The Bible Says
Mark 8:11-13 Meaning

The parallel Gospel accounts for Mark 8:11-13 are found in Matthew 16:1-4 and Luke 11:16, 11:29-30. A similar instance to Mark 8:11-13 can also be found in Matthew 12:38-42.

In Mark 8:11-13, the Pharisees tested Jesus by demanding a sign from heaven, but He sighed deeply at their unbelief, refused their request, and departed from them.

Following the disciples’ return from their missionary journey and upon learning of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus had been trying to spend time with them alone to teach and share with them an important message (Mark 6:31-32). But everywhere Jesus went He was recognized and crowds flocked to Him. This included the predominantly Gentile regions of Tyre (Mark 7:24) and more recently the Decapolis, where Jesus miraculously fed a crowd of 4,000 men with only seven loaves of bread and a few small fish (Mark 8:1-9).

Immediately after Jesus dismissed the crowd, “He entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha” (Mark 8:10).

It is believed that Dalmanutha was an ancient name of a place somewhere along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee—in the vicinity of Magdala. Magdala, meaning “tower,” is remembered as the hometown of Mary Magdalene, the woman whom Jesus delivered from seven demons (Luke 8:2). Jesus’s ministry was headquartered in Capernaum near Galilee’s northern shore. Both Magdala and Capernaum were located in the predominately Jewish district of Galilee. Dalmanutha, as will become apparent from the context of Mark 8:11-13, was evidently located in the predominantly Jewish district of Galilee.

Mark tells us what happened when Jesus arrived from the Decapolis via boat across the Sea of Galilee to the region of Dalmanutha.

The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him (v 11).

Shortly after returning to Galilee, Jesus was recognized by the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were the religious authorities and keepers of Jewish Law and the traditions (called the Mishnah). They were in charge of the local synagogues, which were centers that promoted their version of Jewish culture. The Pharisees had great influence over the general Jewish population and their shame could culturally crush a person. Because they were so legalistic, the Pharisees had the appearance of being righteous, but they were actually self-righteous (Matthew 23:2-12). The Pharisees regularly abused their man-made rules to circumvent the Law of Moses, to exploit people, and to manufacture loopholes for themselves (Matthew 23:13-36).

Jesus clashed with the Pharisees because He followed God’s Law instead of their rules (Mark 7:5-13). The Pharisees rightly viewed Jesus as a threat to their power. And consequently, they energetically sought to discredit Him as a false Messiah.

When the Pharisees saw that Jesus had returned to Galilee, they came out and began to argue with Him.

In Matthew’s parallel account of this encounter, the Sadducees came with the Pharisees to test Jesus (Matthew 16:1) in the hopes that they could prove Him a fraud.

The Sadducees were the priests. They oversaw the sacrificial system. Their center was the Temple in Jerusalem.

In many respects the Sadducees and Pharisees were rival political/religious parties. But they both had a deep mistrust and dislike for Jesus—because He threatened their power.

The Pharisees and Sadducees came to test (and in their evil hearts hoped to disprove) whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. The fact that they began to argue with Jesus gives an indication of their malicious intentions.

From Luke’s account, it seems that Jesus was teaching a crowd and casting out a demon when the Pharisees and Sadducees interrupted Him and began to argue with Him and test Him (Luke 11:14-32).

Some of them slandered Jesus by saying that the reason He was able to cast out demons (which by this point was irrefutable) was not because He was the Messiah or from God, but rather because He was an agent of Satan (Luke 11:14-15).

Others demanded a sign that would once and for all demonstrate that Jesus was the Christ:

“Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven.”
(Luke 11:16)

According to Luke, Jesus first responded to the slander that he was in league with Satan by saying: “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls” (Luke 11:17b). And He then asked His accusers that if He casts out demons by the power of the devil, by whom did his accusers cast out demons? (Luke 11:19). His point was that they did not cast out demons.

Jesus then proposed that if He casts out demons by the power of God, then this would mean that the Messianic kingdom has come upon them (Luke 11:20). Jesus further exposed how the Pharisees’ self-righteousness was not of the kingdom of God but benefited the efforts of Satan (Luke 11:21-26).

After addressing the slander, Jesus then responded to the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ demand for a sign (Luke 11:29).

