5:21–43 This passage is the second instance in which Mark sandwiches together two incidents into one composite story (see earlier 3:20–35). Mark seems to do this because in each case he wants the two parts of the composite account to be understood in connection with each other. That these two incidents may have happened in connection with each other as described in Mark is not necessarily challenged. But, since it is evident that Mark does not tell us everything Jesus did, it is always important to inquire why he recorded what he did in the way he did.

Some of the connections between these two incidents are obvious. For one thing, both incidents involve Jesus ministering to women: one, a grown woman, the other, a young girl. Also, both are in desperate, helpless states. The one is apparen…