The Meaning of Mark 7:25 Explained

Mark 7:25

KJV: For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

YLT: for a woman having heard about him, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having come, fell at his feet, --

Darby: But immediately a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell at his feet

ASV: But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For  a [certain] woman,  whose  young daughter  had  an unclean  spirit,  heard  of  him,  and came  and fell  at  his  feet: 

What does Mark 7:25 Mean?

Context Summary

Mark 7:24-37 - A Mother's Faith Rewarded
Before faith can be fully exercised we must take the right attitude toward Christ. His mission at that time was to the Jewish people; they were the children. This woman had no claim as a child, and the question was whether she was prepared to take the lower place. It is the humble soul that has power with God, and when she showed herself prepared to put Jesus in His place as Lord, and to take her own place as willing to accept the children's crumbs, the Lord was able to put the key of His treasure house into her hand and bid her have her desire. Faith can wring blessing from an apparent negative, and use what might seem to be a rebuff to open God's treasuries.
In the following miracle, notice that upward look, that sigh, and that touch. These are the conditions of all successful religious work, and it is a great encouragement to faith that our Lord Himself knew what it was by a look to draw down the mighty power of God. That upward look may be ours when it is impossible to kneel for prolonged prayer. When we stand in the light of eternity, we also shall say, as our Lord's contemporaries did, "He hath done all things well." [source]

Chapter Summary: Mark 7

1  The Pharisees find fault with the disciples for eating with unwashed hands
8  They break the commandment of God by the traditions of men
14  Food defiles not the man
24  He heals the Syrophenician woman's daughter of an unclean spirit;
31  and one that was deaf, and stammered in his speech

Greek Commentary for Mark 7:25

Whose little daughter [ης το τυγατριον αυτης]
Diminutive with tender touch. Note “whose” and “her” like vernacular today. [source]
Having heard of him [ακουσασα περι αυτου]
Even in this heathen territory the fame of Jesus was known. When the Sermon on the Mount was preached people were there from “the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon” (Luke 6:17). [source]
Daughter [θυγάτριον]
Diminutive. Rev., little daughter. See on Mark 5:23. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Mark 7:25

