The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark10:17–31

The Rich Young Man

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Mark 10:17–31 — The Rich Young Man. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

17

As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ekporeuomenou eis autou hodon heis prosdramōn kai gonypetēsas auton agathe Didaskale epērōta auton ti poiēsō hina klēronomēsō aiōnion zōēn

Word by word20 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAsG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐκπορευομένουekporeuomenou[Jesus] startedG1607
√ ἐκπορεύομαι — to depart, be discharged, proceed, projectVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐκπορεύομαι: to depart, proceed, go forth A genitive absolute sets the scene in motion. Mark's Jesus is never stationary in this chapter, and the road (ὁδός, v. 17 word 4) is the same road on which He will tell the Twelve what awaits Him at Jerusalem. The man asks about the way to life while standing in the way to the cross.
εἰςeisonG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὁδὸνhodonwayG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
εἷςheis[a man]G1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
προσδραμὼνprosdramōnran upG4370
√ προστρέχω — to run towards, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
προστρέχω: to run towards A rare verb: the Verifier finds it in only three verses of the New Testament. Barnes weighs the running as honest zeal (“nor is it possible that it should be too intense if well directed”); Cambridge adds that he came up “apparently from behind, eager and breathless.” The same rare word describes the crowd running to Jesus at Mark 9:15.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γονυπετήσαςgonypetēsasknelt beforeG1120
√ γονυπετέω — to fall on the kneeVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
γονυπετέω: to fall on the knee The gesture was owed to a venerated Rabbi (Cambridge), and Gill reports that some versions render it “worshipped him,” though he insists the honour here is civil and not religious. The man's body says more than his theology does: he kneels to One he will not obey.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἀγαθέagatheGoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveVocative Masculine Singular
ἀγαθός: good Vocative, and the pivot of the whole encounter. Ellicott notes it is textually secure in Mark though contested in Matthew. Maclaren reads the ease of the compliment as the symptom: a shallow notion of what “good” is, bestowed on a teacher he barely knew.
ΔιδάσκαλεDidaskaleTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounVocative Masculine Singular
ἐπηρώταepērōtahe askedG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτόνautonG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τίtiwhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ποιήσωpoiēsōmust I doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
ποιέω: to make or do Aorist subjunctive: one decisive deed. The question assumes life is a wage. Cambridge names the error precisely: not by doing but by being was entrance to be obtained.
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
κληρονομήσωklēronomēsōinheritG2816
√ κληρονομέω — to be an heir to (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
κληρονομέω: to be an heir to A relatively uncommon verb (the Verifier counts 17 verses). It belongs to family and covenant, not to commerce: an heir receives because of who he is to the testator. Gill argues the man refuted himself by choosing it, since an inheritance is by will and promise, not by the works of the law (he cites Romans 4:14).
αἰώνιονaiōnioneternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ζωὴνzōēnlifeG2222
√ ζωή — life (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ζωή: life Paired with αἰώνιος (G166, “perpetual, of the age”). The phrase frames the unit: it opens the man's question here and closes Jesus' answer at verse 30, where the same two words are the last thing promised.
18

“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ti legeis me agathon de Ho Iēsous eipen autō oudeis agathos ei mē ho Theos heis

Word by word16 · parsed
ΤίTiWhyG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
λέγειςlegeisdo you callG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
ἀγαθόνagathongoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀγαθός: good Accusative now, the predicate of the man's compliment. Pulpit puts the hinge plainly: the word “good” is the pivot on which the answer turns. Jesus does not say the word is false; He asks whether the speaker knows what he has said.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipenrepliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οὐδεὶςoudeisNo one [is]G3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
οὐδείς: not even one An absolute negation, and the ground of the whole unit. If no human being is good, then no human doing reaches the life he asked to inherit, and the second table Jesus is about to recite cannot function as a ladder. Maclaren says it “cuts up by the roots his notion of the possibility of self-achieved goodness.”
ἀγαθὸςagathosgoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀγαθός: good The third occurrence in two verses. Poole distinguishes the senses that the one English word hides: originally good, supremely good, perfectly good. Goodness in the derived sense is not denied to creatures; goodness in the underived sense is what the sentence reserves to God.
εἰeiexceptG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΘεόςTheosGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
θεός: God Nominative, in apposition to εἷς. The commentators divide over the force of the saying and the brief preserves both readings: Gill and Pulpit hold that Christ is quietly asserting His own deity rather than denying it, while Maclaren frames it as an unavoidable alternative, that either Jesus disclaims sinlessness or claims to be filled with God uniquely. ⚙ We record the division rather than resolve it.
εἷςheisaloneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἷς: one The numeral binds this verse to the Shema. Gill appeals to Deuteronomy 6:4 directly; the ⚙ observation to add is only that the numeral, not an adverb of exclusiveness, is doing the work.
19

You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oidas tas entolas Mē phoneusēs Mē moicheusēs Mē klepsēs Mē pseudomartyrēsēs Mē aposterēsēs Tima sou ton patera kai tēn mētera

Word by word20 · parsed
οἶδαςoidasYou knowG1492
√ εἴδω — used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι) and G3708 (ὁράω)VerbPerfect Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
εἴδω: to know, to have seen A perfect of settled knowledge. Jesus grants the man his own ground before testing it, which is what makes the answer of verse 20 possible and the demand of verse 21 devastating.
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἐντολὰςentolascommandmentsG1785
√ ἐντολή — injunction, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἐντολή: injunction, commandment Only the second table is cited, and Gill records both the Jewish objection to that (why omit the commandments about God?) and the answers he prefers: that the unity and goodness of God were already asserted in verse 18, and that the argument runs from the lesser to the greater. Pulpit adds the Johannine logic, that he who does not love the brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.
ΜὴMē{Do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
φονεύσῃςphoneusēsmurderG5407
√ φονεύω — to be a murderer (of)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ΜὴMē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
μοιχεύσῃςmoicheusēscommit adulteryG3431
√ μοιχεύω — to commit adulteryVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ΜὴMē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
κλέψῃςklepsēsstealG2813
√ κλέπτω — to filchVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ΜὴMē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ψευδομαρτυρήσῃςpseudomartyrēsēsbear false witnessG5576
√ ψευδομαρτυρέω — to be an untrue testifier, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ΜὴMē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ἀποστερήσῃςaposterēsēscheat [others]G650
√ ἀποστερέω — to despoilVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ἀποστερέω: to despoil, defraud Mark's own addition to the list and the sharpest word in it. Ellicott turns it into examination questions for a wealthy man: “Were there no ill-gotten gains in his treasure? Had no wages of the reaper been kept back?” That is the substance of Leviticus 19:13 and Deuteronomy 24:14, where wages withheld overnight are named as robbery. ⚙ The one commandment Jesus adds is the one his hearer's wealth could most easily have broken.
ΤίμαTimahonorG5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
τιμάω: to prize, to honour Present imperative, durative. Placing the fifth commandment last is Mark's arrangement (Cambridge notes it), and it leaves the reader with a duty to father and mother standing immediately before verse 29, where father and mother are among the things left for Christ's sake.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
μήτηρ: mother Not a function word here: μήτηρ and πατήρ reappear together in verse 29 and μητέρας again in verse 30, where the list of things restored includes mothers but, as the interlinear shows, no fathers.
20

“Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Didaskale de Ho ephē autō panta tauta ephylaxamēn ek mou neotētos

Word by word11 · parsed
ΔιδάσκαλεDidaskaleTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounVocative Masculine Singular
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἔφηephēhe repliedG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
φημί: to declare, make known one's thought Imperfect of a verb of declaration; the answer comes back fast and whole, without hesitation, which is itself the diagnosis.
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
πάνταpantaallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ταῦταtautatheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐφυλαξάμηνephylaxamēnI have keptG5442
√ φυλάσσω — to watch, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle1st Person Singular
φυλάσσω: to guard, to watch, to keep The aorist middle is the weightiest word in the verse. The root is custodial, the verb of a sentry over a treasury. ⚙ Read with verse 22, where the same man cannot let go of his κτήματα, the middle voice exposes the pattern: everything in his life, including the Law, is something held. Cambridge records the rabbinic parallel of R. Chanina answering the Angel of Death by asking whether there is anything in the Book of the Law he has not kept.
ἐκekfromG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
μουmoumyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
νεότητόςneotētosyouthG3503
√ νεότης — newness, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
νεότης: youth, newness Matthew alone tells us he was young (so Cambridge and Pulpit); on Mark's page the word is the only hint of his age, and it makes the claim more, not less, remarkable.
21

Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous emblepsas autō ēgapēsen auton kai eipen autō Hen se hysterei hypage pōlēson hosa echeis kai dos tois ptōchois kai hexeis thēsauron en ouranō kai deuro akolouthei moi

Word by word30 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐμβλέψαςemblepsaslooked atG1689
√ ἐμβλέπω — to look on, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐμβλέπω: to look on, to gaze into A rare verb of penetrating sight. Pulpit says the words “combine the Divine penetration with human sympathy and compassion.” Mark uses it again at verse 27, of Jesus looking at the disciples when He tells them what is impossible with men; the two looks bracket the whole discourse on riches.
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἠγάπησενēgapēsenlovedG25
√ ἀγαπάω — to love (in a social or moral sense)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀγαπάω: to love The only place in Mark where Jesus is said to love a named individual, and He says it of a man who is about to walk away. ⚙ Whatever restriction the commentators place on the verb, the narrative order matters: the love comes before the demand, and the demand is not softened by the love.
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἶπενeipensaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōto himG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἝνHen[There is] one thingG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
σεseyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
ὑστερεῖhystereilackG5302
√ ὑστερέω — to be later, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὑστερέω: to fall short, to come behind One present-tense verb undoes an entire aorist claim. He said he had guarded all these things; Jesus replies that one thing is still running behind him. Cambridge calls the command that follows “one short crucial test of his real condition, and way to clearer self-knowledge.”
ὕπαγεhypageGoG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
πώλησονpōlēsonsellG4453
√ πωλέω — to barter (as a pedlar), iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
πωλέω: to barter, to sell Aorist imperative: a single, complete transaction. Pulpit and Poole both insist this was “not a general command, but a particular precept, which the young ruler specially needed,” Poole calling it “a special precept upon him, conjoined with two general precepts concerning all the disciples of Christ.” Cambridge, reading forward, notes Keble's observation that within a few months many in Jerusalem did exactly this at Acts 4:34-37.
ὅσαhosaeverythingG3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἔχειςecheisyou ownG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δὸςdosgiveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
τοῖςtoisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
πτωχοῖςptōchoispoorG4434
√ πτωχός — akin to G4422 (πτοέω) and the alternate of G4098 (πίπτω))AdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
πτωχός: poor, destitute Not the working poor but the crouching beggar; the same word Jesus applies to the blessed in the Beatitudes. Deuteronomy 15:7-11 commands an open hand to such a brother and Proverbs 19:17 calls giving to them a loan to the LORD, which is the exact economics of the next clause.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἕξειςhexeisyou will haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
θησαυρὸνthēsaurontreasureG2344
√ θησαυρός — a deposit, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
θησαυρός: a deposit, treasure The promise is not that he will lose his wealth but that he will move it. ⚙ The transaction proposed is an exchange of location, earth for heaven, not an exchange of nature; what makes it impossible for him is not the loss but the trust.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
οὐρανῷouranōheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δεῦροdeurocomeG1204
√ δεῦρο — hereVerbImperative2nd Person Singular
δεῦρο: here, come A word of place used as a command: “here, to Me.” The Greek ends the sentence on a person, not a programme.
ἀκολούθειakoloutheifollowG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἀκολουθέω: to follow, to be in the same way with Present imperative, and the verb Peter will use of himself in the perfect at verse 28. The one thing lacking turns out not to be a deed at all but a road.
μοιmoiMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
22

But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho stygnasas epi tō logō apēlthen lypoumenos gar ēn echōn polla ktēmata

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
στυγνάσαςstygnasas[the man] was saddenedG4768
√ στυγνάζω — to render gloomy, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
στυγνάζω: to render gloomy, to lower A very rare verb, shared with Matthew 16:3 alone in the New Testament, where it describes a red and lowering sky. ⚙ Mark, or Peter behind him, chose a weather word for a face: the cloud that came over him is the same cloud that comes over the evening sky. Cambridge lines up the three accounts: “sorrowful,” says Matthew; “very sorrowful,” says Luke; “lowring, with a cloud upon his brow,” says Mark.
ἐπὶepibyG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τῷtō[these]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
λόγῳlogōwordsG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounDative Masculine Singular
λόγος: something said, a word Singular. It was not the whole encounter that darkened him but one saying, and the brief's commentators agree on which: Gill names both halves of what he was asked to surrender, “his idol of self-righteousness, and his mammon of unrighteousness.”
ἀπῆλθενapēlthen[and] went awayG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀπέρχομαι: to go off, to depart The narrative verb of the unit's hinge. He came running (v. 17) and he leaves walking away. Cambridge quotes Dante's phrase for it, “the great refusal.”
λυπούμενοςlypoumenosin sorrowG3076
√ λυπέω — to distressVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
γὰρgarbecauseG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἦνēnhe hadG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἔχωνechōn. . .G2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
πολλάpollagreatG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
κτήματαktēmatawealthG2933
√ κτῆμα — an acquirement, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
κτῆμα: an acquirement, a possession The last word of the sentence in Greek, and the explanation of everything before it. Henry's summary is the oldest and simplest reading: he could not lay hold on eternal life and keep hold of his worldly possessions too.
23

Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous periblepsamenos legei autou tois mathētais Pōs dyskolōs hoi echontes ta chrēmata eiseleusontai eis tēn basileian tou Theou

