The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew8:1–4

The Leper’s Prayer

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Matthew 8:1–4 — The Leper’s Prayer. 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.

1

When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de autou Katabantos apo tou orous polloi ochloi ēkolouthēsan autō

Word by word10 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
αὐτοῦautou[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 PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΚαταβάντοςKatabantoscame downG2597
√ καταβαίνω — to descend (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
καταβαίνω: to descend, literally or figuratively Aorist participle in a genitive absolute with αὐτοῦ. The descent is complete and subordinate: Matthew does not narrate a coming down, he dates the following. Pulpit calls the verse transitional, joining the two sides of the Lord's life, his preaching and his work; Barnes reads the crowds as the sermon's own aftermath.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ὄρουςorousmountainG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
ὄρος: mountain Articular and singular, the mountain of Matthew 5:1. The teaching authority established on the height is about to be exercised at ground level on a man the Law had put outside the camp.
πολλοίpolloilargeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλος: a throng, as borne along Plural. Pulpit connects it with the ὄχλοι πολλοί of Matthew 4:25, gathered from many places; Gill notes that the plural matters for the miracle that follows, since it was not done in a corner, though he records that some think it was wrought more privately.
ἠκολούθησανēkolouthēsanfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἀκολουθέω: properly, to be in the same way with Aorist indicative, the sentence's only finite verb. Matthew uses this verb of called disciples (Matthew 4:20, 4:22) and here of crowds, which leaves the question of what following actually is standing open over the whole chapter. Henry, characteristically, takes the crowd's movement as desire for more knowledge of Christ rather than as faith.
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
2

Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai idou lepros proselthōn prosekynei autō legōn Kyrie ean thelēs dynasai katharisai me

Word by word13 · parsed
καὶkaiSuddenlyG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidou. . .G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἰδού: used as imperative, lo! Formally an imperative verb, not a particle. Matthew uses it to turn the reader's head. Here the thing to be looked at is a man the Law required to live apart and cry "Unclean" (Ellicott, citing Leviticus 13:45), now inside speaking distance of the teacher the crowds are following.
λεπρὸςleprosa leperG3015
√ λεπρός — scaly, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
λεπρός: scaly, leprous A rare word, appearing in only nine verses. Luke calls him "full of leprosy"; Cambridge reads that as gravity of disease, and notes that had it in fact covered the whole body he would have been pronounced clean under Leviticus 13:12-13. Gill takes the opposite line, that this man was covered and so legally clean while still diseased. The brief preserves both readings; they are not reconciled here.
προσελθὼνproselthōncameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
προσεκύνειprosekynei[and] knelt beforeG4352
√ προσκυνέω — to fawn or crouch to, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
προσκυνέω: to fawn or crouch to, to do homage Imperfect indicative: continuous or repeated action. The commentators divide honestly over what the act meant. Pulpit says the word refers more to the posture of his body than to the nature of his thoughts; Gill says it is not manifest that he worshipped him as God; Ellicott says the act gave the word "Lord" the emphasis of one of its higher meanings; JFB says the man had that very faith in the germ which now casts its crown before him.
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
λέγωνlegōnsayingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
κύριος: supreme in authority Vocative. Poole is careful here: the term will not conclude his recognizing Christ as the Son of God, being a term used by Sarah to Abraham. The word is a real address, not yet a proven confession.
ἐὰνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
θέλῃςthelēsYou are willingG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
θέλω: to determine as an active option from subjective impulse Present subjunctive under ἐάν. This is the hinge of the unit: the leper suspends the whole request on the mood of this one verb, and in v. 3 Jesus answers with the identical verb in the indicative. JFB puts the point exactly, that he does not say he believed him able but says simply "Thou canst," while of the willingness he was not sure.
δύνασαίdynasaiYou canG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive2nd Person Singular
δύναμαι: to be able or possible Present indicative middle or passive, 2nd singular. Indicative, against the subjunctive beside it: the power is asserted as fact, the will is only hoped. The grammar carries the man's theology.
καθαρίσαιkatharisaimake me cleanG2511
√ καθαρίζω — to cleanse (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
καθαρίζω: to cleanse, literally or figuratively Aorist infinitive, and the first of four occurrences of this root in four verses: the leper's request here, the passive imperative καθαρίσθητι and the passive indicative ἐκαθαρίσθη in v. 3. The verb belongs to Leviticus 13 and 14, not to medicine, which is why Pulpit refuses to read the request as merely "heal me": cleansing carries restoration to social and religious privilege with it. Paired with the rare λεπρός it becomes the fixed messianic formula of Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22. JFB reads the whole disease as the nation's familiar symbol of sin, loathsome, spreading, incurable; Geneva puts the same point at the level of the sinner who comes.
μεme. . .G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
3

Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ekteinas tēn cheira hēpsato autou Thelō legōn katharisthēti kai eutheōs autou hē lepra ekatharisthē

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐκτείναςekteinas[Jesus] reached outG1614
√ ἐκτείνω — to extendVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐκτείνω: to extend Aorist participle. Matthew records the extension of the hand as its own act, which is why Pulpit can read deliberateness off the syntax rather than off the scene.
τὴνtēn[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἥψατοhēpsato[and] touchedG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἅπτομαι: properly, to attach oneself to Aorist middle. This is the theological centre of the verse and the commentators know it. Poole states the problem plainly, that under Leviticus 5:3 one who touched an unclean man was unclean, and answers that by what Christ did as he was God he could not contract any ritual uncleanness. JFB says he who had healing in his wings transcended all such statutes. Ellicott says he did not fear becoming unclean by that contact and was therefore not subject to the law that forbade the touch. Benson's blunt version: instead of being polluted by touching him, he cleansed the leper with his touch.
αὐτοῦautou[the man]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 Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΘέλωThelōI am willingG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
θέλω: to determine as an active option from subjective impulse Present indicative, answering the present subjunctive of v. 2 with the same root. JFB draws the inference: by not assuring the man of his power he sets his seal to the man's confession of that power, and by assuring him of the one thing he doubted he makes a claim as divine as the cure. The parse is the whole argument.
λέγωνlegōnHe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
λέγω: properly, to lay forth Present participle, contemporaneous with the touch. Pulpit says the word is synchronous with the action: hand and word are one event, not a gesture followed by a formula.
καθαρίσθητιkatharisthētiBe cleanG2511
√ καθαρίζω — to cleanse (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Singular
καθαρίζω: to cleanse Aorist imperative PASSIVE, 2nd singular. Two words in Greek, θέλω and καθαρίσθητι, one of them a bare passive command. Nothing is asked of the leper: the imperative places him under the action. Gill notes what is absent, that Christ did not stand parleying with the man or make further trial of his faith.
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὐθέωςeutheōsimmediatelyG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
εὐθέως: directly, immediately Poole reads the adverb evidentially: the word immediately confirms the miracle, since it was done not only without ordinary means but without the ordinary time requisite for such a cure.
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
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
λέπραlepraleprosyG3014
√ λέπρα — scaliness, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
λέπρα: scaliness, leprosy The abstract noun, the disease itself, now the grammatical subject of a passive verb. What had been the man's identity in v. 2 (λεπρός, an adjective describing him) becomes in v. 3 a thing that is acted upon and removed from him.
ἐκαθαρίσθηekatharisthēwas cleansedG2511
√ καθαρίζω — to cleanse (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
καθαρίζω: to cleanse Aorist indicative passive, 3rd singular: the imperative καθαρίσθητι of word 8 fulfilled in the same root and the same voice, with only the mood changed. Greek narrative rarely echoes itself this exactly; the match is the miracle's grammar.
4

Then Jesus instructed him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, as a testimony to them.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ho Iēsous legei autō Hora eipēs mēdeni alla hypage deixon seauton tō hierei kai prosenenkon to dōron ho prosetaxen Mōusēs eis martyrion autois

