Mark 1:40

Cleansing a Leper

1:40 Now ¹  a leper ²  came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If ³  you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said.

Mark 5:18

5:18 As he was getting into the boat the man who had been demon-possessed asked if he could go ⁴  with him.

Mark 6:11

6:11 If a place will not welcome you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off ⁵  your feet as a testimony against them.”

Mark 7:11

7:11 But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’ ⁶  (that is, a gift for God),

Mark 8:3

8:3 If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from a great distance.”

Mark 9:22

9:22 It has often thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Mark 9:35

9:35 After he sat down, he called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

Mark 9:45

9:45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have ⁷  two feet and be thrown into hell.

Mark 9:50

9:50 Salt ⁸  is good, but if it loses its saltiness, ⁹  how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Mark 11:3

11:3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it ¹⁰  and will send it back here soon.’”

Mark 11:25

11:25 Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will ¹¹  also forgive you your sins.”

Mark 11:31

11:31 They discussed with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

Mark 12:37

12:37 If David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ¹²  And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

Mark 13:20

13:20 And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved. But because of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut them ¹³  short.

Mark 14:31

14:31 But Peter ¹⁴  insisted emphatically, ¹⁵  “Even if I must die with you, I will never deny you.” And all of them said the same thing.

Mark 14:35

14:35 Going a little farther, he threw himself to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour would pass from him.

Mark 15:44

15:44 Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. He ¹⁶  called the centurion and asked him if he had been dead for some time.

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¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

² sn The ancient term for leprosy covers a wider array of conditions than what we call leprosy today. A leper was totally ostracized from society until he was declared cured (Lev 13:45-46).

³ tn This is a third class condition. The report portrays the leper making no presumptions about whether Jesus will heal him or not.

⁴ tn Grk “be,” that is, “remain.” In this context that would involve accompanying Jesus as he went on his way.

⁵ sn To shake the dust off represented shaking off the uncleanness from one’s feet; see Luke 10:11; Acts 13:51; 18:6. It was a sign of rejection.

⁶ sn Corban is a Hebrew loanword (transliterated in the Greek text and in most modern English translations) referring to something that has been set aside as a gift to be given to God at some later date, but which is still in the possession of the owner (L&N 53.22). According to contemporary Jewish tradition the person who made this claim was absolved from responsibility to support or assist his parents, a clear violation of the Mosaic law to honor one’s parents (v. 10).

⁷ tn Grk “than having.”

⁸ sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

⁹ sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its saltiness since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens: Under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.

¹⁰ sn The custom called angaria allowed the impressment of animals for service to a significant figure.

¹¹ tn Although the Greek subjunctive mood, formally required in a subordinate clause introduced by ἵνα ({ina), is traditionally translated by an English subjunctive (e.g., “may,” so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), changes in the use of the subjunctive in English now result in most readers understanding such a statement as indicating permission (“may” = “has permission to”) or as indicating uncertainty (“may” = “might” or “may or may not”). Thus a number of more recent translations render such instances by an English future tense (“will,” so TEV, CEV, NLT, NASB 1995 update). That approach has been followed here.

¹² tn Grk “David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ So how is he his son?” The conditional nuance, implicit in Greek, has been made explicit in the translation (cf. Matt 22:45).

¹³ tn Grk “the days.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Grk “said emphatically.”

¹⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.