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43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have[a] two hands and go into hell,[b] to the unquenchable fire.[c] 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have[d] two feet and be thrown into hell.[e] 47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out![f] It is better to enter into the kingdom of God[g] with one eye than to have[h] two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 9:43 tn Grk “than having.”
  2. Mark 9:43 sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2; 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36). This Greek term also occurs in vv. 45, 47.
  3. Mark 9:43 tc Most later mss have 9:44 here and 9:46 after v. 45: “where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched” (identical with v. 48). Verses 44 and 46 are present in A D Θ ƒ13 M lat syp,h, but lacking in significant Alexandrian mss and several others (א B C L W Δ Ψ 0274 ƒ1 28 565 892 co). This appears to be a scribal addition from v. 48 and is almost certainly not an original part of the Greek text of Mark. The present translation follows NA28 in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.
  4. Mark 9:45 tn Grk “than having.”
  5. Mark 9:45 tc See tc note at the end of v. 43.
  6. Mark 9:47 tn Grk “throw it out.”
  7. Mark 9:47 sn The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus’ teaching. The nature of the kingdom of God in the NT and in Jesus’ teaching has long been debated by interpreters and scholars, with discussion primarily centering around the nature of the kingdom (earthly, heavenly, or both) and the kingdom’s arrival (present, future, or both). An additional major issue concerns the relationship between the kingdom of God and the person and work of Jesus himself.
  8. Mark 9:47 tn Grk “than having.”

43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

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