Mark 5:41 — Talitha Cumi: The Aramaic Command and Its Greek Transmission

“Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.” — Mark 5:41

Mark preserves Jesus’ words to Jairus’s daughter in Aramaic and then translates them: “Talitha cumi … Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.” The principal variation concerns the last sound. The Textus Receptus has koumi; many critical witnesses have koum. Other copies confuse talitha with Tabitha, the woman Peter raises in Acts 9.

The difference is small enough to vanish in speech. Aramaic dialect and pronunciation could reduce the final vowel of the feminine imperative, while a masculine imperative might also be used without strict reference to sex. Both forms were therefore intelligible to transmitters.

A remembered voice, then an interpretation

The scene’s bilingual shape matters. Mark does not leave readers to derive doctrine from two Aramaic words. He supplies the Greek sense. Every form commands the child to rise, and every form is followed by her immediate response.

The received cumi has grammatical fitness. Jesus is speaking to a girl, and the feminine ending marks that address. A copyist who knew a pronunciation without the final vowel could shorten it; another might conform the expression to a commonly recognized imperative. The reverse addition is possible, but it requires no less grammatical awareness.

“I say unto thee” is part of Mark’s inspired interpretation even though it is not a separate word-for-word item in the Aramaic phrase. Translation often makes an implied relation explicit. Christ is not reciting a charm. His personal command distinguishes his act from magical formulas and from a general wish that life return.

The Tabitha readings show how easily a familiar resurrection name could intrude. Acts 9:40 has Peter say, “Tabitha, arise.” That later echo resembles Mark closely because Peter’s act follows his Lord’s pattern. It should not be allowed to rewrite the earlier scene.

Mark’s decision to preserve Semitic speech at moments of intimacy is itself a literary feature. The Gospel likewise records Ephphatha and the cry Eloi, Eloi. In each case an interpretation follows. The pattern suggests remembered sound joined to inspired explanation, not secret sacred syllables. It also means spelling variants should be catalogued without allowing phonetic uncertainty to obscure the stable translated command.

Retaining Talitha cumi respects the gendered form received by the Greek church and the exact cadence inherited by the Authorized Version. The shorter pronunciation remains historically plausible and does not change the miracle. Here textual criticism serves a modest purpose: preserving the sound Mark chose to remember while letting his own translation govern the meaning.

Sources and further reading

• F. H. A. Scrivener, ed., The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (Cambridge, 1894).
• Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010), text and apparatus.
• Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on the stated passage.
• Mark 5:35–43; Acts 9:36–42.