Word by word24 · parsed
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
λέγειlegeiinstructedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
λέγω: properly, to lay forth Historic present after a string of aorists. The tense change, not any added adverb, is what gives the charge its urgency in Greek.
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
ὍραHoraSee thatG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ὁράω: by extension, to attend to Present imperative: not a single glance but a standing watchfulness. Pulpit lists three possible motives for the silence and prefers the third, that it was for the Lord's sake, as in every other occasion where the charge is given (Matthew 9:30; Matthew 12:16; Matthew 17:9).
εἴπῃςeipēsyou don’t tell anyoneG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
μηδενὶmēdeni. . .G3367
√ μηδείς — not even one (man, woman, thing)AdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
ἀλλὰallaButG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
ὕπαγεhypagegoG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ὑπάγω: to lead oneself under, to go away Present imperative. Barnes hears in it the whole distance to Jerusalem, forty or fifty miles from Galilee, and the reason for haste: obedience to the Law before any telling of the story.
δεῖξονdeixonshowG1166
√ δεικνύω — to show (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
σεαυτὸνseautonyourselfG4572
√ σεαυτοῦ — of (with, to) thyselfPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἱερεῖhiereipriestG2409
√ ἱερεύς — a priest (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Singular
ἱερεύς: a priest Dative singular: one priest. Benson, relaying Campbell, turns that singular into an argument against taking "them" at the end of the verse for the priests, since only one priest was then entrusted with the examination; Benson adds separately that the priest is any one of those to whom the rest had committed the office of judging leprosy. The priest cannot heal; Gill's point is that he could only pronounce clean what was already made clean.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
προσένεγκονprosenenkonofferG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
προσφέρω: to bear towards, to offer Aorist imperative. Jesus, having overridden the defilement statute with his own touch, immediately places the healed man under the sacrificial statute. Ellicott makes this the first of his reasons for the command: the offering was an act of obedience to the Law, and in this way the Lord showed he had not come to destroy it.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
δῶρονdōrongiftG1435
√ δῶρον — a presentNounAccusative Neuter Singular
δῶρον: a present, a gift The Levitical offering, specified by Barnes and Cambridge from Leviticus 14:4 and 14:10: two living clean birds with cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, then on the eighth day two he lambs, one ewe lamb and flour with oil, with lesser sacrifices allowed if the man is poor.
ὃhoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
προσέταξενprosetaxenprescribedG4367
√ προστάσσω — to arrange towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
προστάσσω: to arrange towards, to prescribe A rare aorist (seven verses in all), with Μωϋσῆς as its subject. Matthew does not say Moses recommended or permitted: the arrangement stands as a standing order, which is why the cleansed man's obedience is evidence of the Law's continuing force in Matthew 5:17 terms.
ΜωϋσῆςMōusēsby MosesG3475
√ Μωσεύς — Moseus, Moses, or Mouses (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisasG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
μαρτύριονmartyriona testimonyG3142
√ μαρτύριον — something evidential, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
μαρτύριον: something evidential, a testimony The unit's last theological weight. Pulpit argues from usage that εἰς μαρτύριον in the Septuagint and the New Testament refers to what is permanent and important rather than to a one-off certificate, and so reads the offering as a lasting testimony to the nation of the Lord's relation to the Law. Barnes reads it as evidence of the cure to the people; Poole reads it forward, that hereafter it may testify that he is more than the Son of man. The dative leaves all three open.
αὐτοῖςautoisto themG846
√ 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
αὐτός: the third person pronoun Dative plural with no stated antecedent. Benson (with Campbell) argues for the people, since only one priest was in view; Cambridge allows priests or people; Pulpit says the question is not of grave importance since the priests represented the nation. Pulpit also records, and rejects for this stage of the ministry, the harsher rendering "for a testimony against them."

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. Down from the mountain, into the reach of the unclean — 8:1

⚙ The unit opens on a genitive absolute, αὐτοῦ Καταβάντος, which subordinates the descent so that the finite verb can fall on ἠκολούθησαν, the crowds' following. Pulpit reads the verse as deliberately transitional, joining the two sides of the Lord's life, preaching and work, and connects the plural ὄχλοι πολλοί back to the districts listed at Matthew 4:25. Barnes makes the crowds an effect of the sermon itself, gathered because the discourse had convinced them he had come from God, and expects miracles now to confirm what the teaching claimed. Gill presses the crowds into evidentiary service, arguing the cleansing was not done in a corner, though he honestly records that some think it was wrought more privately. Ellicott, at this same verse, lays out the full synoptic table and concludes that the order of these events cannot be fixed with certainty; JFB, on the same page, holds that Matthew's note of time here is too definite to be surrendered to Mark and Luke. The brief preserves that disagreement rather than resolving it, and so do we.

