Reading for December 25th

Read Mark 5.21-43 (Mt 9.18-26; Lk 8.40-65) Two women healed.
In verse 25 the hemorrhages are likely vaginal or uterine bleeding.
In verse 28 she may have regarded Jesus as a magician.
In verse 31 the disciples again fail to understand (4.41; 6.37, 52).
In verse 34 made will is the same tern as "saved."
For Mark, faith is the prerequisite for healing.
In verse 41 the Aramaic may have sounded to Mark's Greek audience like a magical incantation.
In verse 42 the girl's age matches the years of the woman's illness;
the girl is on the verge of menarche and marriage; the woman can now bear children.
Mark frames one story with the other so that they become mutually informing;
the same rhetorical technique appears in 6.7-30: the disciples' mission frames the Baptist's death.
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