The Fallible Study Bible

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Luke4:38–41

Jesus Heals at Peter’s House

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Luke 4:38–41 — Jesus Heals at Peter’s House. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

38

After Jesus had left the synagogue, He went to the home of Simon, whose mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. So they appealed to Jesus on her behalf,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Anastas apo tēs synagōgēs eisēlthen eis tēn oikian Simōnos de tou Simōnos penthera ēn synechomenē megalō pyretō kai ērōtēsan auton peri autēs

Word by word23 · parsed
δὲdeAfterG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἈναστὰςAnastas[Jesus] had leftG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anistēmi: to stand up, to rise The aorist participle sets the scene by a departure that is also a rising. G450 is Luke's ordinary word for getting up, but it is also the word he will use of the resurrection (Luke 24:7). Here it simply moves Jesus out of the synagogue and into a private house, which is the whole hinge of the passage: the public teaching of the sabbath morning becomes bedside work in someone's home.
ἀπὸapo. . .G575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
συναγωγῆςsynagōgēssynagogueG4864
√ συναγωγή — an assemblage of personsNounGenitive Feminine Singular
synagōgē: an assemblage, a gathering place The place He leaves, named only to mark the move from assembly to household.
εἰσῆλθενeisēlthenHe wentG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
οἰκίανoikianhomeG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
oikia: a residence, an abode The healing ministry begins in a house, not a sanctuary. Cambridge and Gill both note that Mark calls it "the house of Simon and Andrew," and Gill records a variant in Beza's ancient copy adding "and of Andrew" here too.
ΣίμωνοςSimōnosof SimonG4613
√ Σίμων — Simon (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Simōn: Simon This is the first mention of Peter in Luke's Gospel, dropped in with no introduction at all. Pulpit draws the inference that when Luke wrote, Peter was already so well known in every church that none was needed. Cambridge adds the plain domestic fact that follows from the next word: the apostle had a wife.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΣίμωνοςSimōnos[whose]G4613
√ Σίμων — Simon (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
πενθερὰpentheramother-in-lawG3994
√ πενθερά — a wife's motherNounNominative Feminine Singular
penthera: a wife's mother A rare noun (5 verses in the New Testament), and in every other occurrence it names a household split by the gospel (Matthew 10:35, Luke 12:53). Here the same word names a household healed. The sick woman is a relative by marriage, which is precisely why the detail is evidence rather than legend: it embarrasses no one and proves Peter was married.
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
συνεχομένηsynechomenēsuffering fromG4912
√ συνέχω — to hold together, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Feminine Singular
synechō: to hold together, to constrain The participle is passive: she is the one being held. Luke uses this same verb of a crowd pressing in (Luke 8:45), of a city hemmed by siegeworks (Luke 19:43), and of Paul held fast by the word (Acts 18:5). Disease here is not a weakness but a grip, which is why the answer to it in the next verse is a command rather than a remedy.
μεγάλῳmegalōa highG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
megas: great, large Not a loose intensifier but the technical half of a two-term medical scale. Cambridge and Pulpit independently record that Galen divided fevers into great and little, and that Luke's choice is the physician's.
πυρετῷpyretōfeverG4446
√ πυρετός — inflamed, iNounDative Masculine Singular
pyretos: inflamed heat, fever A rare New Testament word, standing in only six verses: this scene and its synoptic parallels, the nobleman's son at Capernaum (John 4:52), and the father of Publius on Malta (Acts 28:8). Luke is the only writer to use it twice, and both of his uses put a fever beside a laying on of hands.
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠρώτησανērōtēsanthey appealedG2065
√ ἐρωτάω — to interrogateVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
erōtaō: to ask, to interrogate Aorist: one request, answered. Gill weighs whether the askers were the four disciples present or the household's own relations and friends, and grounds their confidence in what they had just seen in the synagogue that morning.
αὐτὸνautonto [Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
περὶperionG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
αὐτῆςautēsher [behalf]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
39

and He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And she got up at once and began to serve them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai epistas epanō autēs epetimēsen tō pyretō kai aphēken autēn de anastasa parachrēma diēkonei autois

