Bible Strands
Mark 9:23
“If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to the father of a demon-possessed boy who has just asked "if You can do anything" (9:22), after the disciples failed to heal him. The moment is a direct response to the father's conditional plea.
The words — εἰ δυνῃ (ei dunē), "if you are able," is the phrase Jesus echoes back. The conditional ei is the hinge: the father placed the condition on Jesus, and Jesus takes it up to redirect it.
The thread — The link between belief and what God does recurs in John 11:40, where belief is the condition for seeing God's glory, and in Matthew 17:20, where even a mustard seed of faith suffices for moving mountains. Hebrews 11:6 states the principle flatly: without faith it is impossible to please God.
Why it lands — The verse removes the question from Jesus's ability and places it on the listener's belief. It asks the reader to stop negotiating with God's power and start examining their own faith.
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
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Cross-references
- John 11:40 Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
- Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
- Matthew 17:20 “Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
- Mark 11:23 “Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him.
- Matthew 21:21 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
- Luke 17:6 And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
- 2 Chronicles 20:20 Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
- John 4:48 Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
- Acts 14:9 This man was listening to the words of Paul, who looked intently at him and saw that he had faith to be healed.