Matthew 8:29 Thou Son of God [υιε του τεου]
The recognition of Jesus by the demons is surprising. The whole subject of demonology is difficult. Some hold that it is merely the ancient way of describing disease. But that does not explain the situation here. Jesus is represented as treating the demons as real existences separate from the human personality. Missionaries in China today claim that they have seen demons cast out. The devil knew Jesus clearly and it is not strange that Jesus was recognized by the devil‘s agents. They know that there is nothing in common between them and the Son of God Usually τα δαιμονια — ta daimonia is the word in the New Testament for demons, but in Matthew 8:31 we have οι δαιμονες — hoi daimones (the only example in the N.T.). Δαιμονιον — Daimonion is a diminutive of δαιμων — daimōn In Homer δαιμων — daimōn is used synonymously with τεος — theos and τεα — thea Hesiod employed δαιμων — daimōn of men of the golden age as tutelary deities. Homer has the adjective δαιμονιος — daimonios usually in an evil sense. Empedocles considered the demons both bad and good. They were thus used to relieve the gods and goddesses of much rascality. Grote (History of Greece) notes that the Christians were thus by pagan usage justified in calling idolatry the worship of demons. See notes on 1 Corinthians 10:20.; note on 1 Timothy 4:1; note on Revelation 9:20; and notes on Revelation 16:13. In the Gospels demons are the same as unclean spirits (Mark 5:12, Mark 5:15; Mark 3:22, Mark 3:30; Luke 4:33). The demons are disturbers (Vincent) of the whole life of man (Mark 5:2.; Mark 7:25; Matthew 12:45; Luke 13:11, Luke 13:16). [source]
Mark 1:34 Devils [δαιμόνια]
The Rev., unfortunately, and against the protest of the American committee, retains devils instead of rendering demons. See on Matthew 4:1. The New Testament uses two kindred words to denote the evil spirits which possessed men, and which were so often east out by Christ: διάμων , of which demon is a transcript, and which occurs, according to the best texts, only at Matthew 8:31; and δαιμόνιον , which is not a diminutive, but the neuter of the adjective δαιμόνιος ,of, or belonging to a demon. The cognate verb is δαιμονίζομαι to be possessed with a demon, as in Mark 1:32. The derivation of the word is uncertain. Perhaps δαίω , to distribute, since the deities allot the fates of men. Plato derives it from δαήμων , knowing or wise. In Hesiod, as in Pythagoras, Thales, and Plutarch, the word δαίμων is used of men of the golden age, acting as tutelary deities, and forming the link between gods and men. Socrates, in Plato's “Cratylus,” quotes Hesiod as follows: “Socrates: You know how Hesiod uses the word? Hermogenes: Indeed I do not. Soc.: Do you not remember that he speaks of a golden race of men who came first? Her.: Yes, I know that. Soc.: He says of them,But now that fate has closed over this race,They are holy demons upon earth,Beneficent, averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.'”After some further conversation, Socrates goes on: “And therefore I have the most entire conviction that he called them demons, because they were δαήμονες (knowing or wise )Now, he and other poets say truly that, when a good man dies, he has honor and a mighty portion among the dead, and becomes a demon, which is a name given to him signifying wisdom. And I say, too, that every wise man who happens to be a good man is more than human ( δαιμόνιον ) both in life and death, and is rightly called a demon.” Mr. Grote (“History of Greece”) observes that in Hesiod demons are “invisible tenants of the earth, remnants of the once happy golden race whom the Olympic gods first made - the unseen police of the gods, for the purpose of repressing wicked behavior in the world.” In later Greek the word came to be used of any departed soul. In Homer δαίμων is used synonymously with θεός and θεά , god and goddess, and the moral quality of the divinity is determined by the context: but most commonly of the divine power or agency, like the Latin numen, the deity considered as a power rather than as a person. Homer does not use δαιμόνιον substantively, but as an adjective, always in the vocative case, and with a sorrowful or reproachful sense, indicating that the person addressed is in some astonishing or strange condition. Therefore, as a term of reproach - wretch! sirrah! madman! (“Iliad,” 2:190,200; 4:31; ix., 40). Occasionally in an admiring or respectful sense (“Odyssey,” xiv., 443; xxiii., 174); Excellent stranger! noble sir! Homer also uses δαίμων of one's genius or attendant spirit, and thence of one's lot orfortune. So in the beautiful simile of the sick father (“Odyssey,” 5:396), “Some malignant genius has assailed him.” Compare “Odyssey,” x., 64; xi., 61. Hence, later, the phrase κατὰ δαίμονα is nearly equivalent to by chance. We have seen that, in Homer, the bad sense of δαιμόνοις is the prevailing one. In the tragedians, also, δαίμων , though used both of good and bad fortune, occurs more frequently in the latter sense, and toward this sense the word gravitates more and more. The undertone of Greek thought, which tended to regard no man happy until he had escaped from life (see on Matthew 5:3, blessed )naturally imparted a gloomy and forbidding character to those who were supposed to allot the destinies of life. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
In classical Greek it is noticeable that the abstract τὸ δαιμόνιον fell into the background behind δαίμων , with the development in the latter of the notion of a fate or genius connected with each individual, as the demon of Socrates; while in biblical Greek the process is the reverse, this doctrine being rejected for that of an overruling personal providence, and the strange gods, “obscure to human knowledge and alien to human life,” taking the abstract term uniformly in an evil sense. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
Empedocles, a Greek philosopher, of Sicily, developed Hesiod's distinction; making the demons of a mixed nature between gods and men, not only the link between the two, but having an agency and disposition of their own; not immortal, but long-lived, and subject to the passions and propensities of men. While in Hesiod the demons are all good, according to Empedocles they are both bad and good. This conception relieved the gods of the responsibility for proceedings unbecoming the divine nature. The enormities which the older myths ascribed directly to the gods - thefts, rapes, abductions - were the doings of bad demons. It also saved the credit of the old legends, obviating the necessity of pronouncing either that the gods were unworthy or the legends untrue. “Yet, though devised for the purpose of satisfying a more scrupulous religious sensibility, it was found inconvenient afterward when assailants arose against paganism generally. For while it abandoned as indefensible a large portion of what had once been genuine faith, it still retained the same word demons with an entirely altered signification. The Christian writers in their controversies found ample warrant among the earlier pagan authors for treating all the gods as demons; and not less ample warrant among the later pagans for denouncing the demons generally as evil beings” (Grote, “History of Greece”). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
This evil sense the words always bear in the New Testament as well as in the Septuagint. Demons are synonymous with unclean spirits (Mark 5:12, Mark 5:15; Mark 3:22, Mark 3:30; Luke 4:33). They appear in connection with Satan (Luke 10:17, Luke 10:18; Luke 11:18, Luke 11:19); they are put in opposition to the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:20, 1 Corinthians 10:21); to the faith (1 Timothy 4:1). They are connected with idolatry (Revelation 9:20; Revelation 16:13, Revelation 16:14). They are special powers of evil, influencing and disturbing the physical, mental, and moral being (Luke 13:11, Luke 13:16; Mark 5:2-5; Mark 7:25; Matthew 12:45). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

What do the individual words in Mark 7:25 mean?

But immediately having heard a woman about Him of whom had the little daughter of her spirit unclean having come fell at the feet of Him
ἀλλ’ εὐθὺς ἀκούσασα γυνὴ περὶ αὐτοῦ ἧς εἶχεν τὸ θυγάτριον αὐτῆς πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον ἐλθοῦσα προσέπεσεν πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ

εὐθὺς  immediately 
Parse: Adverb
Root: εὐθέως  
Sense: straightway, immediately, forthwith.
ἀκούσασα  having  heard 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: ἀκουστός 
Sense: to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf.
γυνὴ  a  woman 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: γυνή  
Sense: a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or married, or a widow.
περὶ  about 
Parse: Preposition
Root: περί 
Sense: about, concerning, on account of, because of, around, near.
ἧς  of  whom 
Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Genitive Feminine Singular
Root: ὅς 
Sense: who, which, what, that.
θυγάτριον  little  daughter 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: θυγάτριον  
Sense: a little daughter.
αὐτῆς  of  her 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.
πνεῦμα  spirit 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root: πνεῦμα  
Sense: a movement of air (a gentle blast.
ἀκάθαρτον  unclean 
Parse: Adjective, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root: ἀκάθαρτος  
Sense: not cleansed, unclean.
ἐλθοῦσα  having  come 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: ἔρχομαι  
Sense: to come.
προσέπεσεν  fell 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: προσπίπτω  
Sense: to fall forwards, fall down, prostrate one’s self before, in homage or supplication: at one’s feet.
πρὸς  at 
Parse: Preposition
Root: πρός  
Sense: to the advantage of.
πόδας  feet 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Plural
Root: πούς  
Sense: a foot, both of men or beast.
αὐτοῦ  of  Him 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.