ii. The condition lodged in the verb of willing — 8:2

⚙ Matthew marks the approach with ἰδού, parsed as an aorist imperative: a command to look. Pulpit identifies what is unexpected, the near approach, the homage and the prayer of an outcast. The homage verb is imperfect, προσεκύνει, and Cambridge builds on exactly that, reading the tense as the persistency in prayer Jesus had just promised should win acceptance. What the man then says is grammatically precise: δύνασαι is indicative, θέλῃς is subjunctive under ἐάν. Ellicott names the result a singular mingling of faith and distrust, believing in the power and not yet in the will. JFB reaches the same place from the other side, noting the brevity of a confidence that knew no doubt. The commentators refuse, to their credit, to overread the homage: Pulpit says the word refers more to posture than to thought, Gill says worship of him as God is not manifest, Poole warns that the vocative Κύριε will not by itself conclude a confession of deity. Geneva alone draws the pastoral line straight through, that Christ shows he abhors no sinners who come to him, however unclean.

iii. The hand, and the passive imperative — 8:3

⚙ Two acts are recorded, not one: ἐκτείνας, having stretched out, then ἥψατο, aorist middle of a verb whose root sense Strong's gives as to attach oneself to. Pulpit takes the doubled record as a mark of deliberate will rather than accident. Then comes the legal collision the brief's voices all feel. Poole states it flatly from Leviticus 5:3 and answers that Christ, acting as God, could contract no ritual uncleanness; Barnes records simply that touching a leper made a man ceremonially impure; JFB says the one with healing in his wings transcended such statutes; Ellicott says he did not fear the contact and was therefore not subject to the law forbidding it. The word spoken is Θέλω, the leper's own verb taken out of the subjunctive and put into the indicative, which is what JFB means when he says that by answering only the one thing the man doubted, Jesus makes a claim as divine as the cure. The command itself, καθαρίσθητι, is passive: nothing is required of the leper. Gill notices the absence of any test of faith, that Christ did not stand parleying with the man. And the closing verb ἐκαθαρίσθη is the same root in the same voice, mood changed to indicative, with εὐθέως between them, which Poole reads as evidential: done without the ordinary means and without the ordinary time.

iv. Silence, the priest, and the standing testimony — 8:4

⚙ The man who was commanded to be passive is now given four imperatives: see, go, show, offer. On the silence, the brief holds several readings at once. Benson reports the envy reading (that the priests, hearing who had cleansed him, might refuse to acknowledge it) as what some suppose, and separately lists four motives for the Lord's general practice of enjoining silence; Gill takes the envy line as his own; Barnes limits the silence to the journey; Pulpit prefers a third reason, that the command was for the Lord's sake, as in every other place where it appears; JFB gives the sequel from Mark 1:45 where the injunction was broken and the Lord's movements were thwarted. Cambridge draws the sharpest conclusion, that Christ would not have people converted by his miracles. Then the Law: προσένεγκον τὸ δῶρον ὃ προσέταξεν Μωϋσῆς. Barnes and Cambridge supply the contents of the gift from Leviticus 14:4 and 14:10. Ellicott makes obedience to that law the first reason for the whole charge, showing he had not come to destroy but to fulfil; Benson, relaying Lightfoot, presses further, that Christ sent the man even under the human additions the priesthood had laid on the Mosaic examination. On εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς the voices genuinely diverge: Barnes says evidence of the cure to the people, Pulpit argues from Septuagint usage for a permanent testimony to the nation of the Lord's relation to the Law, Poole reads it forward to John 5:36 and the claim to be more than the Son of man, and Pulpit records but rejects the harsher rendering "against them."

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. The unit is built on one verb used four times and on one shift of voice. The leper's grammar is exact theology: he puts the power in the indicative and the will in the subjunctive. He has settled that Jesus can, and he does not know that Jesus wants to. Jesus answers by repeating his word in the mood he could not reach, Θέλω, and answers nothing else, because nothing else was in question. Then the command is passive, καθαρίσθητι, and the result is passive, ἐκαθαρίσθη. The man contributes the approach and the asking; he contributes nothing to the cleansing, which is done to him. That is the shape of the whole passage: the one thing a sinner cannot establish about God from his own condition is God's willingness, and it is the one thing God speaks. Notice also what the touch costs and does not cost. Under Leviticus 13 and 5:3 contact runs one direction, from the unclean to the clean. Here it runs the other way, and the brief's commentators feel the strain and answer it variously (Poole by Christ's deity, JFB by transcendence of the statute, Ellicott by exemption). We under-claim deliberately: Matthew does not explain it, he only reports that the hand went out and the leprosy left. And then, having overridden the law of defilement by his own act, Jesus at once puts the healed man under the law of offering, and sends the evidence to the very court that could not have produced it. The priest's verdict in this case can only ratify a cleansing no priest performed.

