The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew14:34–36

Jesus Heals at Gennesaret

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Matthew 14:34–36 — Jesus Heals at Gennesaret. 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.

34

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai diaperasantes ēlthon epi tēn gēn eis Gennēsaret

Word by word8 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διαπεράσαντεςdiaperasantesthey had crossed overG1276
√ διαπεράω — to cross entirelyVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
diaperaō: to cross entirely A rare verb (six verses) built to mean the whole traverse, not the setting out. The Verifier finds it shared with Matthew 9:1, Mark 5:21, Acts 21:2 and Luke 16:26. In three of those it names a crossing actually made: Matthew 9:1 brings Christ to the paralytic, Mark 5:21 to Jairus falling at his feet, Acts 21:2 puts Paul aboard a ship crossing to Phoenicia. In the fourth it names the gulf over which, Abraham says, none may pass. The same verb that fixes an impassable chasm records here a passage completed, by men who had Christ in the boat.
ἦλθονēlthonthey landedG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
Plain aorist of coming; the English "landed" is idiom, not vocabulary.
ἐπὶepi. . .G1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēn. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēn. . .G1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
gē: soil, land, earth The dry ground, set in deliberate contrast with the water of verses 24 to 33. The word is common (223 verses) and carries no freight of its own, but its placement does: the sea that was walked on and the sea that was feared is now behind them, and the ministry resumes on solid earth.
εἰςeisatG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ΓεννησαρέτGennēsaretGennesaretG1082
√ Γεννησαρέτ — Gennesaret (iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Gennēsaret: Gennesaret A very rare proper noun (three verses: here, Mark 6:53, Luke 5:1). Ellicott holds the name possibly a corruption of the older Chinneroth (Numbers 34:11; Joshua 11:2; Joshua 12:3); Gill identifies it outright with Cinnereth and notes the Chaldee paraphrase renders it Ginusar. Both stress the fertility of the plain, and Cambridge gives its size from Josephus. The geography matters for the next verse: Ellicott calls the district one of the most populous in Palestine, and Benson and Poole both hold that Christ had lived and worked there before, which is what makes the recognition of verse 35 unsurprising.
35

And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding region. People brought all the sick to Him

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hoi andres ekeinou tou topou epignontes auton apesteilan eis holēn ekeinēn tēn perichōron kai prosēnenkan pantas tous echontas kakōs autō

Word by word21 · parsed
καὶkaiAnd whenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνδρεςandresmenG435
√ ἀνήρ — a man (properly as an individual male)NounNominative Masculine Plural
anēr: a man, an individual male Not the generic anthrōpos but adult males, the responsible men of the district. Pulpit notes that Matthew alone credits this zeal specifically to the inhabitants of the plain of Gennesaret, Mark's wording being vaguer.
ἐκείνουekeinouof thatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
τόπουtopouplaceG5117
√ τόπος — a spot (general in space, but limited by occupancyNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐπιγνόντεςepignontesrecognizedG1921
√ ἐπιγινώσκω — to know upon some mark, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
epiginōskō: to know upon a mark, recognize Recognition by prior acquaintance, not first discovery. The Verifier finds this verb shared with Acts 28:1, where the shipwrecked company recognize the island onto which they have been brought safe, and where διασώζω (the verb that closes our verse 36) stands in the same sentence. The pairing of recognition and being brought safely through is therefore not a preacher's flourish: it is a real verbal pattern in Luke's Greek as well as Matthew's here.
αὐτὸνauton[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
ἀπέστειλανapesteilanthey sent wordG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
apostellō: to set apart, send with commission The apostolic verb, and here it is not Christ who sends but the villagers of Gennesaret. Geneva draws the duty straight out of it: we are bound not only to run to him ourselves but to bring others. Gill notes the sending cost them money as well as effort. The evangelism in this verse is unordained and unbidden.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ὅληνholēnallG3650
√ ὅλος — "whole" or "all", iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐκείνηνekeinēnG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounAccusative Feminine Singular
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
περίχωρονperichōronsurrounding regionG4066
√ περίχωρος — around the region, iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
perichōros: the region round about Literally the country encircling. With ὅλην (whole) the phrase draws the largest circle the text can, so that the crowd of verse 36 is regional, not local.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσήνεγκανprosēnenkan[People] broughtG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
prospherō: to bear towards, to present, to offer The word used of presenting gifts and sacrifices. Here what is carried toward Christ is bodies that are failing. Matthew has already used the structure at 4:24 and 8:16 (Pulpit cross-references both): the sick are the offering this region has to bring, and the altar is a person.
πάνταςpantasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
All, without triage; the adjective is absolute and the outcome in verse 36 matches it.
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἔχονταςechontasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
κακῶςkakōssickG2560
√ κακῶς — badly (physically or morally)Adverb
kakōs: badly An adverb, not a diagnosis. With ἔχοντας it renders the Semitic and Greek idiom for being ill, and its moral range (badly, in the physical or the ethical sense) is why Geneva can read the healings as a figure of remedy sought for spiritual disease without doing violence to the word.
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ 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 Singular
36