Mark and Matthew’s Gospels do not describe the details of the debate over Jesus’s exorcising power here.

Matthew, which was organized thematically rather than chronologically (like Luke—Luke 1:1-4), describes the details of this tense exchange in Matthew 12:22-29. This is in the middle of Matthew 12, which is a chapter dedicated to multiple confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Mark describes this slander against the source of Jesus’s power to cast out demons, and His rebuttal, in Mark 3:22-27. It is likely that there were multiple times Jesus was slandered this way and refuted this slander.

Instead of focusing here on the slander about Jesus’s ability to cast out demons, Mark focuses instead on the Pharisees’ testing of Jesus. Mark writes how the Pharisees were seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. They wanted Jesus to perform a miracle that would demonstrate once and for all that He was the Messiah.

At first glance, the Pharisees’ request seemed like a genuine test to determine if Jesus was truly the Messiah. If Jesus performed a sign from heaven, He would prove His messianic identity; if not, He would be exposed as a fraud. As experts in God's law and as priests, it would have been reasonable for the Pharisees to earnestly seek confirmation of His claim. However, their intentions were not sincere.

Jesus instantly recognized their lack of sincerity, just as He had before when the scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign. On that occasion, He labeled them "an evil and adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39). Had they truly meant well, they would have accepted the many miracles Jesus had already performed as clear evidence of His messiahship.

However, the Pharisees, with some exceptions, had already dismissed Jesus as a sorcerer and impostor (Mark 3:22). Meanwhile, the Sadducees, who accepted only the Mosaic Law, likely never fully embraced the expectation of a coming Messiah who would bring Israel to glory, despite the Messianic promise found in Deuteronomy 18:18, which is part of that law.

But their insincere test was a trap.

If Jesus did not produce the sign from heaven which the Pharisees and religious leaders demanded of Him, as some of them likely expected He would not, they would denounce Jesus as a fraud and false Messiah.

But if Jesus did produce a compelling sign, then He would have submitted to their request and authority and His Messiahship would be beholden to the opinions of these influential men. The Pharisees would be able to claim credit for discovering the Messiah and control His ministry.

It was a no-win scenario crafted to make the religious leaders appear in control of Jesus. If He complied and performed a sign on their terms, He would be validating their authority over Him. But if He refused, as they anticipated, they could use His refusal as proof He wasn’t the Messiah. Either way, the Pharisees and Sadducees expected to benefit. This “heads we win, tails you lose” tactic is a recurring pattern throughout the gospel accounts of Jesus being tested by Jewish authorities.

If Jesus agreed to their demand and performed a miracle on their terms, He would be endorsing the corrupt authority of the Pharisees and Sadducees, essentially acting within their sphere of control. In return for His compliance, He might gain their official approval, or worse, He would face a never-ending series of demands, making Him a puppet under their control.

If this was their scheme, it closely resembled how the Devil tested Jesus in the wilderness. Like the Devil before them, the Pharisees’ demand was that Jesus perform a public miracle so persuasive that it would compel everyone to believe that He is the Messiah:

“Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

“He will command His angels concerning You”;

and

“On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.”’”
(Matthew 4:5-6—see also Luke 4:9-12)

If Jesus did as the devil tempted Him, then everyone would see Him jump from the temple and land upon the earth safely and recognize that He was from God. They would proclaim Him as the Messiah and He could avoid the painful humiliation of being rejected by His own people and potentially the suffering of the cross. But if He choose this easy path, then He would not have followed His Father’s will. And He would not die for the sins of the world as He would be following Satan instead of God.

But Jesus did not give into the Pharisees’ test any more than He gave into the devil’s temptation.

The Pharisees and Sadducees likely suspected by this point that Jesus would not comply with their demand. He had already turned down a similar request from the scribes and Pharisees before (Matthew 12:38-45).

What then was their purpose in testing Jesus by seeking a sign from Him?

They may have expected the same response, planning to jointly tell the people that after careful examination, Jesus failed to prove He was the Messiah. By presenting a united front, with agreement across their factions, the Pharisees and Sadducees likely hoped to sway the people back to their own self-interested leadership and away from Jesus.

Naturally, this claim would have been entirely false. Yet deception did not trouble the Pharisees and Sadducees—their whole existence thrived on hypocrisy. They had willfully ignored the truth and were now focused solely on anything that served their own interests.