Word by word15 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπιστὰςepistasHe stoodG2186
√ ἐφίστημι — to stand upon, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ephistēmi: to stand upon, to come upon Luke's own detail, absent from Matthew and Mark. The compound puts Jesus above the sickbed in the posture of one who gives orders, and it prepares the verb that follows. Cambridge notes that the other Evangelists supply the touch of the hand instead; both details are true, and each Gospel keeps one.
ἐπάνωepanōoverG1883
√ ἐπάνω — up above, iPreposition
αὐτῆςautēsherG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
ἐπετίμησενepetimēsen[and] rebukedG2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epitimaō: to lay a charge upon, to rebuke The theological pivot of the verse. This is the same verb Luke used of the unclean spirit in the synagogue (Luke 4:35) and will use of the demons in v. 41, and it is the verb Jesus turns on the wind and sea (Luke 8:24). Luke will not treat the fever as a lesser order of thing than the demon: both are commanded, and both obey. Gill, more cautiously, reads the rebuke as bidding the fever be gone at the moment He took her hand.
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
πυρετῷpyretōfeverG4446
√ πυρετός — inflamed, iNounDative Masculine Singular
pyretos: fever The fever, not the woman, is the object of the command and the subject of the next verb.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀφῆκενaphēkenit leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, to release, to forgive The obedience is instant and total. Gill records that Mark says "immediately," and that it went as soon as the hand was touched and the rebuke spoken. The verb's other life, as the ordinary word for the remission of sins, is a resonance the Greek carries and the English does not; the machine offers it as resonance and not as Luke's stated point.
αὐτήνautēnherG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
δὲdeAndG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἀναστᾶσαanastasashe got upG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Singular
anistēmi: to stand up, to rise The feminine participle of the very verb used of Jesus leaving the synagogue in v. 38. He rises and comes; she rises and serves. The bracket is Luke's, and it is invisible in a translation that renders the first "had left" and the second "got up."
παραχρῆμαparachrēmaat onceG3916
√ παραχρῆμα — at the thing itself, iAdverb
parachrēma: at the thing itself, instantly A favourite Lukan adverb (it stands in seventeen verses, ten of them in Luke and six in Acts) and part of what Ellicott counts as the physician's accurate diagnosis: no convalescence, no weakness left over. A fever that breaks on its own leaves the patient flat; this one leaves her able to work.
διηκόνειdiēkonei[and] began to serveG1247
√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
diakoneō: to wait upon, to serve at table The imperfect makes it her settled activity, not one gesture. Henry draws the whole application from this word: a life given back in recovery from sickness should be a life spent in service. The word is the one the church later took for its deacons, and it is the word Jesus uses of Himself in Luke 22:27.
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
40

At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Dynontos tou hēliou hapantes hosoi eichon asthenountas poikilais nosois ēgagon autous pros auton de ho epititheis tas cheiras hekastō heni autōn etherapeuen autous