and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai parekaloun auton monon hina hapsōntai tou kraspedou tou autou himatiou kai hosoi hēpsanto diesōthēsan

Word by word15 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παρεκάλουνparekalounbeggedG3870
√ παρακαλέω — to call near, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
parakaleō: to call near, to summon alongside The imperfect tense makes this a sustained appeal, not one request: they went on calling him near. The root is the one that yields paraklētos. Poole finds no superstition in what they ask, hearing it instead as a high expression of faith, and notes Mark's softer wording (if it were but the border of his garment).
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ 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
μόνονmononjustG3440
√ μόνον — merelyAdverb
monon: merely, only The smallest word in the verse carries its logic. They ask for the least possible contact, the outermost thread of the outermost garment. The modesty is the faith: Gill reads it as a sense of their unworthiness to be noticed in any other way.
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἅψωνταιhapsōntailet them touchG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Plural
haptomai: properly, to attach oneself to Middle voice, aorist subjunctive under ἵνα. The lexicon's gloss is exact and important: this is not brushing against but fastening onto. The Verifier finds the same verb, with κράσπεδον and ἱμάτιον, at Matthew 9:20 and Luke 8:44, the woman with the issue of blood. Ellicott and Cambridge both read this crowd's request as the direct result of that earlier cure.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
κρασπέδουkraspedoufringeG2899
√ κράσπεδον — a margin, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
kraspedon: a margin, an edge Rare (five verses), and every occurrence but Matthew 23:5 is a healing. Cambridge: at each corner of the robe there was a tassel, each with a conspicuous blue thread; Gill says plainly that Christ wore the fringe in compliance with the ceremonial law of Numbers 15:38. So the thing grasped is the sign of the commandment, worn by the one who gave it. Matthew uses the word three times in all (9:20, here, 23:5), and only at 23:5 is it not grasped by the sick: there the Pharisees enlarge their own to be seen by men.
τοῦtouofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ 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 Singular
ἱματίουhimatioucloakG2440
√ ἱμάτιον — a dress (inner or outer)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὅσοιhosoiall whoG3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
As many as, without exception; the pronoun matches πάντας in verse 35, so the promise of the request and the report of the outcome are the same size.
ἥψαντοhēpsantotouched [Him]G680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
haptomai: to attach oneself to Aorist indicative middle now, the deed done. Note what the sentence does not say: it does not say as many as touched the fringe, but as many as touched. Henry and Poole both insist the virtue was neither in the finger nor in the cloth but in Christ, whom their faith took hold upon.
διεσώθησανdiesōthēsanwere healedG1295
√ διασώζω — to save thoroughly, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
diasōzō: to save thoroughly, to bring safely through A rare verb (eight verses) and the theological hinge of the unit. The Verifier finds it at Acts 27:43, 27:44, 28:1 and 28:4 (Paul and the ship's company brought alive to land through the storm), at Acts 23:24 (Paul brought safely to Felix) and at Luke 7:3 (the centurion's servant). Its home is rescue through peril, not convalescence. Matthew ends a chapter of a storm, a drowning man and a crowd of the dying with the word for coming through alive, and he puts it in the passive: they did not bring themselves through.

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. The completed crossing — 14:34

The verse is four facts and one rare verb. διαπεράσαντες (G1276, six verses in all) says the crossing was finished, all the way through; then ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, upon the land, a phrase BSB folds into the single word "landed." On the place itself the sources agree and complement one another: Ellicott suggests the name is possibly a corruption of the older Chinneroth (Numbers 34:11; Joshua 11:2; Joshua 12:3) and calls the region one of singular fertility and among the most populous districts of Palestine; Gill identifies it with Cinnereth, notes that the Chaldee paraphrase renders it Ginusar, cites the Talmud on the sweetness of the fruits of Genusar, and gives Josephus' measurements; Cambridge and Pulpit both measure the plain and differ slightly, Cambridge at two and a half miles in length by about one in breadth, Pulpit at some three miles by one, and both send the reader to Josephus, Wars 3.10.8. Benson and Barnes add the point that matters for the narrative: Capernaum lay in this tract, which is where John 6 places the sequel. Gill alone then leaves the map for allegory, reading the arrival as the saints coming at last to their desired haven; we mark that as his figure, not Matthew's statement.

