The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew4:23–25

Jesus Heals the Multitudes

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Matthew 4:23–25 — Jesus Heals the Multitudes. 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.

23

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai periēgen en holē tē Galilaia didaskōn en tais autōn synagōgais kai kēryssōn to euangelion tēs basileias kai therapeuōn pasan noson kai pasan malakian en tō laō

Word by word27 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιῆγενperiēgen[Jesus] wentG4013
√ περιάγω — to take around (as a companion)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
periagō: to lead around, go about The imperfect indicative is the only finite verb in the sentence; everything else hangs on it as a participle. So the grammar itself makes the circuit the frame and teaching, heralding and healing the continuous content of it. A rare verb (6 verses), and Mark 6:6 uses it of the same Galilean rounds.
ἐνenthroughoutG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ὅλῃholē. . .G3650
√ ὅλος — "whole" or "all", iAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
holos: whole, entire Dative feminine with Galilee: not part of the region but the whole of it.
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίᾳGalilaiaGalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounDative Feminine Singular
διδάσκωνdidaskōnteachingG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
didaskō: to teach Present active participle, nominative masculine singular, agreeing with the unnamed subject. Present aspect: ongoing, habitual instruction, not a single lesson. Matthew places teaching first and locates it in the synagogues, that is, inside the existing structures of Israel's worship.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ταῖςtaisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ 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
συναγωγαῖςsynagōgaissynagoguesG4864
√ συναγωγή — an assemblage of personsNounDative Feminine Plural
synagōgē: an assemblage of persons The word names the gathering before it names the building, which is why Benson and Poole both hesitate over which is meant here (Benson decides for the place). Barnes and JFB record the tradition that a synagogue was founded wherever ten suitable men could be found, and Barnes counts 480 in Jerusalem before its fall. Poole draws the pointed inference: Christ did not "decline the synagogues," refusing to separate from "a church corrupt enough through traditions, but not idolatrous."
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
κηρύσσωνkēryssōnpreachingG2784
√ κηρύσσω — to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
kēryssō: to herald, proclaim as a crier The second participle, parallel in form to didaskōn but different in audience: Pulpit distinguishes teaching (the religious, in the synagogues) from heralding (the mass of people, presumably in public places). The herald's verb presumes an authority behind the message that the messenger did not invent.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
εὐαγγέλιονeuangeliongospelG2098
√ εὐαγγέλιον — a good message, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
euangelion: a good message Ellicott notes this is the first occurrence of the phrase in Matthew, and Pulpit that the absolute form "the gospel of the kingdom" recurs only at Matthew 9:35 and Matthew 24:14. Cambridge adds the striking lexical fact that the noun never appears in Luke or John. Here, then, is Matthew's own compact name for what Jesus says, before a single parable has been recorded.
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
βασιλείαςbasileiaskingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, rule, realm Genitive: the good news is of the kingdom, whether as its content or its source. Pulpit notes that the phrase speaks only of the kingdom's nearness and says nothing (unlike v. 17) about the repentance required for it; Benson reads it as grace here and glory hereafter, Geneva simply as "of the Messiah."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
θεραπεύωνtherapeuōnhealingG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
therapeuō: to wait upon, to cure Third present participle, coordinate with the first two. Matthew does not introduce the miracles as proof; Ellicott's judgment is that they stand here "almost, so to speak, as the natural accompaniments of His work," signs of love and pity rather than of raw power. Grammatically that is exactly right: healing is a participle of the same rank as teaching.
πᾶσανpasaneveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
νόσονnosondiseaseG3554
√ νόσος — a malady (rarely figuratively, of moral disability)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
nosos: a malady The graver of the two nouns (11 verses). Matthew will use it again at 8:17 in the one place where he tells us what the healings mean.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πᾶσανpasanG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
μαλακίανmalakiansicknessG3119
√ μαλακία — softness, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
malakia: softness, weakness A rare noun, in only 3 verses, and all three are in Matthew (here, 9:35 and 10:1). That confinement matters: the pair "every nosos and every malakia" is a Matthean signature that he will repeat verbatim at 9:35 and then hand over to the Twelve at 10:1.
ἐνenamongG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
λαῷlaōpeopleG2992
√ λαός — a people (in generalNounDative Masculine Singular
laos: a people Not ochlos (crowd, v. 25) and not ethnos: laos is the covenant word for a people as a people. The healing is done "among the people," in the midst of Israel, before v. 24 lets the report cross the border.
24

