Bible Strands
Mark 10:23
Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to His disciples immediately after a wealthy man departs in sorrow over his possessions. The moment occurs during a teaching sequence where Jesus addresses the barrier of material attachment to divine inheritance.
The words — περιβλεψάμενος (periblepsamenos) translates literally as "having looked around," marking a deliberate physical and rhetorical turn from the departing man to the remaining followers. Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) identifies the speaker who initiates the warning about wealth.
The thread — The same saying appears in Luke 18:24, while James 2:5 contrasts worldly poverty with spiritual inheritance. Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 1:26 that few of the called possessed human power or wisdom.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to identify any possession that functions as a rival to divine reliance. It demands the concrete recognition that wealth creates a structural dependency that blocks entry into God's kingdom.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 1:26 Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth.
- Luke 18:24 Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
- James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?
- Matthew 19:23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Mark 3:5 Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored.
- John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
- 2 Peter 1:11 and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- Matthew 18:3 “Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Mark 10:15 Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
- James 4:4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.