ii. Recognition, and a village that sends — 14:35

Two verbs govern the verse and both belong to the villagers, not to Christ. ἐπιγνόντες (G1921) is recognition by a mark already known: Benson reads it as knowing him formerly, Jesus having ordinarily resided in that neighbourhood and the people having seen many of his miracles; Gill says not merely by report, but by face; Poole reasons the same way from Matthew 8, where Christ had been in this country before. Then ἀπέστειλαν (G649), the apostolic verb, with laymen as its subject: they sent, into the whole encircling region. Gill notes the cost and the diligence of it, and that they spared neither. Pulpit observes that Matthew alone credits this zeal specifically to the men of the plain, Mark's wording being vaguer. Finally προσήνεγκαν (G4374), to bear towards, the verb of presenting an offering, with "all the ones having badly" as its object. Geneva turns the whole verse into duty: we must seek remedy at his hands, and we are bound not only to run to him but to bring others; Henry says the experiences of others may direct and encourage us in seeking for Christ. Ellicott looks forward instead, reminding the reader that in this same district, in the Capernaum synagogue, the healing power was matched by the discourse of John 6.

iii. The fringe, and the word for coming through alive — 14:36

The imperfect παρεκάλουν keeps the begging going, and μόνον reduces the request to the least contact imaginable: the edge of the outer robe. On what that edge was, Cambridge is the most exact of the voices, describing a tassel at each corner with a conspicuous blue thread symbolical of the heavenly origin of the Commandments, and citing Numbers 15:38-39; Gill says Christ wore the fringe in compliance with the ceremonial law; Barnes glosses it simply as the fringe or border on the outer garment. Ellicott and Cambridge both trace the crowd's confidence to the cure of the woman in Matthew 9:20-22, and Benson makes the same connection, reasoning that news of that healing gave occasion to this particular exercise of faith. Poole, who alone raises the objection, refuses to find superstition in the request and hears in it a high expression of faith; Henry and Poole both land on the same correction, that the virtue lay neither in the finger nor in the cloth but in Christ, whom their faith took hold upon. The last word of the unit is διεσώθησαν (G1295, eight verses), and Pulpit is the voice who notices it: the diá is probably not intensive but gives the thought of being brought out safe through the danger, and the Septuagint uses the verb commonly for נמלט, escape. Matthew closes a chapter of storm, sinking and sickness with the vocabulary of rescue, in the passive voice.

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

⚙ Read as it stands, this is the quietest paragraph in Matthew 14 and the one that gathers up everything before it. A murdered prophet, five thousand fed, a sea walked on, a disciple sinking and caught: then a boat touches shore and a village recognises a face. What the villagers do with recognition is the whole point of the unit. They do not gather to be taught; they send (ἀπέστειλαν) and they carry (προσήνεγκαν), and what they carry is everyone who is failing. Geneva draws exactly this duty out of the verse and we think Geneva is right. Then note the scale of the asking: μόνον, only, merely, the outermost thread. And note what the object of that touch actually is, if Cambridge and Gill have it right: not a relic, not a wonder-working cloth, but the commanded tassel, the visible sign that this man keeps the law of Moses. The sick lay hold of the sign of the commandment and are not condemned by it; they are brought through. Our fallible addition, offered to be tested, is this: Matthew chose διεσώθησαν rather than a healing word because he has just spent a chapter on peril, and because in the New Testament this verb lives among shipwrecks. The sick of Gennesaret are not merely made well. They are survivors, carried out of danger by someone else's power, exactly as Peter was three verses earlier when a hand took hold of him instead of him taking hold of a hem. Peter reached and failed and was caught; these reach and are caught. Both accounts end the same way, in the passive. The line printed beside this unit as a pull quote is our own sentence, not Scripture.

They took hold of the sign of the commandment, and the commandment did not condemn them: it carried them out alive.

⚙

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.