Word by word24 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΔύνοντοςDynontosAt sunsetG1416
√ δύνω — to go "down"VerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
dynō: to go down, to sink The genitive absolute is the timing device of the whole scene, and the reason the crowd is a crowd. Cambridge and Benson both note that sunset closed the sabbath, so the sick could now be carried legally. Pulpit adds that the hour had evidently been waited for. The morning's exorcism in the synagogue had already told the town what was possible; the law told them when.
τοῦtou. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἡλίουhēliou. . .G2246
√ ἥλιος — perhaps akin to the alternate of G138 (αἱρέομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἅπαντεςhapantesallG537
√ ἅπας — absolutely all or (singular) every oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὅσοιhosoi. . .G3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
εἶχονeichonwho wereG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἀσθενοῦνταςasthenountasillG770
√ ἀσθενέω — to be feeble (in any sense)VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
astheneō: to be without strength, feeble Participial and present: these are people in an ongoing state of weakness. The word covers every degree, which is why it takes the qualifier that follows.
ποικίλαιςpoikilaiswith variousG4164
√ ποικίλος — motley, iAdjectiveDative Feminine Plural
poikilos: motley, many-coloured A rare adjective (10 verses). It refuses to let the evening's suffering become a category. Pulpit, quoting Farrar, describes what the word implies: a raving and tortured crowd, one of the most striking twilight scenes in the Gospels.
νόσοιςnosoisdiseasesG3554
√ νόσος — a malady (rarely figuratively, of moral disability)NounDative Feminine Plural
nosos: a malady, a disease Also rare (11 verses), and its distribution is telling: it clusters in the summary statements of what the ministry does (Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 4:24) and in the commission itself, where Jesus gives the Twelve power over all demons and to cure diseases (Luke 9:1). Strong's allows a figurative sense of moral disability; Luke does not use it that way here, and this synthesis will not either. What this evening establishes, the Twelve are later sent out to repeat.
ἤγαγονēgagonwere broughtG71
√ ἄγω — properly, to leadVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτοὺςautous. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτόνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
δὲdeandG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπιτιθεὶςepititheislayingG2007
√ ἐπιτίθημι — to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
epitithēmi: to lay upon, to impose A present participle, so the laying on runs alongside the healing rather than preceding it as one act. Gill weighs what is deliberately absent: no medicine, only the imposition of His hands. In the Old Testament this gesture ordains and commissions (Numbers 27:18, Numbers 27:23); here it heals, and Luke notes it without explanation.
τὰςtas[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
χεῖραςcheirashandsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
cheir: the hand, and so power Luke keeps the physical contact even in a mass healing. Ellicott notes that the details Luke shares with Mark here are the divers diseases and the silencing of the demons; the one by one touch is Luke's own emphasis.
ἑκάστῳhekastōon eachG1538
√ ἕκαστος — each or everyAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
hekastos: each, every one With the heni that follows, an emphatic doubling.
ἑνὶhenioneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
heis: one The second half of the doubling. Between the participle and this pair, the verse insists that a crowd was healed as a series of persons, never as a crowd.
αὐτῶνautōnG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἐθεράπευενetherapeuenHe healedG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeuō: to wait upon, to tend, to heal The imperfect is the sentence's last word about method. Its root sense is attendance, service, waiting upon someone, the same field as diakoneō in v. 39. The healer serves the sick one by one, and the healed woman serves at table: Luke has put the two verbs of service in consecutive scenes.
αὐτούςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
41

Demons also came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de daimonia kai exērcheto apo pollōn kraugazonta kai legonta hoti Sy ei ho Huios tou Theou kai epitimōn ouk eia auta lalein hoti ēdeisan auton einai ton Christon