The only thing he doubted was the one thing Jesus said first. (An interpretive line from this synthesis, not a verse of Scripture.)

⚙

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 same cleansing told three times verbal / quotation: confirmed

The Verifier returns the Markan and Lukan tellings as the closest neighbours of this unit by shared vocabulary. Mark 1:41 and Luke 5:13 share θέλω (G2309) and καθαρίζω (G2511) with Matthew 8:3; Mark 1:42 shares καθαρίζω twice over with εὐθέως (G2112); Luke 5:12 shares δύναμαι (G1410) and ἰδού (G2400) with Matthew 8:2, and Mark 1:44 and Luke 5:14 share the whole closing cluster μαρτύριον (G3142), μηδείς (G3367) and δεικνύω (G1166) with Matthew 8:4. JFB and Pulpit both treat Mark 1:40-45 and Luke 5:12-16 as parallel passages; JFB notes this is the only cure of leprosy recorded by all three of the first Evangelists. The order in which the event stands differs between them: Ellicott's table sets it second in Mark and Luke and first in Matthew, and he concludes the sequence cannot be fixed.

Mark 1:41 · Mark 1:42 · Mark 1:44 · Luke 5:12 · Luke 5:13 · Luke 5:14

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek shared lexemes across the synoptic parallels, G2511 καθαρίζω (in 30 vv) recurring in every candidate, with G2309 θέλω, G2112 εὐθέως (in 86 vv), and at Matthew 8:4 the triple cluster G3142 μαρτύριον (in 20 vv), G3367 μηδείς and G1166 δεικνύω (in 31 vv). A verbal link between three tellings of one event, not a quotation of one by another.

λεπροὶ καθαρίζονται: the formula that names the messianic sign verbal / quotation: confirmed

The rare adjective λεπρός (G3015) stands in only nine verses in all. Four of them pair it with καθαρίζω in a fixed phrase: the commission of Matthew 10:8, the answer to John's disciples at Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22, and Luke 4:27, where the only cleansed leper Israel can name is a Syrian. Pulpit lists Matthew 10:8 and 11:5 among the few other places where leper healing is mentioned. Matthew 8:1-4 is where that formula first acquires a narrative: the sign the Christ later cites as his credential is here performed once, in silence, on one man.

Matthew 10:8 · Matthew 11:5 · Luke 7:22 · Luke 4:27

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G3015 λεπρός (in 9 vv only) with G2511 καθαρίζω (in 30 vv) in each of the four candidates. All refs are New Testament, so the link is genuinely Greek to Greek.

The rare verb of a standing order: προστάσσω verbal / quotation: confirmed

What Moses did to the gift is προσέταξεν (G4367), a verb of only seven verses in the whole New Testament, glossed by Strong's as to arrange towards. The Verifier returns every other occurrence: the angel's order that Joseph obeyed at Matthew 1:24, Cornelius saying at Acts 10:33 that all present are gathered to hear what God has commanded, Peter's order at Acts 10:48 that the Gentiles be baptised, and Paul at Acts 17:26 on the seasons God appointed for the nations. ⚙ The lexical company is suggestive rather than probative: this is the vocabulary of an arrangement laid down by divine authority and then obeyed, which is exactly the posture Jesus requires of the cleansed man.

Matthew 1:24 · Acts 10:33 · Acts 10:48 · Acts 17:26

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G4367 προστάσσω (in 7 vv), the complete set of its other occurrences. All refs New Testament. The verbal link is certain; the thematic inference drawn from it above is marked ⚙ and is ours.

The gift, the priest, and the offering: a cultic vocabulary shared with Hebrews structural / thematic: confirmed

The three words that close this unit, δῶρον (G1435), προσφέρω (G4374) and ἱερεύς (G2409), occur together again at Hebrews 8:4, where the argument is that if he were on earth he would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law. Matthew 8:4 has Jesus sending a man to those very priests with that very gift. ⚙ We under-claim the tier here on purpose: the overlap is a shared technical vocabulary for the same institution, and the Verifier's frequencies are moderate, not rare. No quotation is being claimed in either direction.

