Passage

Mark 8.37

Book: Mark · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"35. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it. 36. For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?"

"37. For what should a man give in exchange for his life?"

"38. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man also shall be ashamed of him, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:35-38, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"35. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. 36. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?"

"37. For what will a man give in exchange for his life?"

"38. For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”" (Mark 8:35-38, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"35. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. 36. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

"37. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

"38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:35-38, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"35. for whoever may will to save his life shall lose it; and whoever may lose his life for my sake and for the good news' sake, he shall save it; 36. for what shall it profit a man, if he may gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?"

"37. Or what shall a man give as an exchange for his life?"

"38. for whoever may be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, when he may come in the glory of his Father, with the holy messengers.'" (Mark 8:35-38, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus
Audience: the disciples together with the crowd (Mk 8:34, "and He called the multitude to Him with His disciples"), Mark's distinctive widening of the address beyond the inner circle
Location: the villages of Caesarea Philippi (cf. Mk 8:27)
Time period: c. AD 29-30, the first explicit Passion-prediction unit

Theological reading

Mark 8:37 is the synoptic parallel to Matt 16:26 but is tighter, Mark gives only the second of Matthew's two questions, the bare antallagma question. The structure presupposes the rhetorical answer: nothing. There is no counter-good in the creaturely economy adequate to redeem a forfeited soul (psychē). The verse is the conclusion of the second-half-of-Mark cross-bearing summons (Mk 8:34-9:1) that follows directly upon Jesus's first explicit Passion prediction (Mk 8:31-33) and Peter's rebuke. The structural function: having declared that the Son of Man must suffer and die (Mk 8:31), Jesus declares that the disciple too must lose his life to find it (v. 35), and that no other-than-cross-bearing path is available because no counter-good can redeem the soul that takes the world-trade. Mark's tighter form intensifies the existential pressure: the hearer is forced to name what he is currently exchanging his soul for and to confront the no-equivalent-exists answer. The verse's evangelistic and homiletic force runs through Chrysostom, Augustine, Calvin, Spurgeon, and the modern evangelistic-preaching tradition; it remains one of the most-deployed verses in conversion-preaching for its diagnostic-and-pressure-applying structure.

Key words

G0487 - antallagma, antallagma (exchange, ransom-price), one of only two NT occurrences (parallel at Matthew 16.26)
G5590 - psychē (pending), psychē (soul, life)

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.