A.T. Robertson Commentary Mark 5:39

"And when he was entered in, he saith unto them, Why make ye a tumult, and weep? the child is not dead, but sleepeth." — Mark 5:39 (ASV)

Make a tumult (θορυβεισθε). Middle voice. Jesus had dismissed one crowd (verse 37), but finds the house occupied by the hired mourners making bedlam (θορυβος) as if that showed grief with their ostentatious noise. Matthew 9:23 spoke of flute-players (αυλητας) and the hubbub of the excited throng (θορυβουμενον. Cf. Mr 14:2; Acts 20:1,21,34). Mark, Matthew, and Luke all quote Jesus as saying that "the child is not dead, but sleepeth." Jesus undoubtedly meant that she was not dead to stay dead, though some hold that the child was not really dead. It is a beautiful word (she is

sleeping , καθευδε) that Jesus uses of death.