the hemorrhage touched Jesus, rending him unclean. Second, Jesus touched the dead young woman, which also would have rendered him unclean."
- "Sense My Body," Clint Schnekloth, The Hardest Question, 2012.
- "Reach out and touch - faith!"
- "Jesus has no time for triage," Peter Woods, The Listening Hermit, 2012.
- "There is enough time, power, compassion, and grace to go round so that no one needs be written off. I wonder when our selective, cozy, judgemental congregations will learn that?"
- Healing of Jarius' Daughter and the Woman with Hemorrhages, audio telling, story in episodes, graphic, audio and written commentaries. Go Tell Communications, Biblical Storytelling for the Global Village, 2012.
- Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours,
Mark 5:21-43, David Ewart, 2012.
- "Jesus does NOT want us to be amazed. He wants us to trust God. To trust without hesitations or reservations. To trust without fear. Now THAT would be amazing."
- "Healing and Wholeness," Janet Hunt, Dancing with the Word, 2012.
- "Have you ever known yourself to be not necessarily 'cured' but still healed?"
- Preaching Mark 5:21-43, Kenneth H. Carter, Jr., Lectionary Homiletics sample, 2012.
- "Those of us who serve congregations have known Jairus, we have waited with him in emergency rooms and pediatric clinics."
- "Get Up!" Rick Morley, 2012.
- "Until we are either touched by Jesus, or reach out and touch Jesus ourselves, then—and only then—are we delivered from death and given the sacred gift of life."
- Healing An Issue Of Blood -- Healing The Ruler's Daughter -- Exegesis for Proper 8 based on Mark 5:21-43 by Harold H. Lentz from SermonSuite.
- Comentario del Evangelio por Richard Rojas Banuchi, Marcos 5:21-43, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
-
Commentary,
Mark 5:21-43, Mark G. Vitalis Hoffman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org,
2009.
- "Look around! Are there miracles happening that we do not notice because of the crush of so many who press upon us?"
- "Disadvantages?" Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2009.
- "God often works more effectively through the 'disabilities' of the 'weak' and the 'handicapped' than through the talents and resources of the strong and powerful."
- Comments (commentary) and Clippings (technical notes for in-depth study), Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal.
- A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 5:1 - 6:6, Carl W. Conrad. (Click superscript numbers for commentary.)
- "Jesus Raises Jairus' Daughter and Heals the Bleeding Woman," Michael A. Turton's Historical Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, "a complete verse-by-verse commentary on the Gospel of Mark, focusing on the historicity of people, places, events, and sayings in the world of the Gospel of Mark."
-
"First
Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary,"
Pentecost 5, William Loader, Murdoch University,
Uniting Church in Australia.
- "...the sacredness of this text lies less in what history it might purport to tell and more in what it celebrates."
- Exegetical
Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks.
- "Jesus mixes everything up. Jesus doesn't become unclean by contact with the unclean people. They don't bring him down to their level. Jesus' holiness transforms their uncleanness."
-
Commentary, Mark 5:25-34, Deborah K. Blanks,
The African American Lectionary, 2009.
- "Jesus called a woman unnamed in scripture from the shadows of anonymity. He called her 'daughter,' a designation that signifies kinship, relationship and lineage."
- "He Heals the Sick and Raises the Dead," Rev. Bryan Findlayson, Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons, Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources. Includes detailed textual notes.
- Should I touch him? - a Reflection on Mark 5:25-34; Matthew 9:20-22; Luke 7:42b-48, William Loader.
- Healing Jarius' Daughter and Woman with Hemmorhage, Gospel Analysis, Sermons from Seattle, Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington. Detailed background and exegesis.
- Marginally Mark, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia.
- Wellspring of the Gospel, Ordinary 13B, Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner, Weekly Wellsprings.
-
"Arise," Jerry Goebel, One
Family Outreach.
"Focus on scripture from a justice perspective." Exegesis, study, and teen study
and activities.