Word by word20 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
περιβλεψάμενοςperiblepsamenoslooked aroundG4017
√ περιβλέπω — to look all aroundVerbAorist Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
περιβλέπω: to look all around One of Mark's signature gestures. Cambridge quotes Bengel's Latin on the point, that the face of Christ is often described, matched to His feeling and tempered to the feelings of His hearers. Here the look turns from the departing man to the men who stayed.
λέγειlegei[and] said toG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
μαθηταῖςmathētaisdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
ΠῶςPōsHowG4459
√ πῶς — an interrogative particle of mannerAdverb
δυσκόλωςdyskolōshard {it is}G1423
√ δυσκόλως — impracticablyAdverb
δυσκόλως: with difficulty, impracticably The rarest word in the verse and the Verifier's strongest link to the parallels at Matthew 19:23 and Luke 18:24. ⚙ Its root in fastidiousness about food is worth hearing: the rich man is not barred at the door, he is hard to feed, hard to please, difficult to bring to the table at all.
οἱhoifor theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἔχοντεςechontesvvvG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
τὰtavvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
χρήματαchrēmatarichG5536
√ χρῆμα — something useful or needed, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
χρῆμα: something useful or needed The word for wealth chosen here is the word for what is useful. The danger Pulpit lists is not that money is evil but that it is useful: it binds the soul to earth, tempts men to heap it up lawfully or unlawfully, and feeds pride and luxury.
εἰσελεύσονταιeiseleusontaito enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλεία: royalty, kingdom, rule Gill reads it here of the Gospel dispensation entered by embracing its doctrines and ordinances; Henry and Benson read it of final salvation. ⚙ The unit itself supplies the equation: what is called “the kingdom of God” in verses 23 to 25 is called being “saved” in verse 26 and “eternal life” in verses 17 and 30.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
24

And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hoi mathētai ethambounto epi autou tois logois de ho Iēsous apokritheis legei autois palin Tekna pōs dyskolon estin eiselthein eis tēn basileian tou Theou

Word by word25 · parsed
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐθαμβοῦντοethambountowere amazedG2284
√ θαμβέω — to stupefy (with surprise), iVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
θαμβέω: to stupefy with surprise A rare verb (three verses). Gill supplies the reason for the shock: they expected the Messiah's kingdom in worldly pomp, with the rich of the nation coming in to support its splendour. Benson puts it more concretely still, that they looked for the great men of the country to appear for their Master and set him on the throne of Israel.
ἐπὶepiatG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
λόγοιςlogoiswordsG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounDative Masculine Plural
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisvvvG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκρίνομαι: to answer, to conclude for oneself An aorist passive participle used as a Semitic idiom of resumption; the disciples had asked nothing aloud. He answers their faces.
λέγειlegeisaidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisto themG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
πάλινpalinagainG3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
ΤέκναTeknaChildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounVocative Neuter Plural
τέκνον: a child, as produced The single tenderest word in the discourse, and it is spoken at the hardest moment. ⚙ It is also the pivot of the unit's economy: children are what a man leaves in verse 29 and what he receives a hundredfold in verse 30, and here the disciples are told they are that to Him.
πῶςpōshowG4459
√ πῶς — an interrogative particle of mannerAdverb
δύσκολόνdyskolonhardG1422
√ δύσκολος — properly, fastidious about eating (peevish), iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
δύσκολος: hard, difficult, hard to please The adjective matching the adverb of verse 23, here neuter and impersonal. On the shorter reading the difficulty has been lifted off the rich and laid on the act of entering itself, which Ellicott states plainly: “hard alike for rich and poor, though, as the words that follow show, it was hardest for the former.”
ἐστινestinit isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰσελθεῖνeiseltheinto enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
εἰςeisG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
25

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

estin eukopōteron kamēlon dielthein dia tēs trymalias tēs rhaphidos ē plousion eiselthein eis tēn basileian tou Theou

Word by word17 · parsed
ἐστινestinIt isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εὐκοπώτερόνeukopōteroneasierG2123
√ εὐκοπώτερος — better for toil, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
εὐκοπώτερος: better for toil, easier A comparative of labour. ⚙ The proverb form is a comparison between two impossibilities, which is why commentators split over whether it means hard or absolutely impossible; verse 27 settles it by declaring the thing impossible with men and possible with God, so the answer is neither “hard but doable” nor “shut forever.”
κάμηλονkamēlon[for] a camelG2574
√ κάμηλος — a "camel"NounAccusative Feminine Singular
κάμηλος: a camel Cambridge's verdict, that the literal reading is best and that similar hyperboles are common in the Talmud, is the soberest handling of a much-abused verse. The “small gate called the needle's eye” explanation has no ancient support offered in this brief, and Cambridge lists it only to set it aside.
διελθεῖνdieltheinto passG1330
√ διέρχομαι — to traverse (literally)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
τρυμαλιᾶςtrymaliaseyeG5168
√ τρυμαλιά — akin to the base of G5134 (τραῦμα), G5147 (τρίβος) and G5176 (τρώγω))NounGenitive Feminine Singular
τρυμαλιά: a hole, a perforation A rare noun, and a concrete one: the hole punched through metal. The Greek keeps the image mechanical rather than anatomical.
τῆςtēsof aG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ῥαφίδοςrhaphidosneedleG4476
√ ῥαφίς — perhaps rather akin to the base of G4474 (ῥαπίζω) through the idea of puncturing)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
ῥαφίς: a needle From a root of stitching and piercing. The pair of nouns names the smallest opening in domestic life, set against the largest beast: the proverb works by putting the two extremes of ordinary experience in one clause.
ἢēthan [for]G2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
πλούσιονplousiona rich manG4145
√ πλούσιος — wealthyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
πλούσιος: wealthy The saying now touches the man himself, not his attitude. Psalm 49:6-7 had already said that those who trust in wealth cannot ransom a brother or give God a price, and Proverbs 11:28 that the one trusting in riches falls.
εἰσελθεῖνeiseltheinto enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
26

They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hoi perissōs exeplēssonto legontes pros heautous tis Kai dynatai sōthēnai

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
περισσῶςperissōsvvvG4057
√ περισσῶς — superabundantlyAdverb
ἐξεπλήσσοντοexeplēssontoThey were even more astonishedG1605
√ ἐκπλήσσω — to strike with astonishmentVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ἐκπλήσσω: to strike with astonishment Gill explains the escalation: the camel saying seemed to them to show “that it was utterly impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” and the collapse of that expectation is the shock. Benson adds their political disappointment, since they had looked for the rich and great of the country to carry their Master to the throne.
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
ἑαυτούςheautousone anotherG1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἑαυτοῦ: himself, themselves The reflexive is the textual crux of the verse; see the apparatus. Gill notes that the Persic version reads the question as being about the young man in particular, “how can this man be saved?”
τίςtisWhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ΚαὶKaithenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δύναταιdynataicanG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
δύναμαι: to be able The verb of ability, used here of an ability nobody has. It is the same root that supplies ἀδύνατον and δυνατά in the next verse, so verse 27 answers the disciples in their own vocabulary.
σωθῆναιsōthēnaibe savedG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Infinitive Passive
σῴζω: to save, to make whole ⚙ The unit's three names for one thing are now all on the page: inheriting eternal life (v. 17), entering the kingdom of God (vv. 23-25), and being saved (v. 26). The third is the only one of the three cast in the passive voice, and it is the one that receives an answer.
27

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ho Iēsous Emblepsas autois legei Para anthrōpois adynaton all’ ou para theō gar panta dynata para tō theō