Word by word28 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
δαιμόνιαdaimoniaDemonsG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounNominative Neuter Plural
daimonion: a demonic being Neuter plural, and the participles that follow (kraugazonta, legonta) are neuter too, so it is the demons and not the people who scream the title. Luke keeps the grammar exact about who is speaking.
καὶkaialsoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξήρχετοexērchetocame outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
exerchomai: to go out, to issue Imperfect: the exits are repeated and individual, like the healings of v. 40.
ἀπὸapoofG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
πολλῶνpollōnmany [people]G4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
κραυγάζονταkraugazontashoutingG2905
√ κραυγάζω — to clamorVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Plural
kraugazō: to clamour, to scream A harsh, loud word, used later of the crowd screaming for crucifixion (John 19:15). The confession is doctrinally exact and demonically delivered, which is the whole problem the second half of the verse addresses.
καὶkai. . .G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγονταlegonta. . .G3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΣὺSyYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Singular
εἶeiareG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸςHuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: a son With tou Theou the title heaven itself gave at the Jordan (Luke 3:22) and that the devil twice put in a conditional in the wilderness (Luke 4:3, Luke 4:9). Ellicott records that the demons' actual words, "Thou art the Son of God," and the clause "they knew that He was the Christ," are peculiar to Luke among the Gospels. The demons state without condition what the tempter only supposed.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπιτιμῶνepitimōnHe rebuked [ the demons ]G2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
epitimaō: to rebuke, to charge The third rebuke of the chapter: the unclean spirit (4:35), the fever (4:39), and now the demons. One verb governs Luke's whole account of the authority, and it does not distinguish between a sickness and a spirit.
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
εἴαeia[and] would not allowG1439
√ ἐάω — to let be, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eaō: to let be, to permit Imperfect with the negative: He kept refusing. JFB gives the classic reason, that testimony from devils would make Christ and the demons appear to be one interest, as His enemies in fact alleged. Geneva states the rule more sharply still: Satan is not to be heard even when he speaks the truth.
αὐτὰautathemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
λαλεῖνlaleinto speakG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
laleō: to talk, to utter Present infinitive: what is forbidden is the ongoing speaking, not one sentence.
ὅτιhotibecauseG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ᾔδεισανēdeisanthey knewG1492
√ εἴδω — used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι) and G3708 (ὁράω)VerbPluperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
eidō: to see, and so to know Pluperfect of oida, which functions as a simple past of a stative verb: they knew, and had known. Gill accounts for the knowledge from the voice at the baptism and from His power over them; Pulpit ventures further, that they had seen Him in His divine glory. The first is inference from the text, the second is beyond it.
αὐτὸνautonHeG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
εἶναιeinaiwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΧριστὸνChristonChristG5547
√ Χριστός — anointed, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Christos: anointed Articular and titular. Cambridge notes that it became a proper name only after the Crucifixion. The demons name the office correctly and are silenced anyway, which is Luke's point: the right title from the wrong mouth at the wrong hour is not testimony but a liability.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Out of the synagogue, into a house — 4:38

⚙ Luke joins the two halves of the sabbath with one participle. Ἀναστὰς (G450) means "having risen up"; the same root will raise the sick woman in the next verse. Between them stands the only geography the verse needs: out of συναγωγῆς and into οἰκίαν Σίμωνος. Pulpit reads the bare, unexplained naming of Simon as evidence of date and audience, that when Luke wrote, Peter needed no introduction in any church. Cambridge takes the next words as a plain fact of history with a long afterlife, quoting the Marriage Service on "St. Peter, the Apostle of Christ, who was himself a married man." The diagnosis is the physician's: Ellicott lists the "great fever," the "rebuking" of it, and the "immediate" rising as details peculiar to Luke, and Cambridge supplies the technical basis, that Luke uses the ancient grading of fevers into great and little, which he attributes to Galen. Pulpit says the same independently. ⚙ The grammar is harsher than the English: συνεχομένη (G4912) is a passive participle, and she is not suffering but being held fast, by the same verb Luke later uses of a besieging army's works (Luke 19:43). Gill supposes the askers were the four disciples present or the household's own friends, and grounds their confidence in the exorcism they had watched that morning; Luke himself says only that they asked, once, in the aorist that Cambridge notes was enough.

ii. The verb that does not distinguish fever from demon — 4:39

⚙ The theological weight of the unit sits on one repeated word. ἐπετίμησεν (G2008) is what Jesus did to the unclean spirit four verses earlier and what He does to the demons two verses later. Luke applies it, without apology or explanation, to a fever. He does not say the fever is a demon; he says it is commanded in the same terms and obeys in the same instant. Cambridge marks the posture as Luke's alone, "a graphic touch, found here only," and observes that the other Evangelists put the hand in place of the standing. Gill harmonizes the two, having Christ incline toward her, take her hand and lift her up as He rebukes; that is a synthesis of Gospels, not a reading of Luke. ⚙ The release verb is ἀφῆκεν (G863), the ordinary New Testament word for remitting a debt or a sin. The fever is the subject that must let go. And then the bracket closes: ἀναστᾶσα, the feminine of the participle that began v. 38, and διηκόνει (G1247) in the imperfect, she kept on waiting at table. Cambridge renders it literally, "arising at once she began to wait on them." Henry draws the application the Greek invites, that a life given back in recovery from sickness should be spent more than ever in His service.

iii. Sunset, and the hands laid one by one — 4:40 to 4:41

⚙ The genitive absolute Δύνοντος τοῦ ἡλίου is not scene-setting but law. Cambridge explains the mechanism: sunset ended the sabbath and released the town from the rules about carrying burdens, so the sick could be brought on beds and pallets. Benson says the same, and Pulpit adds that the hour had evidently been waited for. Every commentator here agrees; the text itself says only that the sun was going down, and lets the reader supply the calendar. ⚙ The adjective is ποικίλαις (G4164), motley, dappled, a picture rather than a count. Pulpit, quoting Farrar, describes the result as a raving and tortured crowd, and calls the twilight scene one of the most striking in the Gospels. Against that crowd Luke sets a grammar of singulars: a present participle of laying on hands, an emphatic ἑκάστῳ ἑνὶ, "on each single one," and the imperfect ἐθεράπευεν. Gill hears the same thing: no medicine, the mere imposition of His hands, and no person refused however unworthy or however obstinate the disease. ⚙ Then the night's second problem. The demons get the christology right, and are silenced for it. Ellicott records that the wording "Thou art the Son of God" and the clause "they knew that He was the Christ" are Luke's alone. JFB gives the reason for the silencing that has stood since the Fathers, that our Lord refused testimony from devils precisely because accepting it would make Him and them appear to be one interest, exactly as His enemies alleged. Geneva states it as a rule: Satan is not to be heard even when he speaks the truth. Gill adds the timing, that the hour for such a declaration had not come and these were not the persons to make it. Cambridge and Pulpit both insist the title is articular, "the Christ," the Messiah, and that it became a proper name only after the Crucifixion. Pulpit's further guess, that the cry was involuntary adoration from spirits who had seen Him in His glory, is his and not Luke's.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Luke has built one long sabbath day out of three encounters and given them a single verb. The unclean spirit is rebuked (4:35). The fever is rebuked (4:39). The demons are rebuked (4:41). He does not say that sickness is demonic, and we should not say it for him; what he says is narrower and stranger, that the authority which expels a spirit is not a different authority from the one that breaks a fever, and that both answer to a word. The evening then tests the claim at scale, and the grammar holds it to particulars: a present participle of laying on hands, ἑκάστῳ ἑνὶ, and an imperfect. A crowd was healed, and it was healed one person at a time, by contact, in the dark, after the law allowed them to be carried. ⚙ The second thing Luke has built is a shape for what healing is for. The woman is released by ἀφῆκεν, rises by ἀναστᾶσα (the same root by which Jesus rose from the synagogue to come to her), and then serves by διηκόνει in the imperfect, which is to say she did not stop. The healer's own verb in v. 40, ἐθεράπευεν, has attendance and waiting upon at its root. Service comes to her and service goes out from her, and Luke does not moralize the pattern; he simply puts the two words in consecutive verses. ⚙ Last, the silence. The demons say something true and are stopped. Truth about Jesus is not self-authenticating in Luke: it matters who says it and when. The confession that will be permitted is the one made by people who have followed Him to the cross, and the shriek of a spirit being evicted is not that. This is why the machine reads the silencing not as concealment but as the protection of a meaning that is not yet available: "the Christ" in this chapter still means whatever Capernaum wants it to mean, and Luke will spend twenty more chapters saying what it actually costs.

Not Scripture, a reading offered to be tested: the same word breaks a fever and evicts a spirit, and the woman it releases gets up and waits on the table.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The fever that let her go: the synoptic bedside verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ All three Synoptics tell this healing, and John tells a fourth Capernaum fever, and the Greek vocabulary they share is unusually narrow. πυρετός (G4446) stands in only six New Testament verses, and four of them are here and its parallels. Matthew 8:15 and Mark 1:31 add the same ἀφίημι for the fever's release and the same διακονέω for what she did next; John 4:52 pairs πυρετός with ἀφίημι again for the nobleman's son. Poole and Barnes treat the parallels as one account and simply cross-refer. ⚙ What Luke keeps that the others drop is the standing over, the great fever and the immediate rising, which Ellicott collects as the physician's diagnosis.