- "The Greek term for arise [GSN1453 egeiro] is fascinating. It would refer to a life-changing event, command, or challenge that would pull someone out of obscurity, inactivity, nonexistence, or, in our case, near-death."
- Environmental & earth-centered reflections from the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota Environmental Stewardship Commission.
- "Jairus' Daughter," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.
- Articles & Background:
- Confronting the Crisis in Health Care in the Year 2009, the Rev. Bruce Gillette, Witherspoon on the Web.
- "Mark 5," wikipedia.
-
"Jesus as Healer," John J. Pilch,
(other resources at)
"Health," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian
Ethics at Baylor University, 2007.
- "As a folk healer, Jesus restored meaning to people?s lives...Are we engaged in life-giving or death-dealing deeds? Are we restoring meaning to life, or robbing it of the meaning intended by the Creator?"
-
"Magic, Miracles, and The Gospel," L. Michael White. PBS From
Jesus to Christ.
- "Probably in some ways, and more than any other issue within the development of early Christianity and the gospels tradition, miracles present one of the problematic areas."
- "First Century Models of Bodily Healing and Their Socio-Rhetorical Transformation in some New Testament Synoptic Gospel Traditions," L. Gregory Bloomquist, Queen: A Journal of Rhetoric and Power.
-
"Miracles,
In Other Words: Social Science Perspectives on Healings," Jerome H. Neyrey,
University of Notre Dame, 1995.
- "...we should attend to the institution in which the healing takes place, either kinship or politics. What roles does the family have in an illness? How are they socially and economically affected? What role do they play in the seeking of a cure? What costs do they pay or debts to they incur? What if the healing occurs in the political realm, even if this is a healing shrine such as the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus? Healings, moreover, might have important political implications, for "prophets" arose, echoing themes of liberation and freedom. The political significance of the account of the healing by the Jewish Eleazar before the emperor Vespasian and his retinue should not be discounted (Josephus. Ant. 8.45-48)."
- "Women
Transformed: The Ending of Mark is the Beginning of Wisdom," by Marie Sabin in
CrossCurrents, Summer 1998.
- "The raising up of the little girl thus echoes the raising up of the mother-in-law and anticipates the raising up of Jesus. At the same time, the renewed life of the twelve-year-old girl is linked structurally to the healing of the "unclean" woman. In this way Mark suggests that the transformations of all three women are related theologically, not only to each other, but also to the transformed life which the disciples witness in Jesus."
- "Demonism in
Jewish/Hellenistic Literature and Its Relation to Mark 5," by Greg Herrick at the
Biblical Studies Foundation.
- "The Jewish source materials that were written in and around the era of the shaping of the N.T. contribute greatly to an understanding of the historical/theological milieu of the Scriptures, in particular in this study, references to demons and their relation to Mark 5."
- "Faith Healing,"
Kenneth W. Collins. At Ken Collins' Web Site.
- "When we pray for healing, who must have faith?."
- "The
Changing Role of Women in the Early Christian World,"
Howard Clark Kee, University of Pennsylvania. Theology Today,
1992.
- "If the church in our time were to take with full seriousness the radical openness toward women and their participation in the life of God's people that characterized the movement at the outset, it could result in a significant contribution toward renewal of both the church and the human race."
-
"Moses / Jesus / Women: Does the New Testament Offer a Feminist Message?"
Esther Fuchs, Cross Currents, 1999.
- "Reading Jesus as a feminist perpetuates anti-Judaic traditions in Christian theology."
-
"Blurring
the Boundaries: A Response to Howard C. Kee,"
Virginia Burrus, The Theological School at Drew University. Theology
Today, 1992.
- "...a blurring of religious or cultural boundaries in our historical reconstructions may cut against the smugness that frequently creeps into Christian discussions of Judaism and other religious traditions. The roots of a distinctive Christian feminism would appear to be entangled in Jewish and pagan traditions, rather than emerging in pure and radical opposition to those traditions. Second, a blurring of chronological boundaries in our historical reconstructions may cut against the tendency to locate orthodox or authentic Christianity almost purely in a statically defined "golden age" of the distant past. After all, how liberating is it for Christian women to be invited to focus exclusively on "the insights of Jesus and Paul"?"
