Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Privately, saying (kat idian oti). Indoors the nine disciples seek an explanation for their colossal failure. They had cast out demons and wrought cures before. The Revisers are here puzzled over Mark's use of oti as an interrogative particle meaning
why where Matthew 17:19 has dia ti. Some of the manuscripts have dia ti here in Mark 9:28 as all do in Matthew 17:19. See also Mark 2:16 and Mark 9:11. It is probable that in these examples oti really means
why. See Robertson, Grammar, p. 730. The use of ov as interrogative "is by no means rare in the late Greek" (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 126).
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Mark 9:28:
Mark 9:14
Mark 9:28
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