Mar 3:3 Stand forth.

Alternative: Rise up halfway! or Wake up halfway!

When Christ describes his works to John the Baptist's followers (Mat 10:8), he describes "awakening the dead" or "raising the dead." The Greek term used in the Gospels to describe "waking" and "rising" is the same term that is used here.

We saw this term before when Christ healed the lame man and now here again, when he heals the man with the withered hand.

Christ views humanity as asleep, especially in understanding our physical nature. As we learn, we wake up. As we wake up, our lives rise up and improve. Christ doesn't expect us to wake up entirely, but if we just wake up halfway and rise to meet God halfway, God can cure much of what inflicts us.

"Arise" is from egeirô (egeiro), which means "to awake," "to rouse," "to stir up" and "to wake up."


"Forth" is from two words. The first is eis (eis), which means "into," "to," "towards," "in regard to," "to the limit of," and "up to (some time)." The other word is mesos (mesos), which means "middle," "in the middle," "central," "impartial," "intermediate," "middling," midst," "difference," "moddle state," and "between."