Hebrews 8:4

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1435 δῶρον (in 17 vv), G4374 προσφέρω (in 45 vv), G2409 ἱερεύς (in 31 vv). Real verbal overlap, but of common cultic terms rather than a rare signature word, so tiered structural rather than verbal.

The law the leper lived under, and the offering Moses prescribed structural / thematic: confirmed

Every element of this unit's legal background is named by the brief's voices out of Leviticus 13 and 14. Ellicott cites Leviticus 13:45 for the separation and the cry of "Unclean, unclean," and Leviticus 13:3, 13:11 and 13:15 for defilement by touch. JFB cites the whole ordinance, Leviticus 13:1 to 14:57, as holding forth a coming remedy. Poole grounds the defilement objection in Leviticus 5:3 and the leper's exclusion in Leviticus 13:46. Barnes and Cambridge specify the gift: two living clean birds with cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop at Leviticus 14:4, then the lambs and flour and oil of Leviticus 14:10, reduced if the man is poor. Pulpit notes the clause "show thyself to the priest" belongs verbally to Leviticus 13:49 while the thought is that of Leviticus 14:2.

Leviticus 13:45 · Leviticus 13:46 · Leviticus 14:2 · Leviticus 14:4 · Leviticus 14:10 · Leviticus 5:3

basis: Cross-Testament: Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can be computed and no verbal tier is possible. The basis is explicit citation by the text itself (Matthew names Moses and the prescribed gift) and by six of the brief's commentators, who identify the same Levitical chapters independently.

Naaman and Miriam: the cleansings Israel already knew typological

Ellicott lists Miriam and Gehazi as the cases that gave strength to the belief that leprosy was a divine plague, and cites Exodus 4:6 and 2 Kings 5:27 for the skin "as white as snow." Barnes adds Numbers 12:10 and 2 Chronicles 26:19; Poole names Gehazi, Uzziah and, at Matthew 8:3, the striking detail that no uncleanness is recorded for Aaron when he performed his office for Miriam under her leprosy. JFB gathers 2 Kings 5:1, 7, 10, 13 and 14 and Psalm 51:7 under the one heading of a coming remedy for sin and for uncleanness. ⚙ Our figural reading, offered as such: in the older cleansings the healing comes through a mediator's intercession or a prophet's word at a distance (Moses cries for Miriam, Elisha never sees Naaman), whereas here the healer touches. That reading of the contrast is ours; the identification of these passages as the background is the commentators'.

Numbers 12:10 · 2 Kings 5:10 · 2 Kings 5:14 · 2 Chronicles 26:19 · Exodus 4:6

basis: Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and no verbal tier is available. The passages are named by Ellicott, Barnes, Poole and JFB as the leprosy background; the figural contrast about the manner of healing is marked ⚙ and is novel to this synthesis, not claimed for the commentators.

Flagged: whether this was the first leper cleansed, and where it stands in the sequence flagged: verify source

Three of the brief's voices lean on a claim the text itself does not make. Ellicott says there does not appear to have been any previous case of leprosy miraculously cleansed; Pulpit says we have therefore no evidence that up to this time any leper had been healed by our Lord; JFB reasons that since this is the only such cure in all three Gospels it was probably the first, and builds the leper's faith on that. But Ellicott, at Matthew 8:1, lays out the synoptic table and concludes that the difficulty of harmonising the narratives with any certainty is shown once for all, while JFB says the time of this miracle seems too definitely fixed here to admit of placing it where Mark and Luke place it. The two positions are taken by the same set of commentators on facing columns. We record the claim and flag it: the chronological priority of this cleansing is an inference from silence and from a contested harmony, not a datum of the text.