-
"Jairus's
Daughter: Was She Dead or Wasn't She?" Farrell Till, The
Skeptical Review, 1994.
- "The major problem in the story, then, is quite simple: was the girl dead when her father came to Jesus for help or wasn't she? Mark said Jairus told Jesus that his daughter was lying at the point of death, and Luke simply said that "she was dying." Matthew, however, had the girl's father say, "My daughter has just died.""
-
"Jairus's
Daughter: Dead But Raised to Live Again," Roger W.
Hutchinson, The Skeptical Review, 1996.
- "Matthew and Mark could not have been paraphrasing one unique statement made by Jairus, as Till wrongly assumes. Instead, they must have recorded two unique and different statements made by Jairus."
- Menstruation: Seven Lonely Days, from And Adam Knew Eve: A Dictionary of Sex in the Bible, by Ronald L. Ecker.
- Recommended articles
from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are
linked below.
ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of
selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices. Annotated list of "starting place" articles at ATLAS for this week's texts (includes direct links).
- Capps, Donald,
"Curing Anxious Adolescents through Fatherlike Performance," Interpretation, 2001.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Dewey, Joanna,
"Women in the Gospel of Mark," Word & World, 2006. (Section on
this text begins on page 23.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Dube, Musa W., "Fifty Years of
Bleeding: A Storytelling Feminist Reading of Mark 5:24-43,"
Ecumenical Review, 1999.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Edwards, James R., "Markan
Sandwiches: The Significance of Interpolations in Markan Narratives,"
Novum Testamentum, 1989.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Haber, Susan,
"A Woman's Touch: Feminist Encounters with the Hemorrhaging Woman in Mark
5:24-34," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 2003.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Hedrick, Charles
W., "Miracles in Mark: A Study in Markan Theology and Its Implications
for Modern Religious Thought," Perspectives in Religious Studies,
2007.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - "Homiletical Helps," Concordia Journal, 2009. (Section on this text begins on page 197)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Isaak, Paul J., "Health and
Healing as a Challenge to Christian Ethics and Diaconal Ministry of the
Church," Black Theology, 2003.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Joy, David, "Markan
Subalterns/the Crowd and their Strategies of Resistance: A Postcolonial
Critique," Black Theology, 2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Layzer, Kate, "Living by the Word: Mark 5:21-43," The Christian Century,
2009.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Loader, William,
"Challenged at the Boundaries: A Conservative Jesus in Mark's Tradition,"
Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 1996. (Section on this
text begins on
Page 58.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Malbon, Elizabeth
Struthers,
"Fallible Followers: Women and Men in the Gospel of Mark," Semeia,
1983.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Maluleke, Tinyiko Sam, "The Graveyardman, the 'Escaped Convict and the Girl-Child: A Mission of
Awakening, An Awakening of Mission," International Review of Mission,
2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - McCloskey, Liz Liebold, "Hearing and
Healing Hedda Nussbaum: a Reflection on Mark 5:21-43," The Christian
Century, 1989.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials -
Petersen, Norman R., "The Composition of Mark 4:1-8:26,"
Harvard Theological Review, 1980.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Powell, Charles E.,
"The 'Passivity' of Jesus in Mark 5:25-34,"
Bibliotheca Sacra,
2005.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Selvidge, Marla J., "Mark 5:25-34 and Leviticus 15:19-20: A Reaction to Restrictive Purity
Regulations," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1984.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Shomanah, Musa W. Dube, "Fifty Years of Bleeding: A Storytelling Feminist Reading of Mark 5:24-43,"
Ecumenical Review, 1999.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Watson, Francis, "The Social Function
of Mark's Secrecy Theme," Journal for the Study of the New Testament,
1985.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - West, Gerald,
"Constructing Critical and Contextual Readings with Ordinary Readers,"
Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 1995.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Willimon, William H., "Ready for Interruptions,"
The Christian Century, 1991.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Wray, Judith Hoch,
"Preaching Joy," The Living Pulpit, 1996.
