Mark 9:24

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out [and] said, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"

Mark 9:24 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 9:24

And straightway the father of the child cried out
As soon as ever he found it was put upon his faith, and that the issue of things would be according to that, he expressed himself with much vehemency, being in great distress; partly with indignation at his unbelief, and partly through fear of missing a cure, by reason of it:

and said with tears;
repenting of his unbelief, and grieved at the present weakness of his faith; which he very ingenuously confesses, saying,

Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief;
not forward, but out of the way: he found in himself some small degree of faith in the power of Christ, but it was mixed with much unbelief, through the greatness of the child's disorder; and therefore desires it might be removed from him, and he might be helped against it: he saw it was not in his own power to believe; nor had he strength of himself to oppose his unbelief; but that both faith must be given him, and power against unbelief. The Syriac version renders it, "help", (ytwnmyh twryoxl) , "the defect of my faith": till up that which is lacking in it, it is very deficient, Lord, increase it; and the Arabic and Ethiopic translate thus, "help the weakness of my faith". He found his faith very weak, he desires it might be strengthened, that he might be strong in faith, and give glory to God; and in this way belief is helped, or men helped against it: every believer, more or less, at one time or another, finds himself in this man's case; and also that it is necessary to make use of the same petition; for faith is but imperfect in this life, and often very weak and defective in its exercise.

Mark 9:24 In-Context

22 And often it has thrown him both into fire and into water, in order that it could destroy him. But if you are able [to do] anything, have compassion on us [and] help us!"

23 But Jesus said to him, "If you are able! All [things] [are] possible for the one who believes!"

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out [and] said, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"

25 Now [when] Jesus saw that a crowd was running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "Mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter into him no more!"

26 And it came out, screaming and convulsing [him] greatly, and he became as if [he were] dead, so that most [of them] said, "He has died!"

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[and]" is supplied because the previous participle ("cried out") has been translated as a finite verb