Mark 1:45 · Luke 5:15

basis: Contested among the brief's own sources: Ellicott and Pulpit argue from the absence of a prior recorded case, JFB from the uniqueness of the triple attestation, while Ellicott's synoptic table and JFB's note on the fixing of time directly contradict each other on the sequence. No Verifier lexeme basis supports a chronological claim.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The touch that runs the wrong way ancient/widely-held

Under the Levitical code contact carries uncleanness one direction only, and the brief's voices all register that this verse reverses it. Benson states it as plainly as anyone: instead of being polluted by touching him, he cleansed the leper with his touch. Poole answers the legal objection from Leviticus 5:3 by appeal to Christ's deity; JFB by saying he who had healing in his wings transcended such statutes; Ellicott by exemption, that he did not fear becoming unclean and was therefore not subject to the law that forbade the touch. Ellicott then draws the redemptive-historical conclusion directly: in his touching the leper we may see the close fellowship into which he entered with our unclean nature, that through his touch it might be made clean, and he calls the miracle a parable in act. Geneva reaches the same end pastorally, that Christ abhors no sinners who come to him, however unclean. ⚙ The grammar supports it: ἥψατο is middle, he attached himself to the man, and the cleansing verbs that follow are passive.

Leviticus 5:3 · Leviticus 13:46 · 2 Corinthians 5:21 · Hebrews 4:15

Θέλω: the will of God spoken where it was doubted ancient/widely-held

The leper had faith for the power and none for the will. JFB makes this the hinge of the miracle's Christology: by not assuring the man of his power, Jesus sets his seal to the man's confession of it, and by assuring him of the one thing he doubted he makes a claim as divine as the cure that followed. Henry reads it pastorally and in the same direction, that when we cannot be sure of God's will we may be sure of his wisdom and mercy, and that those who apply to Christ may be sure he is freely willing to give the mercy they seek. Benson turns it into the reader's own prayer, that whatever the malady we may adopt the words of this leper. ⚙ Our addition is only grammatical: the verb the leper could utter solely in the subjunctive under ἐάν is the verb Jesus speaks in the plain present indicative, and the whole distance between fear and assurance in this passage is the distance between two moods of one word.

John 6:38 · Hebrews 10:7 · 1 Timothy 2:4

The gift sent to the court that could only ratify it novel

Having cleansed the man himself, Jesus sends him to the priest with the offering of Leviticus 14 εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς. Gill draws the line sharply: the priest could only pronounce clean, he could not heal the disease, which is what Christ has just done. Poole reads the testimony forward, that hereafter it may be a testimony unto them that he is more than the Son of man, citing John 5:36. Pulpit argues from Septuagint usage that εἰς μαρτύριον denotes what is permanent and important, and so makes the offering a lasting testimony to the nation of the Lord's relation to the Law, his miracles confirming the profession of Matthew 5:17. Cambridge and Ellicott both say the point is that Jesus came to fulfil the Law. ⚙ Our fallible reading, offered to be tested, and tiered novel in its sharper form: the priest who inspects this man performs an office he cannot account for. The verdict he issues is true, and the cleansing it certifies was worked by someone standing outside his order. Hebrews 8:4 uses the same three words, gift, offer, priest, to argue that the true priest is not of that order at all.

Matthew 5:17 · Leviticus 14:2 · John 5:36 · Hebrews 8:4

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; the Greek parse categories used in the notes above are the brief's, not inferred. One ordering caution: the interlinear for Matthew 8:3 lists Θέλω at index 6 before λέγων at index 7, an alignment that follows the English rendering, and the literal above keeps the brief's order rather than silently reordering it; the participle λέγων governs the direct speech either way.

Uncertain in this unit, and left uncertain: (1) the nature and contagiousness of the disease, where the brief's sources contradict each other outright (Ellicott says there is no evidence it was contagious or believed to be; Barnes says it is contagious and hereditary; Cambridge calls it contagious while noting the point is disputed); (2) the man's legal condition, where Cambridge says his fulness of leprosy means gravity and not whole-body covering, while Gill argues he was covered and so pronounceable clean under Leviticus 13:13; (3) whether this was the first leper Jesus cleansed and where the event stands in the synoptic sequence, which is flagged as its own thread above; (4) the referent of αὐτοῖς in the closing phrase, where Benson (following Campbell) argues the people, Cambridge allows either, and Pulpit judges the question not grave; (5) whether the miracle was public or private, where Gill records both views.

Two entries in the brief are capped (Barnes at 8:2, Gill at 8:4, plus Benson at 8:4); nothing above depends on the truncated portions. The Verifier candidate list is the sole basis for every thread badge that claims a shared lexeme, and no cross-Testament thread here is tiered verbal, since Greek and Hebrew share no Strong's numbers. Anything marked ⚙ is this tool's fallible synthesis and is offered to be tested against Scripture, not received on its own authority.

✦ = 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)