Was Jairus's daughter alive when Jesus was approached?
Matthew makes the daughter dead at the initial request, whereas Mark and Luke make her critically ill but alive.
- Textual conflict
- Direct contradiction
- The quoted passages make incompatible claims about the same subject under the same conditions. Little additional inference is needed.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
The daughter is already dead versus still dying at the father's initial appeal, an explicit conflict about a supporting scene's initial state.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
The ruler says his daughter is already dead
While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
Jairus approaches while his daughter is still dying
And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.
Sequence in each account
- Matthew: Daughter already dead → Father asks Jesus to come (Matthew 9:18)
- Mark: Daughter at the point of death → Father asks Jesus to come (Mark 5:22-23)
- Luke: Daughter dying → Father asks Jesus to come (Luke 8:41-42)
Understanding the contradiction
Matthew 9:18 reports a ruler approaching Jesus and saying that his daughter is already dead. His request is for Jesus to lay a hand on her so that she will live. Mark 5:22-23 names the ruler Jairus and has him describe her as at the point of death, requesting healing.
Luke 8:41-42 also describes Jairus' daughter as dying when he asks Jesus to come. The comparison concerns her condition at the father's initial appeal, not whether she dies at some later stage. Already dead and still dying are different states. Read as versions of that same approach, the narratives give incompatible reports of what the father says and what kind of intervention he initially requests.