(see
Joy issue focus of The Living Pulpit 5.4, 1996.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Capps, Donald,
"Curing Anxious Adolescents through Fatherlike Performance," Interpretation, 2001.
- Reviews:
- Review: Cosimo Pagliara, La figura di Elia nel vangelo di Marco: Aspetti semantici e funzionali. Pontificia Universia Gregoriana, 2003. Review by Edward L Bode in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004. (Review is in English.)
- Review: Elisa Estévez López, El Poder de una Mujer Creyente: Cuerpo, identidad y discipulado en Mc 5, 24b-34. Un edstudio desde las ciencias sociales. Editorial Verbo Divino, 2004. Review of Biblical Literature.
- Review: Elisa Estévez López, El Poder de una Mujer Creyente: Cuerpo, identidad y discipulado en Mc 5, 24b-34. Un edstudio desde las ciencias sociales. Editorial Verbo Divino, 2004. Review by Bruce J. Malina in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004.
- Reviews: Frances Taylor Gench, Back to the Well: Women's Encounters with Jesus in the Gospels. Westminster John Knox, 2004. Reviews by Orysya Hachko, Kelly Iverson, and Betsy J Bauman-Maring in SBL's Review of Biblical Literature.
- Sermons:
- "Taking Jesus Seriously," Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway, Day 1, 2012.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen -- Stories/Sermons for Proper 8 based on 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 and Mark 5:21-43 by John Sumwalt and Keith Hewitt from SermonSuite
- The Compassionate Healings -- sermon for Proper 8 based on Mark 5:21-43 by Ron Lavin from SermonSuite.
- "A Daughter's Faith," the Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton, Day 1, 2009.
- Pentecost 4, 2 July 2006, Jim Mueller, Göttinger Predigten im Internet: Every Sunday Sermons based on the RCL by a team of Lutheran theologians/ pastors.
- "Jesus and Maggie," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
- "That None Be Left Out," Bishop L. Bevel Jones, Day 1, 2003.
- "Can One So Great Care For one So Small?" John Jewell, 2000.
- Father Andrew M. Greeley, "Priest, Author, Sociologist," Commentary and Homily:
- With Children:
- Worshiping with Children, Proper 8, Ordinary 13, Pentecost +5, Including children in the congregation's worship, using the Revised Common Lectionary, Carolyn C. Brown, 2012.
- "Children's Literature: A Resource for Ministry," July 1, 2012, Union Presbyterian Seminary. Connections: Mark 5:21-43 and Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine.
- "Jesus Heals the Sick," Illustrating the Story (lessons, children's sermons), coloring pages, activity sheets, crafts, children's songs. MSSS Crafts.
- The warmth of God's power -- Children's sermon based on Mark 5:21-43 from SermonSuite.
- "There Is Power in a Touch," Charles Kirkpatrick, Sermons4kids.com.
- "Raising of Jairus' Daughter," Jim Kerlin, childrensermons.com.
- "Mark 5 & 6 Crossword," Don Crownover's Bible Puzzles.
- Drama:
- Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
- Clip Art Images: Mark 5:21-43, Misioneros Del Sagrado Corazón en el Perú.
- Mark 5:21-43, at Cerezo Barredo's weekly gospel illustration. Liberation emphasis.
- Images for this week's readings, Pitts Theology Library Digital Image Archive.
- Clip Art: Jesus Raising Jairus' Daughter, Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld woodcuts, World Mission Collection, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
- Hymns and Music:
- Contemporary/Praise Song suggestions, Together to Celebrate, David MacGregor.
- Hymnary.org, hymns, scores, media, information.
- Hymns with Scripture Allusions: Mark 5:39, 40. The Cyber Hymnal.
- Hymnal Scripture References, The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship.
- Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
- Healing
- Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
- Literature and Literary References:
- "The Daughter of Jairus" by Beatrice Constance Peterson Redpath (-1937)
- Study Links and Resources for the Book of Mark