News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hē akoē autou apēlthen holēn eis tēn Syrian kai prosēnenkan autō pantas tous kakōs echontas poikilais nosois kai synechomenous basanois kai daimonizomenous kai selēniazomenous kai paralytikous kai etherapeusen autous

Word by word30 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἀκοὴakoēNewsG189
√ ἀκοή — hearing (the act, the sense or the thing heard)NounNominative Feminine Singular
akoē: hearing, the thing heard Nominative feminine singular and the subject of the sentence: the report, not Jesus, is what does the travelling in this clause. Matthew's construction keeps Jesus stationary in Galilee while the hearing of him crosses a frontier he himself never crosses in this chapter.
αὐτοῦautouabout 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 PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἀπῆλθενapēlthenspreadG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aperchomai: to go off, go away Aorist: a single completed departure. Ellicott is careful here, noting that the Lord's own ministry, with the exception of the journey toward Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21), stayed within Palestine; what reached Syria was the report, and then the sick.
ὅληνholēnallG3650
√ ὅλος — "whole" or "all", iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
εἰςeisoverG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ΣυρίανSyrianSyriaG4947
√ Συρία — Syria (iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Syria: the region north and east of Galilee Ellicott judges the word is used popularly rather than in Luke's strict provincial sense; Pulpit takes it of the Roman province. Cambridge adds the economic reason the report ran that direction: "Galilee is connected by trade and affinity with Damascus rather than with Jerusalem." Either way this is Gentile ground, and Matthew notes it without comment in the same chapter that quoted "Galilee of the Gentiles."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσήνεγκανprosēnenkan[people] broughtG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
prospherō: to bear towards, bring to Aorist active, third plural, with no stated subject: an anonymous "they" carries the helpless to him. The verb is the ordinary word for bringing an offering forward, and everything that follows in the verse is what was carried.
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
πάνταςpantasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
τοὺςtouswhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
κακῶςkakōswere illG2560
√ κακῶς — badly (physically or morally)Adverb
kakōs: badly An adverb, not a noun: literally "having badly," the Greek idiom for being ill. The same idiom recurs at Matthew 8:16 and 17:15.
ἔχονταςechontaswithG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ποικίλαιςpoikilaisvariousG4164
√ ποικίλος — motley, iAdjectiveDative Feminine Plural
νόσοιςnosoisdiseasesG3554
√ νόσος — a malady (rarely figuratively, of moral disability)NounDative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνεχομένουςsynechomenousthose sufferingG4912
√ συνέχω — to hold together, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Plural
synechō: to hold together, constrain Present participle middle or passive: the torments are the agents, the sufferers the held. Poole pictures the class exactly, those "troubled with great pains, as if they were upon racks, or in the hands of tormentors."
βασάνοιςbasanoisacute painG931
√ βάσανος — a touch-stone, iNounDative Feminine Plural
basanos: touchstone, torture A rare noun (3 verses). The other two occurrences are both in Luke 16, of the rich man's torment in Hades. Matthew uses for bodily agony the same word Luke uses for the agony beyond death, which is a lexical fact worth weighing before the healings are read as merely medical.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δαιμονιζομένουςdaimonizomenous[the] demon-possessedG1139
√ δαιμονίζομαι — to be exercised by a dæmonVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Plural
daimonizomai: to be under a demon's power Present participle middle or passive again: the condition is something done to the person. Matthew lists the demonized alongside the sick, but as a separate item in the list, and Cambridge stresses that the text distinguishes possession from ordinary disease and from lunacy. Cambridge also warns that "devil" is a poor rendering, which belongs to διάβολος (Matthew 4:1), not to δαιμόνιον.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
σεληνιαζομένουςselēniazomenous[those] having seizuresG4583
√ σεληνιάζομαι — to be moon-struck, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Plural
selēniazomai: to be moon-struck Only here and Matthew 17:15, where the father of such a boy meets the disciples' failure. Matthew reports the popular name for the disorder without endorsing the astronomy; the cure is not credited to the moon.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παραλυτικούςparalytikous[the] paralyzedG3885
√ παραλυτικός — as if dissolved, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
paralytikos: as if dissolved, paralytic An adjective, not a participle: a settled condition rather than an episode. Ellicott observes that this word, unlike the previous one, names no cause, only the visible phenomenon, the loss of muscular control. Gill and Poole both note that the three named classes were precisely the ones physicians gave up on.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐθεράπευσενetherapeusenHe healedG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeuō: to cure, to wait upon The participle of v. 23 now becomes an aorist indicative: the standing practice is reported as an accomplished fact. Gill presses the manner: "without any means, by a word speaking." The object is them, the whole catalogue, with no case sorted out as too hard.
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
25