Mark 1:31 · Matthew 8:15 · John 4:52

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4446 πυρετός (rare, in 6 vv), G863 ἀφίημι (in 131 vv) and G1247 διακονέω (in 32 vv) across Matthew 8:15, Mark 1:31 and John 4:52. Greek to Greek, and the rarity of πυρετός carries the verbal tier. Recorded honestly: this is shared vocabulary between parallel accounts of one event, not one text quoting another.

Luke's own hand, twenty-four chapters later: the fever on Malta verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The same writer describes one more fever, at the far end of his second volume. In Acts 28:8 the father of Publius lies συνεχόμενον with fever and dysentery, Paul goes in to him, prays, lays his hands on him and heals him. The Verifier finds three shared lexemes with this unit, including both of the rare ones: συνέχω (G4912) for the grip of the disease, πυρετός (G4446), and εἰσέρχομαι for the entering of the house. ⚙ Luke reports his master's bedside and his companion's in nearly the same medical words, and in both the gesture is a laying on of hands rather than a remedy, which is what Gill notes here: without the use of medicine.

Acts 28:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4912 συνέχω (rare, in 12 vv), G4446 πυρετός (rare, in 6 vv) and G1525 εἰσέρχομαι (in 184 vv). Greek to Greek, same author, two rare lexemes co-occurring. A verbal link of authorial vocabulary, not a quotation.

He sent forth His word and healed them structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Luke's astonishing detail is that the fever is addressed. Psalm 107:19-20 describes exactly this order of events for the sick who cry to the LORD: "He sent forth His word and healed them." Exodus 15:26 gives the name under which such healing is done, "I am the LORD who heals you," and Psalm 103:3 sets forgiving iniquities and healing diseases in one line, which is worth noticing beside the verb ἀφῆκεν here. ⚙ No commentator in this brief draws these links, and none of them can be verbal: the Psalms and Exodus are Hebrew, Luke is Greek, so no shared Strong's number is possible. What is shared is the pattern, a word sent out and a disease that obeys, and the claim the pattern makes about who is speaking. Geneva makes the same inference from the text alone, that in healing with only his word Christ proves he is God Almighty.

Psalm 107:19-20 · Exodus 15:26 · Psalm 103:3

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. The recorded basis is a shared pattern: a word issued against sickness, and healing as the act of the LORD who heals. Luke makes no citation; the resonance is the machine's, and Geneva's inference from the same text is noted as a human parallel, not as support for the Old Testament link.

The prophet at the sickbed, and the hand that raises typological

⚙ Elijah goes up to a widow's upper room and revives her son (1 Kings 17:17-24); Elisha shuts the door on a Shunammite's dead child and raises him (2 Kings 4:32-37). Both are household scenes, both involve bodily contact, and both end with the restored one given back to the family. Luke's readers, who will hear Elijah and Elisha named explicitly a few verses earlier in this same chapter (Luke 4:25-27), have been primed to see the prophet's pattern in this house at Capernaum. ⚙ The reading is figural, not verbal, and the machine states its limit plainly: nothing in Luke marks the allusion, the language is Greek against Hebrew, and the two prophets raise the dead whereas Jesus lifts a woman from fever. The typological claim is only that Luke has already put Elijah and Elisha in this chapter's mouth and then narrates a prophet in a house.

1 Kings 17:17-24 · 2 Kings 4:32-37 · Luke 4:25-27

basis: Figural reading. Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme exists and no verbal tier is available. Attestation: the Elijah and Elisha frame is ancient and widely held for Luke 4 generally, on the strength of Luke 4:25-27; its extension to the sickbed of vv. 38-39 in particular is the machine's own and is marked as such.