Word by word18 · parsed
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἘμβλέψαςEmblepsaslooked atG1689
√ ἐμβλέπω — to look on, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐμβλέπω: to look into, to gaze on The second of the two penetrating looks in this unit. ⚙ The first (v. 21) preceded a demand no man could meet; the second precedes the announcement that God meets it. The looks belong together and are given by the same eyes.
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
λέγειlegei[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΠαρὰParaWithG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
παρά: beside, with, in the presence of Repeated three times in one verse, twice of God. Not a function word here: the whole theology of the sentence sits in the preposition, because the same act is impossible in one sphere and possible in another without changing its content.
ἀνθρώποιςanthrōpoismanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Plural
ἀδύνατονadynaton[this is] impossibleG102
√ ἀδύνατος — unable, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἀδύνατος: unable, impossible A word the Verifier finds in ten verses. The escalation is deliberate: hard (v. 23), hard (v. 24), easier for a camel (v. 25), impossible (v. 27). Gill lists what the reversal covers, including reducing a camel to pass the needle and taking a rich man off his trust in worldly riches and bringing him into the kingdom.
ἀλλ’all’butG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
οὐounotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
παρὰparawithG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
θεῷtheōGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounDative Masculine Singular
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
πάνταpantaall thingsG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
πᾶς: all, every Unrestricted, and paired with δυνατά. Pulpit's gloss is the classical one: this is a supernatural blessing, obtainable only by supernatural aid, God being the author of nature and of grace alike.
δυνατὰdynata[are] possibleG1415
√ δυνατός — powerful or capable (literally or figuratively)AdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
παρὰparawithG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
θεῷtheōGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounDative Masculine Singular
28

Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ho Petros Ērxato legein autō Idou hēmeis aphēkamen panta kai ēkolouthēkamen soi

Word by word12 · parsed
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠέτροςPetrosPeterG4074
√ Πέτρος — a (piece of) rock (larger than G3037 (λίθος))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἬρξατοĒrxatobeganG756
√ ἄρχομαι — to commence (in order of time)VerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἄρχομαι: to begin, to commence Mark's habitual idiom; we do not press it. Ellicott notes that Mark drops the question Matthew records as the rest of Peter's speech, “What shall we have therefore?”, and Gill and Cambridge both note the same omission.
λέγεινlegeinto sayG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἸδοὺIdouLookG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἡμεῖςhēmeisweG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Plural
ἀφήκαμενaphēkamenhave leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
ἀφίημι: to send away, to let go, to leave Poole measures the claim fairly: Peter “had no riches to trust in or have his heart cleave unto, and had stripped himself of all that little he had to follow Christ.” Pulpit measures it the same way, boats and nets and a means of subsistence, small in themselves but “such things as they would have desired to keep,” and quotes Cornelius a Lapide that what the follower gives up is what the non-follower would want.
πάνταpantaeverythingG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
πᾶς: all, every The same word the rich man could not act on in verse 21. ⚙ Benson's aside is the sharpest comment in the brief on this verse: “Though the young man would not.” Mark has set the two responses to one demand side by side without comment.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠκολουθήκαμένēkolouthēkamenfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbPerfect Indicative Active1st Person Plural
ἀκολουθέω: to follow, to be in the same way with The perfect tense is Peter's real argument: not that he once made a decision but that he is still on the road. Geneva makes the corresponding warning, that to neglect everything in comparison with Christ is a sure way to eternal life “so that we do not fall away along the path,” which is worth hearing from the mouth of the man who would deny Him.
σοιsoiYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
29

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Amēn legō hymin Iēsous Ephē ho estin oudeis hos aphēken oikian ē adelphous ē adelphas ē mētera ē patera ē tekna ē agrous heneken emou kai heneken tou euangeliou

Word by word29 · parsed
ἈμὴνAmēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
ἀμήν: firm, trustworthy, so be it An untranslated Hebrew oath-word inside Greek. It marks what follows as a guaranteed pledge rather than an observation, which matters because the content of the pledge (v. 30) is otherwise hard to believe.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἜφηEphērepliedG5346
√ φημί — to show or make known one's thoughts, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οὐδείςoudeisno oneG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὃςhoswhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀφῆκενaphēkenhas leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀφίημι: to send away, to leave Aorist, generalising Peter's aorist. Ellicott observes what Mark leaves out here: the promise of the twelve thrones that Matthew 19:28 records, omitted, he suggests, because Mark writes for Gentile converts. Pulpit reasons the same way about Mark and Luke.
οἰκίανoikianhomeG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀδελφοὺςadelphousbrothersG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀδελφὰςadelphassistersG79
√ ἀδελφή — a sister (naturally or ecclesiastically)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
τέκναteknachildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
ἀγροὺςagrousfieldsG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀγρός: a field The list moves from house to kin to land, that is, from shelter to relationships to the means of income. ⚙ It is a complete inventory of a first-century life, and it is the same inventory the young man was asked to liquidate.
ἕνεκενhenekenfor My sakeG1752
√ ἕνεκα — on account ofPreposition
ἕνεκα: on account of, for the sake of Repeated deliberately, and the boundary of the whole promise. Nothing in verses 29 to 30 is offered for renunciation as such; asceticism is not the ground. The ground is a person and a message.
ἐμοῦemou. . .G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἕνεκενhenekenforG1752
√ ἕνεκα — on account ofPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
εὐαγγελίουeuangeliougospelG2098
√ εὐαγγέλιον — a good message, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
εὐαγγέλιον: a good message, good news Gill takes it concretely, “for the sake of preaching, or professing Christ, and his Gospel.” ⚙ The pairing of Christ with the gospel as two co-ordinate causes is characteristic of Mark, whose first sentence names the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it keeps the promise open to those who never saw Him.
30

will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

labē hekatontaplasiona nyn en tō toutō kairō ean mē oikias kai adelphous kai adelphas kai mēteras kai tekna kai agrous meta diōgmōn kai en tō aiōni tō erchomenō aiōnion zōēn

Word by word30 · parsed
λάβῃlabēwill fail to receiveG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
λαμβάνω: to take, to receive The subjunctive inside a negated conditional makes the promise airtight by excluding exceptions rather than by asserting a rule. ⚙ Also note the verb: receive, not earn or keep. The whole unit has been driving toward a passive or receptive posture, from the young man's “what shall I do” to the disciples' “who can be saved” to this.
ἑκατονταπλασίοναhekatontaplasionaa hundredfoldG1542
√ ἑκατονταπλασίων — a hundred timesAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἑκατονταπλασίων: a hundredfold A rare adjective (three verses); the Verifier links it to the good soil of Luke 8:8. Barnes refuses to arithmetise it: it means the loss is a hundred times compensated, in pardon, in the favour of God, in peace of conscience and in new brethren and sisters and mothers, “and this corresponds to the experience of all who ever became Christians.” Geneva conditions it on using the goods of this life according to God's will “and not just to gain the wealth itself.”
νῦνnyn. . .G3568
√ νῦν — "now" (as adverb of date, a transition or emphasis)Adverb
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
τούτῳtoutōpresentG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounDative Masculine Singular
καιρῷkairōageG2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounDative Masculine Singular
καιρός: an occasion, a set season Set against αἰών at word 25. The promise falls into two parts in Greek as it does not in English: one gift inside a bounded season, another in an unbounded age.
ἐὰνeanvvvG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
οἰκίαςoikiashousesG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀδελφοὺςadelphousbrothersG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀδελφὰςadelphassistersG79
√ ἀδελφή — a sister (naturally or ecclesiastically)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μητέραςmēterasmothersG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τέκναteknachildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀγροὺςagrousfieldsG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
μετὰmetaalong withG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
διωγμῶνdiōgmōnpersecutionsG1375
√ διωγμός — persecutionNounGenitive Masculine Plural
διωγμός: persecution The single word in the verse that no other Gospel records here. Ellicott connects it to Peter's own later theology of the fiery trial and the exceeding joy (1 Peter 4:12-13) and suspects it was engraved on Peter's mind by experience; Pulpit points to 1 Peter 4:14 for the same reason. ⚙ If Mark is Peter's Gospel, this is the clause a persecuted apostle remembered his Master adding, and it is the one clause that makes the hundredfold credible.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
αἰῶνιaiōniageG165
√ αἰών — properly, an ageNounDative Masculine Singular
αἰών: an age With the participle ἐρχομένῳ, “the coming one.” The last two words of the verse, αἰώνιον ζωήν, are the exact two words the man asked about in verse 17. The discourse ends by handing back his own question answered, but on the far side of a season of persecutions he was not willing to enter.
τῷtōtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἐρχομένῳerchomenōcomeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveDative Masculine Singular
αἰώνιονaiōnioneternalG166
√ αἰώνιος — perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ζωὴνzōēnlifeG2222
√ ζωή — life (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
31

