Οἱ δὲ περισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο λέγοντες πρὸς ἑαυτούς· Καὶ τίς δύναται σωθῆναι; (Mark 10:26)
Mark’s Greek often feels breathless—its syntax pushes readers into the same emotional velocity as the disciples. In οἱ δὲ περισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο, grammar does the heavy lifting: an imperfect verb charged by an intensifying adverb. The result is not mere surprise but an ongoing inner collapse of confidence. Mark’s clause is not only narrating psychology; it is shaping the canonical story of who can and cannot enter the kingdom.
Before we investigate how the disciples’ stunned grammar opens a window onto the whole biblical narrative of salvation, we begin with the vocabulary’s inner mechanics. Only then can we trace how this moment echoes earlier scriptural trajectories and anticipates the emerging ecclesial identity.
Imperfect Astonishment: A Narrative Force in Mark
The imperfect ἐξεπλήσσοντο helps Mark stretch amazement into duration. The grammar portrays the disciples not as momentarily shocked but as stuck in their astonishment. Mark weaponizes Greek aspect to create narrative tension: the disciples repeatedly fail to align their assumptions with Jesus’ kingdom economy. (Greek student, pause: What change in dramatic effect would occur if Mark had used an aorist instead of the imperfect here?)
This is a small grammatical choice, but it drives the theological arc of the Gospel. The disciples’ ongoing astonishment mirrors Israel’s recurring bewilderment before divine reversals—from barren women bearing heirs to exiles returning home. Mark compresses these canonical rhythms into a single verb choice, revealing that divine salvation repeatedly emerges where human calculations collapse.
“Who Then Can Be Saved?” Grammar at the Edge of Possibility
When the disciples ask Καὶ τίς δύναται σωθῆναι; the grammar signals despair arising from a theological miscalculation. The present δύναται (“is able”) reflects an ongoing, timeless question of human capacity, while the passive infinitive σωθῆναι foregrounds God as the agent of rescue. Their grammar already hints at the correct answer even before Jesus speaks: salvation is passive from the human side because it is active from the divine side.
This is not merely a soteriological detail. It is a canonical pivot: from Genesis onward, the storyline repeatedly contrasts human inability with divine initiative. Mark’s syntax participates in this long arc—not by quoting earlier texts, but by using the same grammatical pressure that earlier texts used to dramatize helplessness and divine intervention.
Canonical Horizon: The Story of Salvation’s Impossibility
The grammatical pairing of δύναται with the passive σωθῆναι radiates beyond Mark. Across the canon, God often saves when people cannot save themselves—Noah preserved in chaos, Israel trapped before the sea, the remnant upheld though powerless. Mark turns this canonical pattern into a linguistic experience: the disciples ask a grammatically structured question that embodies human helplessness, and Jesus’ response (“With humans it is impossible…”) becomes an explicit narrative articulation of the grammar’s implication.
Thus, grammar becomes theology’s skeleton: the passive infinitive reveals a storyline stretching from Israel’s history to the church’s hope, where salvation is consistently portrayed as received, not achieved.
Echo Chamber: A Prior Grammar of Impossibility
Greek Fragment: τίς δύναται ἀντιστῆναι; — “Who is able to stand?” (LXX-style phrasing representative of Second-Temple lament patterns)
Both phrases share the same interrogative + verb of ability construction. The NT twists this inherited grammar by relocating the crisis from military or cosmic threat to the impossibility of entering God’s kingdom. Mark repurposes a familiar grammatical structure to escalate not fear of enemies but fear of insufficient righteousness, thus advancing the church’s confession that salvation depends on divine agency.
Internal Dialogue as Discipleship Diagnosis
Mark notes that the disciples spoke πρὸς ἑαυτούς. This prepositional reflexive construction normally signals internal debate, but here it unveils something deeper: their confusion is self-referential rather than Christ-referential. Their grammar betrays their theology. The kingdom is still being evaluated through human metrics of worth, wealth, and achievement.
This theme ripples across the early Jesus movement. In Acts and Paul, internal deliberation shifts from the self toward the Spirit’s agency—grammar reshapes identity. By preserving this reflexive phrase, Mark shows the disciples on the cusp of transition: from self-talk to gospel-shaped understanding.
Participation Through the Present Participle
The participle λέγοντες does more than attach speech to astonishment. It creates narrative simultaneity: the disciples speak as they are being overwhelmed. This dual action—ongoing astonishment and ongoing speech—models the early church’s struggle to articulate faith while still grappling with the radical redefinition of discipleship under Jesus’ teaching.
The participle performs what the church experiences: articulation under tension. Theology grows not after astonishment ends but inside the astonishment itself.
From Papyrus to Pulpit
Origen, commenting on the passive forms related to salvation, argued that the grammar reveals divine initiative preceding human response. His insight still matters: modern translators must resist smoothing the passive into an active-sounding construction that obscures God’s agency. In today’s vernacular translations, retaining the passive structure keeps the weight of Mark’s theology intact—salvation is something done to us, not something we engineer.
Morphology Table: Unpacking Mark’s Syntax Under Pressure
| Form | Gloss | Morphology | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| οἱ δὲ | but they | Article nominative plural masculine + conjunction | Shifts narrative attention, marking a new emotional beat within the scene. |
| περισσῶς | exceedingly | Adverb | Heightens the reaction; signals intensity beyond normal astonishment. |
| ἐξεπλήσσοντο | they were being utterly astounded | Imperfect middle/passive indicative 3rd plural | Continuous reaction, not a momentary spike; the voice reflects the disciples’ inward upheaval. |
| λέγοντες | saying | Present active participle nominative plural masculine | Participial accompaniment: their speech flows out of their astonishment. |
| πρὸς ἑαυτούς | to themselves | Preposition + reflexive pronoun accusative plural | Internal dialogue that reveals fear rather than debate. |
| Καὶ τίς | and who? | Conjunction + interrogative pronoun nominative singular | The conjunction links astonishment to theological crisis. |
| δύναται | is able | Present middle/passive indicative 3rd singular | Questions capacity, not willingness. |
| σωθῆναι | to be saved | Aorist passive infinitive | Passive voice foregrounds God as the acting agent behind salvation. |
The Grammar of Astonished Faith
Mark’s syntax invites readers into the disciples’ disorientation so that astonishment becomes a gateway to revelation. The imperfect, the passive infinitive, the reflexive pronoun, and the present participle are not scattered grammatical trivia—they are the literary levers by which Mark advances the story of a kingdom built not on human capability but on God’s intervention.