Isaiah 53:4 at this evening: whose citation is it? flagged: verify source

⚙ Pulpit, quoting Farrar, says of this twilight scene that "St. Matthew quotes it as a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4," and Cambridge says the same at v. 40. The statement is accurate about Matthew: Matthew 8:17 attaches the citation to his account of this evening. It is not accurate about Luke. Luke has no formula quotation anywhere in this unit and makes no appeal to Isaiah. ⚙ The link is therefore recorded here with its provenance exposed rather than dropped, because two of this unit's commentators import it into Luke and a reader will meet it. The machine's position: Isaiah 53:4 belongs to this evening on Matthew's authority, not Luke's, and anyone building doctrine from the pairing should build it out of Matthew 8:17.

Isaiah 53:4 · Matthew 8:17

basis: Contested provenance. The Isaiah 53:4 citation of this evening is Matthew's editorial ascription (Matthew 8:17), not Luke's; Luke's text carries no quotation formula and no Isaiah language. Cambridge and Pulpit (quoting Farrar) import it into their notes on Luke 4:40. Cross-Testament in any case (Greek to Hebrew), so no verbal tier is available even for Matthew's own use.

Motley diseases and manifold grace: a word that travels out of this house structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ 1 Peter 4:10 tells each one who has received a gift to serve (διακονοῦντες) as good stewards of the ποικίλης grace of God. The Verifier records three shared lexemes with this unit: διακονέω (G1247), ἕκαστος (G1538) and ποικίλος (G4164), a rare adjective standing in only ten verses. ⚙ In Luke the many-coloured thing is disease and the serving is a healed woman's; in Peter the many-coloured thing is grace and the serving is the church's. The machine declines to call that a quotation or an intended echo. It records the coincidence honestly, notes that the house in question is Peter's, and leaves the reader to weigh it.

1 Peter 4:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4164 ποικίλος (rare, in 10 vv), G1247 διακονέω (in 32 vv) and G1538 ἕκαστος (in 77 vv). Greek to Greek, so a verbal tier is technically available, but downgraded deliberately: the words are applied to different subjects (diseases against grace) and there is no evidence of dependence. Shared vocabulary within a motif of variety met by service.

"You are the Son of God": the right title in the wrong mouth structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The demons' cry uses the title heaven spoke at the Jordan (Luke 3:22) and that the devil twice made conditional in the wilderness (Luke 4:3, Luke 4:9). Behind all of these stands Psalm 2:7, "You are My Son," the enthronement oracle from which the Gospel's Son language is drawn. Ellicott records that this exact wording and the following clause about knowing He was the Christ are peculiar to Luke. ⚙ Luke makes no citation, and the link to Psalm 2 is Greek against Hebrew, so it cannot be tiered verbal. What is confirmed is the shape: a royal title that is legitimate only from the right speaker, and that Jesus silences here precisely because the speakers are illegitimate. JFB gives the historical reason, that testimony from devils would let His enemies say He and they were one interest.

Psalm 2:7 · Luke 3:22 · Luke 4:3

basis: Cross-Testament for the Psalm 2:7 element (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme and no verbal tier. Within Luke the link is a repeated title (G5207 υἱός with G2316 θεός) across 3:22, 4:3, 4:9 and 4:41. The recorded basis is the shared enthronement title and the question of who may pronounce it, not a quotation.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Lord who heals, and the word He sends ancient/widely-held

⚙ Geneva states the conclusion the text pushes toward: "In that Christ heals the diseases of the body with only his word, he proves that he is God Almighty, sent for man's salvation." The machine adds only the grammar. ἐπετίμησεν (G2008) is an address, not a technique, and Gill notes what is pointedly absent from v. 40: no medicine, only the imposition of His hands. In the Old Testament the healing of Israel is a divine self-naming (Exodus 15:26) and a benefit of the covenant coupled with forgiveness (Psalm 103:3); here it is done by a man standing over a bed in Capernaum, and the fever obeys.

