Mark 5:40 — Community Reflections

MARK 5:40 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.”

But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was — the laughing at Jesus is the mourners' response to what seems to them an absurd denial of obvious reality. The laughter is not malicious but incredulous — it is the response of people certain about death confronted with a claim that contradicts their certainty. Jesus puts them all out: the mourners who have made their judgment must leave before the event that will overturn it. The intimate witness group — father, mother, three disciples — is all that remains when Jesus enters the room where the child lies.

Church Fathers on Mark 5:40

Those who were about the ruler of the synagogue, thought that Christ was one of the prophets, and for this reason they thought that they should beg of Him to come and pray over the damsel. But because she had already expired, they thought that He ought not to be asked to do so.
Theophylact · 11th century

It is not said that he assented to his friends who brought the tidings and wished to prevent the Master from coming, so that our Lord’s saying, 'Fear not, only believe,' is not a rebuke for his want of faith, but was intended to strengthen the belief which he had already. But if the Evangelist had related, that the ruler of the synagogue joined the friends who came from his house, in saying that Jesus should not be troubled, the words which Matthew relates him to have said,…
Augustine · 4th century

It was told the ruler of the synagogue, Thy daughter is dead. But Jesus said to him, She is not dead, but sleepeth. Bother are true, for the meaning is, She is dead to you, but to Me she is asleep.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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