Lieth at the point of death— St. Luke agrees with St. Mark in this circumstance; but St. Matthew seems to add another. According to the latter, Jairus said (Matthew 9:18.), my daughter is even now dead, αρτι ετελευτησεν; but he might utter both the expressions: for as his daughter lay expiring when he came away, he might think she could not live many minutes; and therefore, having told Jesus that she was lying at the point of death, he added, that in all probability she was dead.
Nevertheless,if this solution seem inconsistent with the ruler's petition, Come, and lay thine hands on her, that she may be healed and with the dejection that appeared in his countenance, when his servants told him that his daughter had actually expired, we may fully remove the difficulty, by translating the clause in St. Matthew, My daughter is almost dead, a sense which, according to the analogy of the Greek language, it will easily bear. See a similar expression, Luke 5:7. We may just observe further, that αρτι does not only signify what is now come to pass, but what is just at hand; and so it may imply no more than that she was considered as just dead, and that there was no hope of her recovery, but by a miracle. See Gerhard, and Doddridge.