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de polloi prōtoi esontai eschatoi kai hoi eschatoi prōtoi

Word by word9 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
πολλοὶpolloimany [who are]G4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
πολύς: much, many Not a throwaway quantifier. It keeps the saying from becoming a mechanical inversion in which poverty guarantees precedence, which would be the mirror of the error Jesus has just dismantled.
πρῶτοιprōtoifirstG4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
πρῶτος: foremost in time, place, order or importance Pulpit reconstructs the disciples' unspoken objection that this answers: how can we, the poor and unlearned and despised, outrank the scribes and Pharisees and that rich young ruler. The answer is that the ordering they see is not the final ordering.
ἔσονταιesontaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
ἔσχατοιeschatoilastG2078
√ ἔσχατος — farthest, final (of place or time)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἔσχατος: farthest, final The unit began with a man running to be first and ends with a word about being last. Ellicott notes that Mark omits the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, which Matthew attaches here as an illustration, so in Mark the saying stands bare, without a story to cushion it.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἔσχατοιeschatoilastG2078
√ ἔσχατος — farthest, final (of place or time)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
πρῶτοιprōtoi[will be] firstG4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The running man and the weight of one adjective — Mark 10:17-18

Mark sets the whole scene in motion: ἐκπορευομένου is a present participle in a genitive absolute, and both Ellicott and Cambridge correct the older English to “as He was going forth.” Into that motion a man runs. The verb is rare (προστρέχω, three verses in the New Testament), and Cambridge pictures him coming up “apparently from behind, eager and breathless”; Barnes will not despise the haste, holding that zeal to know the way of salvation cannot be too intense if well directed. Maclaren is the most generous and the most severe at once: there were courage, earnestness and humility in the gesture, and yet the question betrayed the defect that poisoned them. Cambridge names the defect in six words: not by doing but by being. Then Jesus takes hold of the one adjective the man had thrown away lightly. Cambridge notes the emphasis lies on the “why,” and adds that the Lord “does not decline the appellation ‘good’; He repels it only in the superficial sense of the questioner.” Poole distinguishes the senses the English hides, originally, supremely, perfectly good; Gill argues that Christ “tacitly suggests” His own deity rather than denying it, and reads the clause alongside Deuteronomy 6:4; Pulpit makes the same case at length. Maclaren alone states it as an alternative that cannot be dodged: either Jesus is repudiating His own sinlessness, or He is claiming to be filled with God in a wholly unique manner. ⚙ We record the division without pretending it is settled, and note only that the grammar is bare: οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ Θεός, with no copula, a total negation and a single numeral carved out of it.

ii. The second table, the guarded estate, and the one thing that was lacking — Mark 10:19-22

Jesus recites the second table, and Cambridge calls the manner of it “a striking instance of the free mode of quotation from the Old Testament even in such a case as the Ten Commandments”: adultery before murder, honouring parents moved to the end, and one clause that belongs to no Decalogue list at all. Μὴ ἀποστερήσῃς is, as Ellicott says, “peculiar to St. Mark.” Ellicott turns it into an examination for a wealthy man, asking whether any wages of the reaper had been kept back; Barnes traces it to Leviticus 19:13; Cambridge glosses it “deprive none of what is theirs.” The answer comes back whole: ἐφυλαξάμην, aorist middle, which Pulpit renders “I kept, I guarded,” and which Poole quietly limits to the Law “according to that law interpretation of them given by the Pharisees.” ⚙ The middle voice is the tell. This is a man who guards things for himself, and the last word of verse 22 will be κτήματα, acquirements, things held. Between the two stands the only place in Mark where Jesus is said to love a named individual. Ellicott notes the fact is Mark's alone and imagines the look and perhaps a kiss on the brow; Pulpit calls it word-painting probably supplied by Peter; Barnes restricts it to natural affection; Gill, tracking Septuagint usage, presses it toward compassion and pity; Cambridge renders it “esteemed him.” Then comes the sentence with the strange grammar: Ἕν σε ὑστερεῖ, one thing is lacking you, the deficiency the subject and the man the object. Benson says the missing thing is the love of God, “without which all religion is a dead carcass”; Cambridge calls the command that follows “one short crucial test of his real condition.” Poole and Pulpit both insist the sale was a particular precept for this man, not a general rule, while Cambridge, reading forward with Keble, observes that within a few months hundreds in Jerusalem did exactly this and laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet (Acts 4:34-37). He goes away under a cloud: στυγνάσας, a word Mark shares only with the lowering sky of Matthew 16:3, and which Ellicott renders bluntly, “He frowned.” Cambridge gives it Dante's name, “the great refusal.”

iii. The camel, the needle, and the door no one can open — Mark 10:23-27

Jesus turns from the man who left to the men who stayed, with the sweeping middle-voice look Mark loves; Ellicott notes the glance is recorded by Mark only, and Cambridge quotes Bengel on how often Mark describes the face of Christ, tempered to His hearers. The adverb is rare: δυσκόλως, found in only three verses, all three of them this saying in the three Gospels. Benson refuses the usual escape, “Not only that love them, but that possess them,” and then concedes the escape is only verbal: “it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a man to have riches, and not trust in them.” Gill and Benson agree on why the disciples were stunned; they expected the kingdom to arrive with the wealth of the nation behind it. Then the second saying, and here the text itself is contested. The interlinear before us reads simply “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God,” with no qualifier; Ellicott and Cambridge report that the best manuscripts omit “for them that trust in riches,” Ellicott judging the clause an attempt “to tone down the words of warning to what seemed a rational medium,” while Pulpit weighs the same evidence and keeps it. ⚙ On the shorter reading the difficulty has been lifted off the rich and laid on entering as such, which alone explains the disciples' next question. Cambridge sorts the readings of the camel: the “anchor-rope” conjecture, the small-gate theory, and its own verdict that it is “best to understand the words literally,” with Pulpit adding Lightfoot's rabbinic parallel of the elephant through the needle's eye and Jerome's softer reading of infrequency rather than impossibility. περισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο: Benson translates it “more abundantly struck with astonishment, more even than before.” Their question, τίς δύναται σωθῆναι, is in the passive: who can be saved, by another. That is already half the answer, and Jesus gives the other half with the same penetrating look He gave the young man: with men impossible, with God all things possible. Chrysostom, quoted by Pulpit, says the look was meant to soothe the timid; Gill lists what the divine possibility covers, including taking a rich man off his trust in riches and bringing him in.