But Jesus recognized their trap. He did not come to affirm the kingdoms of this world (John 18:36), but to establish the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 6:10). He didn’t require validation from the religious leaders—His authority came directly from God the Father (John 5:37). They could not undermine His legitimacy; they were like blind guides (Matthew 15:14). Jesus was God and had already proven He was the Messiah through many miracles (Matthew 9:6, John 5:36).

Humans have a tendency to expect and demand things from God. The Pharisees’ question was an arrogant demand. It was a demand that God perform for them. They were treating God as a means and not an end—as though God were their cosmic vending machine. In Exodus, the Israelites tested the LORD at Meribah, asking “Is the LORD among us, or not?” (Exodus 17:7). What the Israelites then and the Pharisees now were threatening God was that if He did not perform for them then they would not worship Him.

Unless we are careful, we too can make this arrogant and foolish demand. God is not beholden to us. We are beholden to Him.

Mark records a brief but moving version of Jesus’s response to the Pharisees’ trap:

Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (v 12)

Mark observed that Jesus was sighing deeply in His spirit when He gave His reply.

The term His spirit in this context most likely refers to Jesus’s human spirit. As a human, Jesus had a physical human body, and He had an immaterial human spirit. A person’s spirit is what enables them to personally relate to God.

Jesus’s deep sighing was not irritation or mere fatigue. It was not a mindless puff of exhalation.

Jesus’s deep sigh from within His spirit was a profound inner groan.

Mark’s expression—sighing deeply in His spirit—conveys an intensified inward heaviness. It indicates sorrow, lament, and spiritual anguish. It reveals an unexpected vulnerability in the most powerful human to ever live. Here is a man who can literally do anything. No feat, no miracle, nothing is beyond His power to perform, and yet here He is sighing deeply within His spirit.

Why?

Jesus was sorrowful that those who demanded proof were blind to the countless signs already given—healings, exorcisms, feedings, and authoritative teaching.

The sigh revealed both His compassion and His anguish. Jesus had compassion for a people trapped in hardness of heart. Jesus anguished that they still required spectacle rather than perceiving the truth. It was the groaning of One who felt the weight of unbelief pressing against the mission entrusted to Him by the Father.

Jesus had the power to unveil His glory to the Pharisees and the world so that they would be compelled to fall at their feet in worship of Him, but Jesus knew that if He did this, He would obliterate their free will, their capacity for faith, and for love.

If Jesus gave them what they were asking, He would be stripping their humanity from them. And this He refused to do. Even though it broke His heart and cost Him His life.

His sighing deeply in His spirit was a longing for them to see who He was by faith, for them to enjoy the blessings of choosing to love and follow Him and escape the oppression of their own self-righteousness and sin. His sighing was a longing for these things even as He respected their freedom and humanity to reject Him.

Mark’s record of Jesus’s deep sighing in His spirit at this moment is the equivalent of Matthew and Luke’s record of Jesus’s laments over Jerusalem,

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
(Matthew 23:37—see also Luke 13:34)

Even though He was God, Jesus did not force Himself on anyone.

Of all the times the gospels describe Jesus responding to the demand to produce a sign (Matthew 12:38-42, Matthew 16:1-4, Mark 8:11-13, and Luke 11:16, 29-30), Mark’s account is the only one to mention His sighing.

Perhaps Mark does this to help explain, or rather, show to His Roman readers why Jesus, the most powerful human to ever live, would allow Himself to be crucified.

Rome valued results and prized power over words. Mark’s Gospel is thus action-oriented and concise. In this gospel, Jesus is presented, as He was, as a powerful and dynamic figure who could do anything—and yet He surrendered and suffered and was killed. Normally this would indicate weakness, but Jesus had a great and cosmic mission from His father to save and redeem the entire world. Jesus pursued this mission relentlessly and sacrificially. He obeyed His Father. Jesus had an inner strength—“pietas”—a sacred devotion to His Father and His mission and He obeyed it all costs—even unto death.

Rome’s chief value and most prized virtue was “pietas”—sacrificially performing one’s sacred duty. And so Mark portrays Jesus’s power, but also His “pietas.”