Mark's fuller telling of the same landing verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 6:53-56 is the parallel, and the sources treat it as such: Cambridge sends the reader there for the stir of the neighbourhood and the eagerness of the people, vividly portrayed, and Pulpit says outright that Mark's account is fuller. The Verifier confirms the link lexically rather than by mere subject matter: Mark 6:53 shares the rare proper noun Γεννησαρέτ and the rare verb διαπεράω with our verse 34, and Mark 6:56 shares κράσπεδον, ἱμάτιον and ὅσος with our verse 36. Mark is broader in one detail: where Matthew has the men of the plain send into the region, Mark has the sick laid in the marketplaces. Luke 5:1, the third and last verse in Scripture to name Gennesaret, uses the place for a different scene entirely.

Mark 6:53 · Mark 6:56 · Luke 5:1

basis: Verifier: with Mark 6:53, shared Greek lexemes G1082 Γεννησαρέτ (in 3 vv, rare) and G1276 διαπεράω (in 6 vv, rare) plus G1093 γῆ (in 223 vv); with Mark 6:56, G2899 κράσπεδον (in 5 vv, rare), G2440 ἱμάτιον (in 58 vv) and G3745 ὅσος (in 100 vv); Luke 5:1 shares G1082 Γεννησαρέτ (in 3 vv). All members are Greek New Testament, so the shared Strong's numbers are a real verbal link; this is Synoptic parallel, not citation.

The woman who started it: κράσπεδον, ἱμάτιον, ἅπτομαι verbal / quotation: confirmed

Three of the words of verse 36 stand together in only one earlier scene: the woman with the issue of blood, who said within herself that if she only touched his garment she would be made whole. The Verifier records the overlap at Matthew 9:20 and at Luke's version, Luke 8:44: κράσπεδον (rare, five verses), ἱμάτιον and ἅπτομαι. Four of our commentators make the connection independently. Barnes simply cross-references his own note at Matthew 9:20; Gill says the crowd besought him as the woman with the bloody issue did; Cambridge compares the case directly; Ellicott calls the widespread belief the natural result of the miracle already recorded there, and adds that since the touch implied the faith which was the condition of receptivity, it was now also, as before, effective. Benson goes furthest, reasoning that this cure happened in this same neighbourhood and that news of it probably gave occasion to this peculiar exercise of faith. That last step is inference, not narration; Matthew does not say it.

Matthew 9:20 · Luke 8:44

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2899 κράσπεδον (in 5 vv, rare), G2440 ἱμάτιον (in 58 vv) and G680 ἅπτομαι (in 33 vv) with both Matthew 9:20 and Luke 8:44. All Greek New Testament, so the shared Strong's numbers stand as a verbal link within one Gospel and across two; no quotation is claimed, and Benson's causal account of how the crowd learned of the earlier cure is his inference, not part of the basis.

The same rare fringe, enlarged to be seen verbal / quotation: confirmed

κράσπεδον occurs in five verses of the New Testament. Four are healings (here, Matthew 9:20, Mark 6:56, Luke 8:44). The fifth is Matthew 23:5, where the Pharisees enlarge the tassels of their garments so that their works may be seen by men. ⚙ The contrast is not stated by Matthew and we do not claim he intended it, but the vocabulary puts the two scenes in the same frame: in chapter 14 the fringe is not enlarged by its wearer, it is grasped from below by people who ask for nothing more than its edge; in chapter 23 it is enlarged by wearers who want to be looked at. Cambridge supplies the reason the object could carry either freight, noting that the hem of the garment had a certain sanctity attached to it and was the distinguishing mark of the Jew.

Matthew 23:5

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2899 κράσπεδον (in 5 vv, rare) with Matthew 23:5, both within Matthew, so the verbal link is secure. The ironic reading built on it is ⚙ synthesis and is marked as such in the body; the confirmed element is the shared rare word alone.

The tassel was commanded: Numbers 15 and Deuteronomy 22 structural / thematic: confirmed

What the sick took hold of was a legal garment. Cambridge quotes the command at Numbers 15:38-39, that they add to the fringes of the borders (or corners) a thread of blue, and explains that each corner of the robe bore a tassel with a conspicuous blue thread symbolical of the heavenly origin of the Commandments, the other threads white. Gill states the same conclusion about Christ's own dress: the fringe he wore, in compliance with the ceremonial law, Numbers 15:38. Deuteronomy 22:12 repeats the command. ⚙ The consequence, if the identification holds, is considerable: the point of contact between the dying and their healer is the badge of the Torah worn by the one who gave it. But this is a link between a Greek noun and a Hebrew ordinance, and no shared Strong's number is possible across the Testaments, so we tier it below verbal and say plainly that the bridge is the referent (the object described) plus the testimony of Cambridge and Gill, not a lexical match.