iv. Peter's ledger, the hundredfold with persecutions, and the reversal — Mark 10:28-31

Peter does arithmetic. Ellicott notes that Mark drops the blunt question Matthew preserves, “What shall we have therefore?”, and Poole names the motive without malice: Peter “raised up hopes to himself,” having stripped himself of the little he had. Pulpit measures the little honestly, boats and nets and a living, and quotes Cornelius a Lapide that men forsake for Christ such things as are desirable to those who do not follow Him, and Augustine that Peter forsook not only what he had but what he desired to have. The answer is sworn with Ἀμήν and doubled with ἕνεκεν: for My sake, and for the gospel's. Ellicott observes that Mark, likely writing for Gentile converts, omits the promise of the twelve thrones that Matthew records. Benson, quoting Macknight, blocks the obvious misreading, that the promise is not about literal desertion of family but about those who for Christ's sake have renounced what relations and possessions usually afford; Barnes reads the hundredfold as compensation in kind of value rather than of number, pardon and peace and new brethren, and Geneva adds the condition that we use the commodities of this life “in accordance with the will of God, and not just to gain the wealth itself.” Then the clause that is Mark's alone: μετὰ διωγμῶν. Ellicott thinks it was engraved on Peter's mind by experience and points to 1 Peter 4:12-13; Cambridge calls it “an important limitation”; Pulpit calls it a blessing and cites 1 Peter 4:14; Benson says plainly that none is entitled to this happiness “but he that will accept of it with persecutions.” ⚙ One detail belongs to no commentator in this brief and we mark it as ours: verse 29 lists father among what is left, and verse 30's list of what is received back has houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, and no fathers. The word is simply absent from the Greek. The unit closes on the reversal. Cambridge traces it through history, temporarily in Peter, finally in Judas, gloriously in Paul; Ellicott notes that Mark omits the vineyard parable Matthew attaches to it; Pulpit hears the disciples' unspoken objection, how can we, the poor and unlearned, outrank the scribes and that rich young ruler. The answer is the reversal itself.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against Scripture and not to be received on our authority. Read from the Greek up, the unit is held together by one grammatical accident that no English version can carry: a man who guards. He guarded for himself the commandments (ἐφυλαξάμην, aorist middle, v. 20), and he was one having many acquirements (ἦν ἔχων πολλὰ κτήματα, periphrastic imperfect, v. 22). Both clauses describe the same posture applied to two different objects, and the second is only the visible form of the first. That is why the diagnosis arrives in the grammar of verse 21 rather than in its vocabulary: Ἕν σε ὑστερεῖ does not say “you lack one thing,” as if one more item could be added to a collection; it says one thing is lacking you, running behind a man who is otherwise complete. You cannot acquire it. A man whose entire method is acquisition therefore cannot obtain it by his method, and this is exactly the impossibility of verse 27, spoken not about rich men in particular but, on the shorter reading of verse 24 that the manuscripts before us support, about entering at all. Note where the discourse begins: with the sentence that no one is good except one, God (v. 18). If goodness is not a human possession, then the second table recited in verse 19 was never a ladder, and the man's confident “all these I guarded” was true as far as the Pharisees' reading went (so Poole) and irrelevant as far as life goes. And note what the disciples' question does with the verb: σωθῆναι is a passive infinitive. Who can be saved, by someone else. They have stopped asking what to do, which is the question the man asked in verse 17, and begun asking who can act on them. That is the first genuinely Christian sentence in the passage, and it is asked by men who are astonished, not by men who are confident. ⚙ Two further observations we hold loosely. First, the promise of verse 30 returns mothers and children and houses and fields, and does not return fathers; the omission is in the Greek text the interlinear gives us, and we take it as significant rather than accidental, since the one Father is not among the things a disciple is given back a hundredfold. Second, the love of verse 21 precedes the demand and does not soften it. Whatever weight the commentators allow ἠγάπησεν, and they allow it very different weights, Mark's order stands: Jesus loved him, and then asked him for everything, and then let him walk away. A gospel that will not ask is not the gospel of this chapter, and a gospel that asks without loving first is not it either.

The one thing he lacked was the one thing that could not be acquired, and acquiring was the only thing he knew how to do.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The rarest adverb in the discourse: “hardly” in all three Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier's candidate list puts Matthew 19:23 and Luke 18:24 next to this verse, and the load-bearing lexeme is not kingdom or enter, which are everywhere, but δυσκόλως (G1423), which the Verifier finds in just three verses of the whole New Testament. Those three verses are this saying in Mark, in Matthew and in Luke. A word that occurs nowhere else in the canon occurs in all three records of one sentence: that is a verbal link of the strongest kind available inside a single language. Benson keeps it visible in his exposition, “Πως δυσκολως, with how great difficulty.”

Matthew 19:23 · Luke 18:24 · Matthew 19:24 · Luke 18:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1423 δυσκόλως, a rare word found in only 3 verses (Mark 10:23, Matthew 19:23, Luke 18:24), plus the common frame G932 βασιλεία (154 vv) and G1525 εἰσέρχομαι (184 vv). Greek to Greek within the synoptic tradition; the rarity of δυσκόλως, not the frequency of the frame, is what carries the tier

A lowering sky and a lowering face verbal / quotation: confirmed

When the man's countenance falls, Mark reaches for στυγνάσας (G4768), and the Verifier finds that verb in only two verses of the New Testament. The other is Matthew 16:3, where it describes a red and threatening evening sky. Ellicott makes the connection explicit (“The word is the same as that translated ‘lowering’ in Matthew 16:3”), Cambridge and Pulpit independently do the same, and Cambridge draws the comparison out: not merely “sorrowful” as in Matthew's parallel or “very sorrowful” as in Luke's, but “lowring, with a cloud upon his brow.” ⚙ The irony is that in Matthew 16 the men who can read the face of the sky are rebuked for not reading the signs of the times; here a man's own face turns that colour at the sign standing in front of him.

Matthew 16:3

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4768 στυγνάζω, found in only 2 verses in the New Testament (Mark 10:22 and Matthew 16:3); also G3772 οὐρανός (255 vv) and G1410 δύναμαι (201 vv), which are common and carry no weight. Greek to Greek, a rare shared lexeme, though not a quotation of one text by the other

Three men who ran: to Jesus, to the Twelve, to a chariot verbal / quotation: confirmed

προστρέχω (G4370) is another word the Verifier can count on one hand: three verses in the New Testament. One is this man running to Jesus with his question. One is Mark 9:15, where the whole crowd runs to greet Him as He comes down from the mountain. One is Acts 8:30, where Philip runs to the Ethiopian's chariot and hears him reading Isaiah. ⚙ The pattern that emerges is not a doctrine but a shape: the verb marks urgency about eternal things, and in two of the three cases the runner goes away changed while in the third he goes away grieved. Barnes, commenting on the running here, insists the zeal itself was right and cannot be too intense “if well directed.”