Mark portrays Jesus’s strength and His sacrifice. His deep sighing in His spirit reveals both His strength and His sacrifice. And it foreshadows His inner strength and agonizing sacrifice on the cross to triumph over sin, defeat death, fulfill the Law and His divine mission, for the love of the entire world.

After His deep sigh, Jesus said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

There are two parts to Jesus’s response as recorded by Mark.

1. A Rhetorical Question: Why does this generation seek for a sign?
   
   
2. A Prophecy: Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.

The implied response to Jesus’s rhetorical question is “There is no valid reason for this generation to seek or demand a sign.”

This generation refers to the generation of Jews who were living during the lifetime of the Messiah and the advent of the Son of God. Jesus was both the Messiah and the Son of God. This generation got to witness Jesus (who was the Messiah and Son of God) perform countless miracles and hear His authoritative teaching.

Previous generations who lived during the time of the prophets, judges, or centuries of silence may have been able to observe a sign here or there, and indeed many generations of Israelites had observed no sign and yet remained faithful.

But this Messianic generation that had already been given so many signs pointing to and demonstrating Jesus’s identity sought still more from Him. Their demand was not born out of sincere faith or honest inquiry but out of hardness of heart and unbelief.

By framing His response with a rhetorical question, Jesus exposed the futility and hypocrisy of their request—since abundant signs had already been given through His miracles, teaching, and authority. The implied verdict was that no additional sign would satisfy such a faithless generation. The problem lay not in a lack of evidence but in their refusal to believe.

Jesus’s prophecy was a direct answer to the Pharisees’ demand for a sign.

Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.

Jesus opened His prophecy with the expression: Truly I say to you. This meant He was answering them according to His own prophetic authority and not referring to anyone else’s authority—as other Jewish rabbis often did. By speaking from His own authority, Jesus was answering them from the highest there is because He is God.

Jesus’s response was simple and clear: no sign will be given to this generation. Jesus openly refused to give them a sign and give into their test.

But at second glance there is craftiness in His refusal.

Jesus did not say “I’m not giving you a sign.” Had He said this, then the Pharisees and other religious leaders could have said Jesus cannot or will not produce a sign because He cannot and He is not the Messiah.

Instead, Jesus framed His answer in the form of a prophecy. His prophecy predicted that no sign will be given to this generation (by Him or anyone else). Jesus was predicting that the LORD would not give this hardhearted generation the sign they were demanding of Him.

Mark then concludes this encounter by saying:

Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side (v 13).

Jesus left the Pharisees in the district of Dalmanutha (Mark 8:10). And He embarked (by boat) again across the Sea of Galilee. He went away to the other side of the lake. He and His disciples was headed for the northeastern shoreline near the town of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22).

Jesus’s Fuller Response to the Pharisee’s and their request as recorded by Matthew

Matthew’s account of the exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees in Dalmanutha provides additional details about Jesus’s response which the Gospel of Mark omits,

“But He replied to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.’”
(Matthew 16:2-4a)

In this fuller response, Jesus first points out the irony that the Jews are able to interpret all kinds of signs about the weather, but are unable to interpret the obvious signs of His miracles that clearly indicate that He is the Messiah (Matthew 16:2-3).

Then Jesus describes this generation as “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matthew 16:4a).

He says, as He does in Mark, that no sign will be given to this generation (Matthew 16:4b), with one exception—“except the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 16:4c).

Jesus explained “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 16:4c) earlier in Matthew’s Gospel:

“for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
(Matthew 12:40)

This was in reference to Jesus’s three-day burial and resurrection from the dead. In other words, the ultimate sign that Jesus is the Messiah will not be given now, but rather it will be when He rises from the dead after being buried for three days.

One possible reason that Matthew recorded this reference was because Matthew was written to a Jewish audience who were familiar with the prophet Jonah. And thus, they could be expected to understand how this sign was fulfilled at Jesus’s resurrection.

Mark distills Jesus’s reply to its core—He will not perform a miracle on demand. Despite witnessing many miracles, they still refuse to believe, so no sign will be given. Therefore, Mark probably omits the reference to Jonah, knowing his Gentile-Roman audience would not easily understand it. Instead, he keeps the account brief, matching his fast-paced, action-driven style.

To learn more about Matthew’s fuller account of Jesus’s reply, see The Bible Says commentaries for Matthew 16:1-4 and/or Matthew 12:38-42.