Bible Strands
Mark 3:25
If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the scribes who have just accused him of operating under demonic authority. He delivers this statement immediately after noting that a divided kingdom cannot stand, using a household as his next example.
The words — οἰκία (oikia) literally denotes a house or household, while μερισθῇ (meristhē) means "shall be divided" or "splits apart." The conditional structure ἐὰν...μερισθῇ establishes internal fragmentation as the direct cause of structural failure.
The thread — The text states that internal division guarantees collapse, a pattern repeated in Mark 3:24 with a kingdom and Mark 3:26 with Satan. This structural principle aligns with the warning against factional consumption in Galatians 5:15 and the contrast with communal harmony in Psalms 133:1.
Why it lands — The verse states that a divided house cannot stand, demanding the reader identify and confront internal factions before they cause ruin. It asks for immediate alignment of purpose, rejecting the rationalization of internal conflict as sustainable.
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 if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Cross-references
- James 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.
- Galatians 5:15 But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
- Psalms 133:1 A song of ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!
- Genesis 37:4 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
- Genesis 13:7 And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.