Large crowds followed Him, having come from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai polloi ochloi ēkolouthēsan autō apo tēs Galilaias kai Dekapoleōs kai Hierosolymōn kai Ioudaias kai peran tou Iordanou

Word by word18 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολλοὶpolloiLargeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ochlos: a throng, as borne along Gill observes that the Greek word was borrowed into rabbinic usage, and warns against reading the rabbinic definition ("no multitude less than sixty myriads") into the Gospel: "only that the number was very large." That is a useful check on a reader's imagination, and it comes from a source with no interest in minimizing the crowds.
ἠκολούθησανēkolouthēsanfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, to be in the same way with Aorist indicative active, third plural. Matthew uses the discipleship verb for a crowd, and leaves the ambiguity standing; the Gospel will spend the next chapters sifting it. JFB reads the whole verse as scene-setting for the Sermon, the roll-call of the audience to whom "the astonishing discourse of the next three chapters was addressed."
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ 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
ἀπὸapo[having come] fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasGalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Galilaia: Galilee The circuit of v. 23 is now the first name on the list: the region he went around is the region that comes after him.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΔεκαπόλεωςDekapoleōs[the] DecapolisG1179
√ Δεκάπολις — the ten-city regionNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Dekapolis: the ten-city region A rare name (3 verses: here, Mark 5:20, Mark 7:31). Ellicott dates the confederacy to the Roman settlement of Syria in 65 B.C. and gives Pliny's list; Pulpit credits the organization to Pompey and notes all lay east of Jordan except Scythopolis. Barnes and Pulpit agree the population was chiefly Greek and heathen, and Barnes draws the consequence that swine could be kept there (Matthew 8:30-33). So Matthew's crowd list quietly includes Gentile territory.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἹεροσολύμωνHierosolymōnJerusalemG2414
√ Ἱεροσόλυμα — Hierosolyma (iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
Hierosolyma: Jerusalem Genitive neuter plural in form. Gill notes the significance of the capital appearing in the list at all: the report had reached "that great city," though Jesus was in "those distant and obscure parts." Jerusalem comes to Galilee here; the movement will reverse later in the Gospel.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸουδαίαςIoudaiasJudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πέρανperanbeyondG4008
√ πέραν — through (as adverb or preposition), iPreposition
peran: across, beyond With the genitive Ἰορδάνου. Cambridge, Pulpit and Gill all identify the region as Peraea, and Gill records the rabbinic division of the land into three, Judea, beyond Jordan, and Galilee, which is exactly the frame Matthew's list uses.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸορδάνουIordanouJordanG2446
√ Ἰορδάνης — the Jordanes (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Iordanēs: the Jordan The same river at which chapter 3 ended with the baptism and the voice from heaven. Matthew names it last, as a boundary now being crossed from the other side by people coming toward the one who came up out of it.

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. One finite verb, three participles: the shape of the ministry — 4:23

The Greek of v. 23 has exactly one main verb, the imperfect περιῆγεν (periēgen, G4013), and hangs everything else on it as present participles: didaskōn, kēryssōn, therapeuōn. Pulpit calls this "the threefold cord of all Christ-like ministry," and sorts it by audience: teaching for the synagogue, heralding for the crowds in public, healing for whoever is carried in. The grammar supports the reading, because none of the three is subordinated to the others; they are coordinate participles of one continuing circuit. Ellicott draws the consequence for the miracles: Matthew refers to them "not directly as evidence of a supernatural mission, but almost, so to speak, as the natural accompaniments of His work." Barnes, Benson, Poole and Cambridge all pause over the synagogue, and Poole's observation is the sharpest of them: Christ did not decline a worship corrupt enough through traditions yet "not idolatrous." ⚙ Two lexical facts anchor the verse. kēryssō is the crier's verb, so the content is published, not proposed; and the rare noun μαλακία (malakia, G3119, softness) appears in only three verses of the New Testament, all of them in Matthew. That confinement makes "every nosos and every malakia" a deliberate signature, not a stock phrase.

