Mark 5:38 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And he cometh to the house, &c.— Namely, from the street, for that was the proper time to hinder the crowd from accompanying him. See Luke 8:51. It seems, the mother of the damsel, on seeing that Jesus was nigh, had gone out to the street to conduct him in, or waited for him in the porch of her house to receive him. See on Ch. Mark 2:4. With the attendance above mentioned, Jesus went up stairs where the damsel was lying, for they used to lay their dead in upper rooms. See Acts 9:37. Here he found a number of people in an outer apartment making lamentation for her, according to the custom of the Jews, with music, see Matthew 9:23. The company at theruler'shouse,when Jesus came in, being employed in making such lamentation for the damsel, as they used to make for the dead, it is evident that they all believed she was actually departed: wherefore, when Jesus told them that she was not dead, Mark 5:39 he did not mean that her soul was not separated from her body, but that it was not to continue so, which was the idea the mourners affixed to the word death. Her state he expressed by saying that she slept; using the word in a sense somewhat analogous to that which the Jews put upon it, when in speaking of a person's death they called it sleep, to intimate their belief of his existence and happiness in the other world, together with their hope of a future resurrection to a new life. On this occasion the phrase was madeuse of with singular propriety, to insinuate, that notwithstanding the maid was already dead, she should not long continue so. Jesus was going to raise her from the dead, and would do it with as much ease as they awaked one that was asleep. See John 11:11-13.