Mark 5:41

The context

Jairus, a synagogue ruler, has asked Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Word comes that she has died, and Jesus goes on anyway. He takes the child's hand and speaks a phrase Mark preserves in Aramaic and then translates. The girl, he says, is not dead but asleep.

What it establishes

It establishes that the raising is presented as a physical, public act: a hand taken, a command spoken, and a child who gets up and walks. Mark's translation of the phrase suggests the words were remembered as spoken, and the detail of her age follows.

What it does not establish

It does not establish that the phrase is a magical formula. Mark translates it for readers who did not know the language, and the raising is attributed to Jesus' authority, not the syllables. The account ends with instructions, not explanation.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Miracle stories were crafted after Jesus died, and then included just to make Jesus look like a Jewish wonder-working messianic figure. It's called messianic fiction.

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.