He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. The maid is not dead, but sleepeth - That is, she is not dead so as to continue under the power of death; but shall be raised from it as a, person is from natural sleep.
They laughed him to scorn - Κατεγελων αυτον, they ridiculed him; from κατα, intensive, and γελαω, I:laugh: - they grinned a ghastly smile, expressive of the contempt they felt for his person and knowledge. People of the world generally ridicule those truths which they neither comprehend nor love, and deride those who publish them; but a faithful minister of God, (copying the example of Christ), keeps on his way, and does the work of his Lord and Master.