ii. The catalogue of the held: what the report brought back — 4:24

Matthew makes the subject of v. 24 not Jesus but ἀκοή (akoē, G189), the hearing of him, and Pulpit removes the sentiment English adds to it: our word "fame" implies honour, which ἀκοή does not carry. What crosses into Syria is a report; what comes back is a list. ⚙ The list is arranged by increasing hopelessness, and its vocabulary is unsparing. συνεχομένους (synechomenous, G4912) is a passive of "hold together," people gripped and not released. βασάνοις (basanois, G931) is the touchstone word; Cambridge follows it from the assayer's stone to judicial torture to "a disease that racks and agonizes the limbs like the torture which many a poor Galilean had experienced in the courts of law." Benson says plainly that these cases were reckoned "of as little hope, as any to be found among men," and Gill that they were the ones incurable "by the art of medicine." Cambridge insists the text distinguishes possession from lunacy and from ordinary illness rather than collapsing them, and Barnes defends the plain sense of possession at length against the rationalist reading; the brief preserves both without resolving the question. Then a single aorist, etherapeusen, takes the whole catalogue as its object.

iii. Five names on one preposition — 4:25

The last verse is a map. Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, beyond the Jordan: five regions hung on one apo, with no verb of travel in the Greek at all. JFB reads it as the roll-call of an audience, mentioned "to give the reader some idea both of the vast concourse and of the varied complexion" of those to whom the Sermon was about to be spoken; Pulpit likewise treats the verse as the hinge into chapter 5. ⚙ The list is more mixed than it looks. Ellicott, Barnes and Pulpit agree that the Decapolis was a Greek foundation whose population was chiefly heathen, and Barnes notes the swine of Matthew 8:30-33 as the proof. Poole draws the theological inference and names its text: here was "a mixture both of Jews and Gentiles following Christ," and the one who came "to pull down the partition wall" (Ephesians 2:14). Against this, Matthew's own care with words is worth noticing: in v. 23 he heals among the laos, the covenant people; in v. 25 what follows him is ochloi, crowds, a word Strong's derives from the sense of a throng borne along. Poole, who is no cynic, allows that some followed "for the loaves." The following is real and the motive is unsorted, which is precisely the condition the Sermon on the Mount will address.

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Matthew could have introduced the miracles as credentials, and the commentators are tempted to do it for him: Benson says Jesus intended "to confirm his doctrine," Poole and Gill say much the same. But the grammar of v. 23 resists that ranking. Healing is a participle of exactly the same rank as teaching and heralding, coordinate with them, governed by the one verb of going around. On the face of the Greek, the healing is not the proof attached to the message; it is part of what the message looks like when the King is present in person. Ellicott saw this, calling the miracles the natural accompaniments of the work, signs not of power chiefly but of pity. If that is right, then the catalogue of v. 24 is not a display of range but a definition of scope: the demonized, the moon-struck, the paralytic, the ones held fast by torments, every class the physicians had written off. And v. 25's crowds are then exactly what such a proclamation would gather, a throng of very uneven motive from regions that had no business in the same list. The Sermon begins in the next verse, and it begins by telling such a crowd who is blessed. ⚙ Where this reading could be wrong: Matthew 11:4-5 does put the healings forward as an answer to a question about identity, so the evidential function is not absent from the Gospel, only, I think, not the point here.

⚙ Not Scripture, a fallible line from this synthesis: the healing is not the credential attached to the kingdom's announcement, it is what the announcement looks like when the King is standing there.

⚙

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 sentence Matthew writes twice verbal / quotation: confirmed

Nearly the whole of 4:23 recurs at Matthew 9:35, a repetition Pulpit flags and uses structurally: following Weiss, he treats 4:23 as the heading of the section running to 9:34, and its repetition at 9:35 as the heading of the next. The Verifier confirms the overlap lexically, including the rare μαλακία (G3119), a noun found in only three verses of the New Testament. ⚙ The repetition is therefore not carelessness but architecture: Matthew frames his first great block of teaching and healing between two identical summaries.

Matthew 9:35

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3119 μαλακία (rare, in 3 vv), G2098 εὐαγγέλιον (in 73 vv), G2784 κηρύσσω (in 60 vv). Greek to Greek; the rare μαλακία plus near-identical wording carries the link. Matthew repeating himself, not citing another book.

