⚡WEB · Mark 11:4
What does Mark 11:4 mean?
"They went away, and found a young donkey tied at the door outside in the open street, and they untied him."
— Mark 11:4 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
When they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
and said to them, “Go your way into the village that is opposite you. Immediately as you enter into it, you will find a young donkey tied, on which no one has sat. Untie him, and bring him.
If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs him;’ and immediately he will send him back here.”
They went away, and found a young donkey tied at the door outside in the open street, and they untied him.
Some of those who stood there asked them, “What are you doing, untying the young donkey?”
They said to them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go.
They brought the young donkey to Jesus, and threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it.
Explanation
Mark 11:4 describes a simple, almost mundane action: two of Jesus's disciples go into a nearby village, as he had instructed them, and find things exactly as he said they would—a young donkey tied outside in the street—and they untie it to bring back to him. On the surface, it is a brief narrative detail, but it sits within a carefully told story that Mark wants his readers to notice.
The context is the beginning of what we call the Triumphal Entry, just before Jesus's final week in Jerusalem leading to his crucifixion. Mark, writing his Gospel likely for a Roman audience, probably in the late 60s AD, is recounting events from Jesus's ministry with an eye toward showing who Jesus truly is. In the verses just before this one, Jesus tells two disciples to go into the village ahead, where they will find a colt that no one has ridden, tied up, and if anyone questions them, they are to say "The Lord needs it." Verse 4 shows the disciples doing exactly as instructed and finding everything precisely as Jesus described it—down to
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