Mark 9:15 · Acts 8:30

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4370 προστρέχω, found in only 3 verses (Mark 10:17, Mark 9:15, Acts 8:30). Greek to Greek, rare lexeme, no quotation claimed between the passages; the thematic pattern noted in the body is ⚙ synthesis and is not part of the recorded basis

A hundredfold: the sower's yield and the disciple's return verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἑκατονταπλασίων (G1542, “a hundred times”) appears in only three verses, and one of them is the good soil of the parable of the sower at Luke 8:8. The other joint is ἀγαθός (G18), the “good” ground there and the “good” of Mark 10:17-18. ⚙ Held together, the two uses put a question to the reader of this unit: the young man asked what he could do to inherit, and the number he was promised for letting go turns out to be the number the parable assigns to soil that simply receives and bears. Barnes, on the hundredfold here, refuses a literal arithmetic of mothers and sisters and reads it as a hundredfold of value, and Geneva ties the size of the return to the use made of the things received.

Luke 8:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1542 ἑκατονταπλασίων, found in only 3 verses (Mark 10:30, Matthew 19:29, Luke 8:8), together with G18 ἀγαθός (90 vv). Greek to Greek and rare; the interpretive pairing of sower and disciple in the body is ⚙ synthesis, not part of the recorded basis

The second table, recited freely structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 19 is the one explicit Old Testament citation in the unit: the second table of the Decalogue, Exodus 20:12-16 and its restatement at Deuteronomy 5:16-20. The citation is genuine and acknowledged, but it is not a word-for-word reproduction. Cambridge states the point directly, calling it “a striking instance of the free mode of quotation from the Old Testament even in such a case as the Ten Commandments,” and lists the divergences: the order is changed, honouring father and mother is moved to the end, and one clause is added that stands in no Decalogue list. Gill defends the reordering from the rabbinic maxim that there is no first or last in the Law, and answers the Jewish objection that the commandments of the first table are omitted by arguing that verse 18 has already asserted the unity and goodness of God.

Exodus 20:12 · Exodus 20:13 · Exodus 20:14 · Exodus 20:15 · Exodus 20:16 · Deuteronomy 5:16 · Deuteronomy 5:17 · Deuteronomy 5:18 · Deuteronomy 5:19 · Deuteronomy 5:20

basis: An explicit citation, but cross-Testament: Mark's Greek and the Hebrew Decalogue share no Strong's numbers, so the Verifier can compute no shared-lexeme basis and the link cannot be tiered verbal. The recorded basis is the citation itself, acknowledged by Cambridge as a free quotation with changed order and an added clause, and by Gill as the second table standing for the whole

“Do not defraud”: the commandment Mark adds structural / thematic: confirmed

Μὴ ἀποστερήσῃς has no counterpart in either Decalogue list, and every commentator in the brief notices it. Ellicott calls it “peculiar to St. Mark” and takes it as a special application of the tenth commandment aimed at a man with great possessions. Barnes reads it as a condensation of the ninth and tenth and names its Old Testament home: “It is, besides, expressly forbidden in Leviticus 19:13.” Deuteronomy 24:14-15 gives the same law in its sharpest form, wages withheld from a poor hired man. Geneva glosses the clause “Neither by force nor deceit, nor any other means at all.” ⚙ The commandment Jesus adds to the list is the one a great estate is most likely to have broken in the gathering of it, which is why the next thing He says concerns the disposal of that estate.

Leviticus 19:13 · Deuteronomy 24:14 · Deuteronomy 24:15

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and no verbal tier is possible. The basis is the substantive identity of the prohibition, asserted by Barnes citing Leviticus 19:13 explicitly and supported by Ellicott and Cambridge on the word's meaning; Deuteronomy 24:14-15 is added by ⚙ synthesis as the fullest Torah statement of the same offence

“None is good”: the verdict the Psalms had already returned structural / thematic: confirmed

“No one is good except one, God” is not a new doctrine in verse 18; it is the standing verdict of the Psalter. Psalm 14:1-3 sweeps the whole race and finds none who does good, no not one; Psalm 25:8 assigns goodness to the LORD as His own attribute and makes it the ground of His teaching sinners the way; Psalm 118:1 turns the same attribute into the liturgical refrain that He is good and His mercy endures forever. Gill reads Mark 10:18 alongside the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 and insists the sentence asserts, rather than denies, the deity of the Son. ⚙ We note the shape rather than a citation: Jesus is not quoting these Psalms, He is stating what they had already settled, and stating it to a man who was about to claim a lifetime of goodness.

Psalm 14:1 · Psalm 14:2 · Psalm 14:3 · Psalm 25:8 · Psalm 118:1 · Deuteronomy 6:4

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's numbers are computable, so this cannot be tiered verbal, and no quotation is claimed. The basis is a shared theological verdict on the exclusive goodness of God, with the Deuteronomy 6:4 connection recorded by Gill and the Psalm links supplied as ⚙ synthesis

Sell and give to the poor: the Torah economics behind the command typological

The command of verse 21 is not an invention of the Gospel. Deuteronomy 15:7-11 forbids a hard heart and a shut hand toward a poor brother and ends with the realism that the poor will never cease out of the land; Proverbs 19:17 makes almsgiving a loan to the LORD who repays. That is precisely the structure of Jesus' sentence: give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. ⚙ What Jesus adds is not the economics but the last clause, “and come, follow Me,” which turns a meritorious transaction into an attachment to a person. Poole and Pulpit both warn that the sale was a particular precept for this man rather than a general rule, while Cambridge, quoting Keble, notes that within a few months hundreds in Jerusalem did exactly this of their own accord (Acts 4:34-37).

Deuteronomy 15:7 · Deuteronomy 15:11 · Proverbs 19:17 · Acts 4:34

basis: A figural reading: the Torah's almsgiving law and its promise of divine repayment (Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Proverbs 19:17) are read as the pattern that verse 21 fills out and then exceeds with “follow Me.” Cross-Testament for the Hebrew refs, so no shared Strong's basis exists and no verbal tier is possible. Attestation: the Torah background is widely held, while the ⚙ claim that the added clause transforms the transaction is our own

The Psalms and Proverbs on trusting riches structural / thematic: confirmed

The saying about the camel is the sharp end of a long Old Testament line. Psalm 49:6-7 says of those who trust in their wealth that none of them can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him, which is the same impossibility Jesus names in verse 27; Psalm 62:10 warns that if riches increase, the heart should not be set on them; Proverbs 11:28 says the one who trusts in his riches will fall. Benson concedes that the qualification “them that trust in riches” gives no shelter: it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a man to have riches and not trust in them. ⚙ Psalm 49 is the closest of the three, because it alone states the impossibility in terms of ransom, and verse 27's answer is that what no rich man can pay, God can do.

Psalm 49:6 · Psalm 49:7 · Psalm 62:10 · Proverbs 11:28

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the link is not verbal. The basis is a shared motif of trust in wealth and its failure at the point of ransom; Benson supplies the trust-in-riches reading of Mark 10:24, while the specific pairing with Psalm 49:6-7 is ⚙ synthesis offered to be tested

Inheriting life: the word the man chose structural / thematic: confirmed

The man did not ask how to earn or to gain but how to inherit: κληρονομέω (G2816), which the Verifier counts in 17 verses, paired here with ζωή and αἰώνιος. The same three lexemes reappear together at Matthew 19:29, in the parallel promise, and Ellicott records the synoptic difference in wording, that Mark and Luke have “inherit” where Matthew's version of the question has “have.” Gill builds his whole reading on the choice of verb: an inheritance comes by will, by promise and as a free gift, so that the man's own word contradicted his own question, and he cites Romans 4:14 for the principle. ⚙ The unit is framed by the phrase: it opens the man's question in verse 17 and closes the Lord's promise in verse 30.