The same authority handed to the Twelve verbal / quotation: confirmed

The third occurrence of μαλακία is Matthew 10:1, where the Twelve are given authority over the same pair of nouns, νόσος and μαλακία, that is used of Jesus here and at 9:35 (the Verifier records both lexemes in that verse). ⚙ All three occurrences of this rare noun in the New Testament stand in this one chain, and the chain runs in one direction: what is said of him in 4:23 is delegated in 10:1. The apostolic commission is described in the exact vocabulary of the Galilean circuit.

Matthew 10:1 · Matthew 9:35

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3119 μαλακία (rare, in 3 vv, all three in Matthew), G3554 νόσος (in 11 vv), G2323 θεραπεύω (in 42 vv). Greek to Greek verbal link within one author; a repeated formula, not a quotation.

Moon-struck: a word used twice in the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

σεληνιάζομαι (G4583) occurs in only two verses: here, in the summary catalogue, and Matthew 17:15, where a father brings a moon-struck son who suffers badly and reports that the disciples could not heal him. Pulpit notes the verb's two occurrences and Cambridge names 17:14-21 as the only individual case of such a cure. The Verifier records both the rare verb and the shared adverb kakōs (G2560). ⚙ The pairing is pointed: the class healed wholesale in the summary is the class that later defeats the Twelve, which is Matthew's way of showing that delegated authority is not transferred power.

Matthew 17:15

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4583 σεληνιάζομαι (rare, in 2 vv, the only two in the New Testament) and G2560 κακῶς (in 16 vv). Greek to Greek; a rare verbal link, not a quotation.

Torment: the assayer's stone, in Galilee and in Hades structural / thematic: confirmed

βάσανος (G931) stands in only three verses. One is here, of the racking pains brought to Jesus. The other two are Luke 16:23 and 16:28, of the rich man's torment after death. Cambridge and Geneva both trace the word from the touchstone used to test gold through judicial torture to disease. ⚙ The overlap is lexical and should not be pressed into a doctrine; Matthew is not saying the sick were in hell. But the vocabulary does refuse the comfortable distinction between bodily pain now and judgment later, and Henry's reading of this unit ("Sin is the sickness, disease, and torment of the soul") moves in the same direction without needing the lexical argument.

Luke 16:23 · Luke 16:28

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G931 βάσανος (rare, in 3 vv total, the other two being Luke 16:23 and 16:28). The shared rare noun is real and Greek to Greek, but it is a single noun used by different authors of different referents, so this synthesis deliberately under-claims and tiers the link as a shared motif rather than verbal dependence. No quotation is claimed.

The ten cities: where the report went and where the crowds came from structural / thematic: confirmed

Δεκάπολις (G1179) appears in only three verses: Matthew 4:25, Mark 5:20 and Mark 7:31. Mark 5:20 is the healed Gadarene, sent to proclaim (kēryssein) in the Decapolis what had been done for him; Mark 7:31 places Jesus himself in that territory. ⚙ Read together with the commentators' agreement that the Decapolis was Greek in foundation and chiefly heathen in population (Ellicott, Barnes, Pulpit), the three verses trace one arc: crowds come out of Gentile territory to him here, he goes into it later, and a delivered Gentile is left there as its herald.

Mark 5:20 · Mark 7:31

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1179 Δεκάπολις (rare, in 3 vv, the only three in the New Testament), with G2784 κηρύσσω and G565 ἀπέρχομαι at Mark 5:20 and G1056 Γαλιλαία at Mark 7:31. The shared lexeme is rare and Greek to Greek, but it is a place name, and two narratives mentioning the same region share geography rather than wording, so the tier is held at thematic rather than verbal.

He took our infirmities: the summary Matthew later explains structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew never says here what the healings mean. He says it at Matthew 8:17, which describes another evening of wholesale healing in the same words (the Verifier records shared νόσος, G3554, and at 8:16 also kakōs and daimonizomai) and then names Isaiah 53:4 as what those healings fulfilled, the Servant who takes up infirmities and carries diseases (the wording is Matthew's citation formula; it is not reproduced here because the brief supplies no text for either verse). ⚙ So the summary of 4:23-24 is not left uninterpreted in this Gospel; it is interpreted four chapters later, and interpreted by the Servant Song. Henry's reading of our unit, that by curing bodily diseases Christ "showed that his great errand into the world was to cure spiritual maladies," is the same instinct one step further along.

