Mark 2:2

So that there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door (wste mhketi cwrein mhde ta pro thn quran). Another graphic Markan detail seen through Peter's eyes. The double compound negative in the Greek intensifies the negative. This house door apparently opened into the street, not into a court as in the larger houses. The house was packed inside and there was a jam outside. And he spake the word unto them (kai elalei autoi ton logon). And he was speaking the word unto them, Mark's favourite descriptive imperfect tense (elalei). Note this word lalew about the preaching of Jesus (originally just sounds like the chatter of birds, the prattling of children, but here of the most serious kind of speech. As contrasted with legw (to say) it is rather an onomatopoetic word with some emphasis on the sound and manner of speaking. The word is com- mon in the vernacular papyri examples of social inter-course.