Numbers 15:38 · Deuteronomy 22:12

basis: Cross-Testament: Greek G2899 κράσπεδον cannot share a Strong's number with the Hebrew of Numbers 15:38-39 or Deuteronomy 22:12, so no verbal tier is claimed and the Verifier computed no lexeme overlap. The recorded basis is referential and thematic: Cambridge identifies the κράσπεδον of this verse with the commanded fringe of Numbers 15:38-39 and Gill with Numbers 15:38; Deuteronomy 22:12 is the parallel command and is our own citation, not the Verifier's.

διασώζω: the word that belongs to shipwrecks verbal / quotation: confirmed

The last word of the unit is the rarest theological word in it. διασώζω stands in only eight verses, and the Verifier locates most of them in a single stretch of Luke's sea narrative: Acts 27:43 and 27:44, where the soldiers' plan is overruled and the whole company is brought safe to land on planks and broken pieces; Acts 28:1, where the survivors then recognise (ἐπιγινώσκω, the very participle of our verse 35) the island of Malta; Acts 28:4, where the islanders see a man brought through the sea and assume vengeance will still have him; Acts 23:24, where Paul is conveyed safely to Felix; and Luke 7:3, the centurion begging that his servant be brought through. Pulpit is the voice who registers the force of the word here, arguing that diá is probably not intensive but rather gives the thought of being brought out safe through the danger, and that in the Septuagint διασώζεσθαι commonly renders the Hebrew for escape. ⚙ Matthew has just narrated a storm and a sinking. The chapter ends with the verb for coming out of one alive.

Acts 27:44 · Acts 28:1 · Acts 23:24 · Luke 7:3

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1295 διασώζω (in 8 vv, rare) with Acts 27:43, Acts 27:44, Acts 28:1, Acts 28:4, Acts 23:24 and Luke 7:3; Acts 28:1 additionally shares G1921 ἐπιγινώσκω (in 40 vv) with our verse 35, and Acts 27:43-44 share G1093 γῆ (in 223 vv) with verse 34. All Greek New Testament. The thematic reading of the storm context is ⚙ and marked; the lexical link is the recorded basis.

διαπεράω: the crossings that can be made, and the one that cannot verbal / quotation: confirmed

The rare verb that opens the unit (six verses) traces a small map of its own. Matthew 9:1 uses it of the crossing that brings Jesus to the paralytic and to the words about forgiving sins; Mark 5:21 of the crossing that ends with Jairus at his feet; Acts 21:2 of a ship found crossing to Phoenicia. Pulpit notes the Matthew 9:1 occurrence at this very word. The sixth is Luke 16:26, where Abraham tells the rich man that a great gulf is fixed so that those who would pass over from there to us cannot, neither can they cross to us. ⚙ We draw no allegory from the coincidence and Matthew intends none; but the observation is worth recording, that the one verb Scripture uses for a completed traverse is also the verb it uses for the traverse that is permanently refused.

Matthew 9:1 · Mark 5:21 · Luke 16:26 · Acts 21:2

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1276 διαπεράω (in 6 vv, rare) with Matthew 9:1, Mark 5:21, Luke 16:26 and Acts 21:2, all Greek New Testament. Pulpit independently cross-references Matthew 9:1 at this word. Only the shared lexeme is claimed; the juxtaposition of the fixed gulf with this crossing is ⚙ observation and is flagged as such in the body.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The touch that reaches the person, not the cloth ancient/widely-held

The unit poses the question every relic has ever raised, and the commentators answer it with one voice. Poole refuses to find superstition in the request, hearing instead a high expression of faith, and concludes that it was their faith in Christ, not their touch of his garment, that healed them. Henry says the healing virtue was not in the finger, but in their faith, and then corrects even that: or rather, it was in Christ, whom their faith took hold upon. Benson is the most explicit about the mechanism, denying that there was any virtue in his garments (otherwise, he reasons, the soldiers who took them at the crucifixion might have worked miracles with them) and locating the cause in Christ's will and in the confidence of those who touched him. Ellicott says the touch implied the faith which was the condition of receptivity. ⚙ The grammar supports them. Verse 36 does not report that as many as touched the fringe were brought through; it says ὅσοι ἥψαντο, as many as attached themselves, with the object left behind. The cloth is where the hand landed. The person is what was held.