Matthew 8:17 · Matthew 8:16 · Isaiah 53:4

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek basis within the New Testament is G3554 νόσος (in 11 vv) at Matthew 8:17, plus G2323 θεραπεύω, G1139 δαιμονίζομαι and G2560 κακῶς at 8:16. The link to Isaiah 53:4 is an explicit New Testament citation, stated as such in Matthew 8:17, but a verbal tier cannot be scored for it here because shared Strong's evidence does not cross the Greek and Hebrew lexicons.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The King who is his own herald ancient/widely-held

The participle κηρύσσων (G2784) makes Jesus the crier of a kingdom, and Ellicott draws out what Matthew leaves implicit: behind this summary lies "a vast amount of unrecorded teaching," whose burden was a call to repentance, the good news of a kingdom not far off, and "the witness, by act for the most part rather than words, that He was Himself the Head of that kingdom." ⚙ A herald normally announces another man's reign. Here the herald and the King are one person, and the acts of healing are how the announcement is made credible in the flesh. Cambridge points the phrase "heralding the good tidings" back toward Isaiah 40; Geneva says the kingdom is simply "of the Messiah." This is the ordinary and long-held reading of the verse.

Matthew 4:17 · Matthew 9:35

The healer who carries what he heals ancient/widely-held

Matthew's own later comment on scenes exactly like this one is Matthew 8:17, where an evening of indiscriminate healing is said to fulfil Isaiah 53:4, the Servant taking infirmities and carrying diseases. ⚙ That is the redemptive-historical key to 4:23-24. On Matthew's own reckoning the healings are not sickness abolished from a safe distance; they are the beginning of a bearing, and the Servant Song Matthew cites is the one that ends in a death for others. Henry, commenting on this unit, arrives at the same place by a different road: Christ cured bodies to show that his errand was to cure souls, for "Sin is the sickness, disease, and torment of the soul." Geneva's first note here says the healings assure believers of Christ's "spiritual and saving virtue." The reading is apostolic in origin, since it is Matthew's own.

Matthew 8:17 · Isaiah 53:4

Five regions in one list: the wall not yet named ancient/widely-held

Verse 25 puts Jerusalem and Judea in the same sentence as the Decapolis and the land beyond the Jordan, and the commentators agree the ten cities were Greek foundations chiefly inhabited by heathen (Ellicott, Barnes, Pulpit). Poole takes the step: here was "a mixture both of Jews and Gentiles following Christ," the Saviour of both, "to pull down the partition wall between both, to make them both one gospel church," and he names Ephesians 2:14. ⚙ Matthew himself makes no comment; the point rests on the geography and on Paul's later word. So this reading is held by named voices in the tradition and grounded in the place-names, but it is an inference from the list rather than a claim the verse makes.

Ephesians 2:14 · Matthew 4:15

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)
  • 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)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers as supplied in the brief. Two textual points the brief itself exposes. First, at v. 23 Pulpit reports that the manuscripts read "in all Galilee" rather than "about all Galilee," which the Revised Version followed; the interlinear before me has the preposition ἐν, consistent with that reading. Second, the interlinear line for v. 24 lists ὅλην (index 5) before εἰς (index 6); the sense is unaffected ("into all Syria"), but the ordering is reproduced here as given rather than silently normalized, and readers comparing printed editions may find the words in the other order.

What is uncertain. (1) The extent of "Syria" in v. 24 is not settled: Ellicott takes it popularly, Pulpit as the Roman province, Poole and Barnes give wide boundaries, Benson notes that on the largest sense the fame was enormous. Nothing in the Greek decides it. (2) The nature of demonic possession is genuinely disputed in the sources reproduced here; Barnes argues at length for the plain sense against a medical reduction, Cambridge describes it as a phenomenon of double consciousness, Poole reports two competing explanations for why such cases cluster in this period. This synthesis records the dispute and does not settle it. (3) The force of πᾶσαν is read distributively by Gill, Geneva and Poole ("some of every kind"), and this synthesis follows them, but that is an interpretive judgment about idiom, not a grammatical necessity. (4) Ellicott's claim that μαλακία is the milder and νόσος the graver term is a judgment about usage; the lexicon supplies only "softness" and "malady," and the two nouns are not elsewhere contrasted outside Matthew's own formula.

Voices are verbatim public-domain commentary, selected by anchor and copied by machine from the sourced text; the synthesis marked ⚙ is this tool's own and is fallible. The Henry entry is a single note on 4:23-25 and so stands behind all three verses. Matthew 8:17, Isaiah 53:4, Ephesians 2:14 and Mark 5:20 are cited from the Verifier's candidates or from the commentators who name them; their wording has not been independently re-verified here.

✦ = 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)