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Mark 9:43-45
New Catholic Bible
Mark 9:43-45
New Catholic Bible
43 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.[a] It is preferable for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna [ 44 where the devouring worm never dies and the fire is never quenched][b] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into Gehenna [
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Mark 9:43 Cut it off: Jesus is here using hyperbole, a figure of speech that exaggerates to make a point. He means that sometimes sin can be overcome only by taking drastic action. Gehenna: the name, from the Hebrew Ge Hinnon, of a small valley southwest of Jerusalem; it was a popular image for hell because of the refuse that was continually burned there.
- Mark 9:44 These verses are omitted in the best manuscripts; they are repetitions of v. 48 (see Isa 66:24).
