Mark 5

      23. At the point of death. In verse 35 the word comes to the ruler that his daughter is dead. Matthew in his account condenses the two reports and says, "She is dead."

      25. And a certain woman. For notes on this miracle, see Matt. 9:20-22. Compare Luke 8:41-56 . An issue of blood. A hemorrhage of the womb or bowels.

      26. Suffered many things of many physicians. The medical art in Judea in that age was in a very crude condition. Lightfoot gives, from the Rabbinical books, the remedy for a female hemorrhage: "Let them dig seven ditches, in which let them burn some cuttings of vines under four years old. Let her take in her hand a cup of wine; let them lead her away from this ditch and make her sit over that. Let them remove her from that and sit her over another. At each removal you must say to her, 'Arise for thy flux.'" This is an illustration of what this woman suffered.

      30. Perceiving that power. Christ, conscious of the approach and condition of this woman, voluntarily healed her. His language that follows is to bring out the moral issue. He cured her, not by touch or word, as was usual with him, but by act of will. By his question he called out her public confession. Faith saves. It may not be intelligent faith, for this woman was not well instructed, but is a faith strong enough to lead to action.

      35. While he yet spake, . . . Thy daughter is dead. For notes on this example of Christ's power over death, see Matt. 9:18, 19 and 23-26. Compare Luke 8:41 Luke 8:42 Luke 8:49-56 .

      37. Suffered no man to follow him. Into the house of the ruler. The mourners were excluded and only the parents and three apostles, the same three that saw him transfigured, and in the agony of Gethsemane, were allowed to enter. Matthew omits this fact.

      38. Many weeping and wailing greatly. At a Jewish funeral were professional mourners called by Matthew "minstrels." It is still the funeral fashion in the East.

      41. Talitha cumi. Words from the common language of the people of Palestine in that age, meaning, "Damsel, arise."

      42. Straightway. The restoration was immediate.

      43. That no man should know it. That is, that it should not be published abroad. It was often needful for Jesus to restrain the fame of his miracles for various reasons, one of which was the wrath they excited in the Jewish authorities. It was needful for him to delay exciting them to the point of putting him to death till his time had come.
      There are three cases, besides his own resurrection, of Christ raising the dead. This case is immediately after death; another, that of the son of the widow of Nain ( Luke 7:11-15 ), at least twenty-four hours after death; the third, that of Lazarus ( John, chapter 11 ), several days after death, when corruption would naturally have begun; in one case privately; in the second, publicly; in the third, before bitter enemies.