Garland: "The text does not argue that parents are allowed to bring their children for baptism but that disciples must not impede or restrain little ones from coming to Jesus."

Some interpreters have used Mark 10:13–16 as a proof-text to justify infant baptism. The verb “to hinder” (koluo, 10:14) appears in the story of the Ethiopian eunuch: “What hinders me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36; NIV, “Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”).

But the use of this verb in baptismal contexts (see also Matt. 3:14; Acts 10:47; 11:17) does not make the context baptismal wherever else the verb appears. Mark certainly does not use it this way (cf. Mark 9:38–39).

In the present section, people bring their children to Jesus so that he will touch them and bless them. Mark does not connect what Jesus does to anything related to baptism. The text does not argue that parents are allowed to bring their children for baptism but that disciples must not impede or restrain little ones from coming to Jesus.

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 386.

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