Bible Strands
Mark 9:21
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been with him?” “From childhood,” he said.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus questions the boy’s father about the duration of the affliction immediately after the spirit violently throws the child to the ground upon seeing Him. The father replies that the condition has persisted since childhood.
The words — The Greek ἐπηρώτησεν (epērōtēsen) literally means “He asked,” while πῶς χρόνος (posos chronos) translates to “how long a time.” These terms frame a direct inquiry into the chronic nature of the suffering.
The thread — This inquiry into prolonged affliction parallels the chronic paralysis of Aeneas in Acts 9:33 and the lifelong blindness noted in John 9:20. Both passages similarly document extended periods of physical disability before divine intervention.
Why it lands — The verse demands a clear assessment of how long a burden has shaped a life before seeking resolution. It requires the reader to confront the reality of chronic suffering without bypassing its duration.
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 he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
Cross-references
- John 9:20 His parents answered, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind.
- Acts 9:33 There he found a man named Aeneas who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years.
- Job 5:7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
- Job 14:1 “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- Mark 5:25 And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.
- Luke 8:43 including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
- Luke 13:16 Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
- John 5:5 One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
- John 9:1 Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth,
- Acts 3:2 And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts.