Passage

Mark 9.24

"Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, 'I do believe; help my unbelief.'" (Mark 9:24, NASB95)

Synthesis

Mark 9:24 is the father's plea after Jesus tells him "all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23). The man's son has suffered from a violent spirit since childhood (vv. 17-22), the disciples have just failed to cast it out (v. 18), and the desperate father has asked Jesus, "if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" Jesus throws the conditional back at him: not "if I can," but "if you can believe." The father's response is one of the most pastorally honest sentences in the New Testament. He confesses faith and unbelief simultaneously, and the second clause is itself a prayer addressed to the One in whom he is trying to believe.

For apologetic engagement this verse cuts in two directions. It rebuts the picture of biblical faith as certainty-without-doubt: Jesus accepts and acts on a faith mixed with explicit unbelief. It also rebuts the picture of biblical faith as mere wish-projection: the father is not summoning belief by force of will, he is asking the Object of faith to grant the very faith that reaches Him. Faith here is gift more than achievement, and doubt is brought into the open rather than concealed.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"22. And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. 23. And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth."

"24. Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

"25. And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 26. And having cried out, and torn him much, he came out: and the boy became as one dead; insomuch that the more part said, He is dead." (Mark 9:22-26, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"22. Often it has cast him both into the fire and into the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” 23. Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”"

"24. Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”"

"25. When Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” 26. Having cried out, and convulsed greatly, it came out of him. The boy became like one dead; so much that most of them said, “He is dead.”" (Mark 9:22-26, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"22. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. 23. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."

"24. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

"25. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 26. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead." (Mark 9:22-26, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"22. and many times also it cast him into fire, and into water, that it might destroy him; but if thou art able to do anything, help us, having compassion on us.' 23. And Jesus said to him, 'If thou art able to believe! all things are possible to the one that is believing;'"

"24. and immediately the father of the child, having cried out, with tears said, 'I believe, sir; be helping mine unbelief.'"

"25. Jesus having seen that a multitude doth run together, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, 'Spirit, dumb and deaf, I charge thee, come forth out of him, and no more thou mayest enter into him;' 26. and having cried, and rent him much, it came forth, and he became as dead, so that many said that he was dead," (Mark 9:22-26, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the father of a demon-oppressed boy; Jesus in the surrounding dialogue
Audience: Jesus, the failed disciples, the gathering crowd
Location: below the Mount of Transfiguration, in Galilee
Time period: Jesus' Galilean ministry, c. AD 30, immediately after the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13)

Theological reading

The early church read this scene as a paradigm of how faith comes to be. Augustine treats the father's words as the soul speaking honestly to God about itself: faith already exists, otherwise the cry would not be addressed to Christ at all, but faith is not yet what it ought to be, so it pleads its own incompleteness. The cure for unbelief is not self-generated certainty but petition to the One who gives faith. Bede and Gregory the Great take the same line, with Gregory emphasizing that the father's tears (recorded by the WEB and KJV streams) are the visible token of inward struggle.

In the broader gospel pattern, Mark 9:24 stands alongside Thomas in John 20 and the apostles' "increase our faith" in Luke 17:5 as Scripture's normative picture of a believer who is also a doubter. Jesus does not rebuke the father, expel him, or wait for his faith to mature; He casts out the spirit on the spot. This pattern grounds the pastoral conviction that honest unbelief brought to Christ is itself an act of faith, and that the appropriate response to one's own doubt is not concealment but petition.

For apologetic conversations with skeptics and with suffering parents, the verse provides a model. The father is not asked to suppress his doubt before approaching Jesus, and he is not handed a syllogism. He is given a Person to address and a request he can actually make. Apologetic argument does work the case the apologist is making, but in this passage the operative move is not argument; it is honest speech to the One who can grant what He requires.

Key words

G4100 - pisteuo, pisteuō (Strong's G4100). The verb "believe" used in both halves of the father's cry; same root as pistis (faith).
apistia (Strong's G570). "Unbelief"; the same word Jesus uses in v. 19 of "this unbelieving generation," now confessed by the father about himself.
boētheō (Strong's G997). "Help"; the father uses it twice, once of the demon's affliction (v. 22) and once of his own unbelief (v. 24).

Theological themes

Faith as gift, not feat. The object of faith is also the source of faith; the cry "help my unbelief" treats faith as something Christ can give, not only something the believer must muster.
Honest doubt within faith. Scripture's portrait of the believer includes confession of remaining unbelief; doubt is not the opposite of faith but often its companion in the same heart.
Pastoral apologetics. The verse is foundational for engagement with skeptics and with suffering parents: Christ receives the imperfect, doubting petitioner without preconditions.
Christology by inference. The father addresses Jesus as the One who can grant faith and cast out evil spirits; in Mark's narrative this is functionally divine action.

Cross-references

Luke 17:5, the apostles' "Lord, increase our faith"; a parallel petition for faith addressed to its Giver.
Hebrews 11:6, "without faith it is impossible to please Him"; sets the stake for the father's request.
Ephesians 2.8, faith itself as God's gift; theological parallel to the father's cry.
Mark 9.14-29, the full pericope; healing in context with the disciples' failure and Jesus' explanation that "this kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

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.