Matthew 19:29 · Romans 4:14

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2816 κληρονομέω (17 vv), G2222 ζωή (127 vv) and G166 αἰώνιος (68 vv) between Mark 10:17/10:30 and Matthew 19:29. Greek to Greek and a real lexical overlap, but we decline a verbal tier deliberately: at 17 verses κληρονομέω is uncommon rather than rare, and the other two lexemes are frequent, so the honest claim is shared vocabulary within one synoptic tradition, not a quotation. Romans 4:14 is Gill's citation, not a Verifier-computed link

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

“Why callest thou Me good?” and the alternative it forces ancient/widely-held

The commentators in this brief do not read verse 18 as a disclaimer. Poole: “Herein our Saviour doth not deny himself to be God, but checked him who did not believe him such, yet called him God.” Gill: Christ does not deny He is God in these words “but rather tacitly suggests it; since he is good in the same sense in which God is good.” Cambridge: “Our Lord does not decline the appellation ‘good.’ He repels it only in the superficial sense of the questioner.” Pulpit puts the invitation in the Lord's mouth: “If you call me good, believe that I am God.” Maclaren alone frames it as a bare alternative, and does so with the sharpest edge in the whole brief: either Jesus is here repudiating the notion of His own sinlessness, in contradiction to every other disclosure of His self-consciousness, “or else He is claiming to be filled with God, the source of all goodness, in a wholly unique manner,” and he turns the question on those who praise the beauty of His life while denying His divinity. ⚙ We add only the grammar: the clause has no copula and reserves goodness to εἷς, one, the same numeral that stands behind the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4, which Gill cites. The man knelt to Him and called Him good, and the question asks whether he meant it.

Mark 10:18 · Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 25:8

The demand He would meet Himself: sell all, take up the cross, follow ancient/widely-held

Ellicott notices what is easily missed: the clause “come, take up the cross” in the older text of verse 21 “is also peculiar to St. Mark,” and he draws the conclusion that in using such words “our Lord taught the questioner, as He had before taught His disciples, with what clear prevision He looked forward to the form and manner of His death.” Cambridge quotes the same weight in different words: “Poor, friendless, outlawed, Jesus abated no jot of His awful claims, loftier than human monarch had ever dreamed of making, on all who sought citizenship in His Kingdom.” ⚙ Two things in the passage belong together. The road of verse 17 is the road of Mark 10:32-34, where He tells the Twelve what waits in Jerusalem; and the man is asked for exactly what the One asking was on His way to give. The asking is not arbitrary, and it is not the demand of a man who kept his own. The apostolic form of this reading is explicit in 2 Corinthians 8:9, that He who was rich became poor so that others might be made rich, which is the identical exchange put to the young ruler and refused by him.

Mark 8:34 · Mark 10:32 · Mark 10:33 · Mark 10:34 · 2 Corinthians 8:9

“With men impossible”: the passive verb the disciples stumbled onto ancient/widely-held

The disciples ask τίς δύναται σωθῆναι, and the infinitive is passive: who can be saved. ⚙ They had begun the chapter watching a man ask what he could do; they end it asking who can have something done to him. That shift is the hinge of the gospel in this unit, and Jesus does not correct it, He confirms it: with men impossible, with God all things possible. Gill lists what the divine possibility includes, taking a rich man off his trust in his riches and bringing him into the kingdom, and preserving poor and mean followers through every danger. Pulpit, quoting Chrysostom, reads the look that accompanies the words as intended to soothe the timid and anxious, and glosses the saying with the grace that enables men to triumph over the hindrances of nature. The sentence is the answer Psalm 49:7 had left open, that no man can ransom his brother or give God a price for him. In Mark, the impossibility is answered eight verses later, at Mark 10:45, where the Son of Man comes to give His life a ransom for many.

Mark 10:27 · Mark 10:45 · Psalm 49:7

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. 1. Verse 24 is textually divided, and it matters. The Berean interlinear reproduced in our brief reads simply “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God,” with no qualifying phrase. The Authorized Version and the commentators working from it (Gill, Benson, Geneva, and Pulpit) read “for them that trust in riches.” Ellicott judges the longer phrase a later softening “to tone down the words of warning”; Cambridge notes that important manuscripts omit it; Pulpit, weighing the same evidence including the Sinaitic and Vatican codices, comes down the other way. Our literal rendering and our notes follow the shorter text because that is the text our interlinear gives, and we flag that this choice changes the sense of the verse from a warning about the rich to a warning about everyone.

2. Verse 21, “take up the cross.” The clause appears in Geneva's text and is discussed by Ellicott and Cambridge, and Cambridge notes that some manuscripts omit it. It is absent from the interlinear before us, so we have not built our literal rendering on it; where we use it, in the Christ section, it is explicitly credited to Ellicott's and Cambridge's text.

3. Verse 26, “among themselves” or “unto him.” The interlinear has πρὸς ἑαυτούς, to one another; Pulpit reports that “according to the best reading the words are, saying unto him.” We follow the interlinear and record the variant.

4. Verse 29 and the missing wife. Gill's text of verse 29 includes “or wife,” and he notes that the Vulgate omits it. The Greek word list in our brief has no such word. We have therefore not glossed it, and we note the discrepancy rather than harmonising it.

5. The absent fathers of verse 30. Our observation that the hundredfold list contains mothers, children, brothers, sisters, houses and fields but no fathers rests on the word-by-word interlinear given in the brief and on nothing else. No commentator in this brief makes the point. It is ⚙ synthesis and should be checked against a full critical apparatus before being relied on.

6. Limits of the sources. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown supply no exposition of Mark's wording at all in this unit; their entire note is a cross-reference to Luke 18:18-30, which is why they are quoted once, for that fact, and not used for interpretation. Matthew Henry's notes here are two block comments covering 10:17-22 and 10:23-31 rather than verse-level remarks. Several Gill and Maclaren entries are capped in the brief, and we have not gone beyond what the brief supplies. The Pulpit Commentary's chapter-and-verse references to Matthew are visibly corrupted in our source text (it cites “Matthew 21:17” and “Matthew 21:20” where Matthew 19:16-22 is meant); we have not repeated those numbers.

7. Lexicon gloss truncation. Several Strong's entries in the brief's lexicon are cut off mid-definition (for example G102, G190, G1422). Where a root gloss mattered we have used only the part actually supplied and said what we were relying on.

8. Cross-Testament tiering. Every link in this unit that pairs Mark's Greek with a Hebrew text, including the explicit Decalogue citation of verse 19, is tiered structural or typological rather than verbal, because shared Strong's numbers cannot exist across the two languages and the Verifier can compute no lexical basis for them. The four verbal badges in this unit are all Greek to Greek and every one rests on a lexeme the Verifier counts in three verses or fewer (δυσκόλως, στυγνάζω, προστρέχω, ἑκατονταπλασίων). The inheritance thread, which shares κληρονομέω at 17 verses, was drafted as verbal and then downgraded to structural on review, because 17 verses is uncommon rather than rare and we would rather under-claim.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)