Matthew 9:20 · Mark 6:56

The Lawgiver wearing the law, and the unclean laying hold of it novel

⚙ If Cambridge and Gill are right that the κράσπεδον is the commanded tassel of Numbers 15:38-39, worn by Christ in compliance with the ceremonial law, then the unit stages something the sources describe but do not draw out. Under that law, contact ran one way: what was unclean defiled what it touched. Here a whole region of the diseased fastens onto the blue-threaded corner of a robe whose whole purpose, Cambridge says, was to remind Israel of the commandments, and nothing is defiled. They are brought through. The earlier instance the Verifier links by these same words is sharper still: the woman of Matthew 9:20 was ritually unclean by issue of blood, and she reached for the same fringe. ⚙ Our reading, offered to be tested and marked novel because none of the ten voices in this unit states it in these terms, is that the direction of contagion has been reversed in the person of Christ, and that Matthew records it at the level of vocabulary before anyone argues it as doctrine. What the sources do say plainly is the identification of the fringe (Cambridge, Gill), its sanctity as the distinguishing mark of the Jew (Cambridge), and the sufficiency of the least contact (Gill, Poole).

Numbers 15:38 · Matthew 9:20

Brought safely through: a hand from outside the danger novel

⚙ Three verses before this landing, Peter went under and a hand took hold of him. At the end of this landing, a crowd takes hold and the verb turns passive: διεσώθησαν, they were brought safely through. Pulpit's philology is the sourced part of this reading (the diá gives the thought of being brought out safe through the danger; the Septuagint uses the verb for escape), and the Verifier's evidence that the word's home is Acts 27 and 28, a shipwreck, is the recorded lexical fact. The reading built on them is ours and we mark it novel: Matthew 14 is a chapter about what happens to people in water and in extremity, and it ends by saying that everyone who laid hold of Christ came out of it alive. Gill reaches a similar destination by a different road, reading the arrival at fertile Gennesaret as the saints arriving at last, safe, at their desired haven after a long and troublesome passage over the sea of this world; his is allegory where ours is lexical, and neither should be mistaken for Matthew's own statement. Henry's plainer note holds the ground both of us are standing on: those whom Christ heals, he heals perfectly.

Matthew 14:31 · Acts 27:44 · Acts 28:1

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:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • 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)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The unit is three verses of Greek with no significant variant discussed by the sources except at verse 34, where Pulpit prefers, with the true text, "to the land, unto Gennesaret" (Revised Version) over the older "into the land of Gennesaret." The reading affects the force of the prepositions ἐπί and εἰς, which our literal rendering follows. BSB supplies three things the Greek does not have: the name "Jesus" for αὐτόν in verse 35, the subject "People" for the third plural of προσήνεγκαν, and "Him" as the object of ἥψαντο in verse 36. All three are reasonable; all three are supplements, and the notes flag them.

Sources. Ten commentators are printed for this pericope; nine are used. The JFB entry supplied for all three verses is its note on Matthew 14:32 (the wind ceasing) and says nothing about the landing, the sending or the fringe, so we have not cited it rather than make it appear to comment on words it never addresses. Barnes' entry is likewise mostly the closing Remarks on Matthew 14 as a whole and is capped in the sources; only his one clause on the hem bears on verse 36, and that is the clause we quote. Poole's entries at verses 34 and 35 are cross-references to his own note at verse 36, where his full comment stands. Henry's note is a single block printed against 14:34-36, so it cannot be tied to one verse. Benson's long entry likewise runs across the whole pericope, which is why his gloss on ἐπιγνόντες appears among the voices for verse 34.

What is uncertain. That Capernaum is the intended destination comes from John 6:17, 6:24 and John 6:22-25 by way of Ellicott, Benson and Barnes, not from Matthew's own words here. That the crowd's confidence derives from the cure of the woman in Matthew 9:20-22 is inference (Ellicott, Cambridge, Benson) resting on the shared vocabulary the Verifier confirms; Matthew states no causal link. The identification of the κράσπεδον with the tassel of Numbers 15:38-39 is Cambridge's and Gill's and is not in Matthew's text; every thread and christological reading built on it is tiered below verbal for that reason, and the Deuteronomy 22:12 reference is our own addition, not Verifier output. Gill's allegorical treatment of Gennesaret as the saints' desired haven is flagged in his editorial note as his figure. The three readings marked novel in the Christ section are this tool's fallible synthesis and are offered to be tested; the sourced facts under them (parse, lexicon, Verifier bases, named commentary) can be checked independently of whether our reading persuades.

✦ = 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)