Exodus 15:26 · Psalm 103:3 · Psalm 107:19-20

The silenced confession and the cross that has to come first ancient/widely-held

⚙ The demons confess the Son of God and are stopped. JFB gives the reason the church has always given, that our Lord refused testimony from devils because accepting it would make Him and them appear to be one interest, as His enemies already alleged; Geneva makes it a general rule that Satan is not to be heard even when he tells the truth; Gill adds that the hour for the declaration had not come and these were not the persons to make it, and Cambridge cites "His hour was not yet come" (John 7:30) and Paul's identical refusal of the Pythoness at Philippi (Acts 16:18). ⚙ Redemptive-historically the point is that the title is true and premature. Cambridge notes that Χριστός becomes a proper name only after the Crucifixion; until the cross has defined it, "the Christ" in Galilee means what Galilee wants it to mean. The messianic secret in Luke is not modesty but timing: the confession Jesus will accept is Peter's, and even that He charges to silence and immediately reinterprets by the passion (Luke 9:20-22).

Acts 16:18 · John 7:30 · Luke 9:20-22

Raised to serve: one root, two risings novel

⚙ Luke uses ἀνίστημι (G450) twice in two verses: Jesus rises from the synagogue to come to the house, and the released woman rises from the bed to wait on the table. It is the verb Luke will use of the resurrection itself (Luke 24:7, Acts 2:24). The machine offers the figure and marks its status: Luke does not draw the line, and ἀνίστημι is a common word for getting up. ⚙ What is not merely figural is the second half. διηκόνει is the imperfect of the verb the Lord claims for Himself, "I am among you as the one who serves" (Luke 22:27), and ἐθεράπευεν in v. 40 has attendance at its root. The healer serves the sick one at a time; the healed woman serves at table. Henry reaches the same place from the narrative alone: where Christ gives a new life in recovery from sickness, it should be a new life spent more than ever in His service.

Luke 22:27 · Luke 24:7

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. At v. 41 Cambridge reports that the words "Thou art Christ" should be omitted on the authority of א, B, C, D, F, L and others, leaving "Thou art the Son of God"; Pulpit agrees that the older authorities omit "Christ." The Berean interlinear this unit is built on follows that shorter reading, and the BSB text above reflects it. Cambridge also corrects the last clause to "to say that they knew that He was the Christ," which is a rendering decision rather than a variant. At v. 38 Gill records a variant in Beza's ancient copy and in one of Stephens's adding "and of Andrew" to Simon's house, agreeing with Mark 1:29; it is not in the text printed here.

Sources. Four of the ten commentators in this brief carry no exposition of these verses at all: Barnes refers the reader to his notes on Mark 1:21-39, Poole to Matthew 8:14 and Mark 1:29, JFB supplies only a heading at vv. 38-40 (his one substantive note is at v. 41), and Henry's entry is a single block covering Luke 4:31-44 rather than these verses. The exegetical weight here therefore rests on Cambridge, Gill, Pulpit and Ellicott, and this synthesis leans on them accordingly. Benson's note is likewise filed at v. 38 but written across 4:38 to 4:44.

What is uncertain. The sabbath explanation for the sunset crowd is unanimous among the commentators and is an inference: Luke says only that the sun was going down. The claim that "great fever" is Galen's technical term comes from Cambridge and Pulpit; the brief supplies no primary citation, and the Strong's gloss for G3173 is simply "big." Gill's long medical digression on fevers is quoted by him from Chambers's Cyclopaedia and is eighteenth-century physiology, not exegesis. Pulpit's account of the demons' cry as involuntary adoration from spirits who had seen Christ in His glory goes beyond anything Luke states. Above all, Isaiah 53:4 does not belong to this unit on Luke's authority: Matthew 8:17 attaches it to this evening, Luke does not, and the thread carrying it is flagged for that reason. The threads to Psalm 107, Exodus 15, Psalm 103, Psalm 2 and the Elijah and Elisha narratives are the machine's own structural and typological readings, tiered accordingly, and no shared Strong's lexeme underwrites any of them because none can: Luke is Greek and those texts are Hebrew.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)