The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Matthew8:14–17

Jesus Heals at Peter’s House

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

Matthew 8:14–17 — Jesus Heals at Peter’s House. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

14

When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, He saw Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous elthōn eis Petrou tēn oikian eiden tēn autou pentheran beblēmenēn kai pyressousan

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhenG2532
√ 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
ἐλθὼνelthōnarrivedG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
érchomai: to come or go An aorist participle, backgrounded under the main verb. Matthew spends no words on the journey: Jesus comes, and the sentence hurries to what he sees.
εἰςeisatG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ΠέτρουPetrouPeter’sG4074
√ Πέτρος — a (piece of) rock (larger than G3037 (λίθος))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
οἰκίανoikianhouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
oikia: residence, abode A private house, not a synagogue. Gill argues from Mark 1:29 that Andrew lived here too, and suggests it may have been the mother-in-law's own house, "only called their's, because they lodged there."
εἶδενeidenHe sawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
horáō: to see, to attend to Aorist indicative, the one finite verb of the clause. Pulpit notes from the parallels that no one had yet told him of her: "He saw. Presumably on entering, before they asked him about her." The lexicon glosses the root by extension as "to attend to," which is exactly what the next verse does.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
αὐτοῦautou[Peter’s]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
πενθερὰνpentheranmother-in-lawG3994
√ πενθερά — a wife's motherNounAccusative Feminine Singular
penthera: a wife's mother A rare noun in the Greek New Testament (5 verses). Its presence is the reason this verse became a standing Protestant argument: Barnes, Gill, Henry and Ellicott all press it against enforced clerical celibacy, and Ellicott, to his credit, calls the argument only "an argumentum ad hominem." Grammatically it also tells us something quieter: the first named household Jesus enters as healer is an in-law household, a family joined by marriage rather than blood.
βεβλημένηνbeblēmenēnsick in bedG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Feminine Singular
bállō: to throw, with violence or intensity Perfect participle: the condition is complete and standing. The same verb in the perfect passive describes the centurion's servant in Matthew 8:6 (Gill cross-references his own note there), so Matthew has now used one violent verb twice in a single chapter for people whom illness has thrown down and pinned.
καὶkaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πυρέσσουσανpyressousanwith a feverG4445
√ πυρέσσω — to be on fire, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Feminine Singular
pyréssō: to be on fire, to be feverish A genuinely rare verb: the Verifier finds it in only 2 verses of the Greek New Testament, here and in the Markan parallel. Ellicott and Cambridge both report Luke's sharper diagnosis ("great fever"), Cambridge identifying the symptoms with typhus. The present tense holds the fire still burning at the moment of the touch in v. 15.
15

So He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hēpsato tēs autēs cheiros kai ho pyretos aphēken autēn kai ēgerthē kai diēkonei autō

Word by word15 · parsed
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἥψατοhēpsatoHe touchedG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
háptomai: to attach oneself to Aorist middle, and the middle voice matters: the subject acts with himself involved in the act. Gill sets the three modes side by side across Matthew 8: a word for the centurion's servant, a touch here, both for the leper. Pulpit adds a candid pastoral reading, that with her as with the leper "the word alone would not have been enough," because the faith in the room was below the centurion's.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
αὐτῆςautēsherG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular
χειρὸςcheiroshandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
cheír: the hand, figuratively power The lexicon notes the figurative extension to power. Matthew has the hand of the one with authority (8:9) closing on the hand of the one thrown down.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
πυρετόςpyretosfeverG4446
√ πυρετός — inflamed, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
pyretós: fever, inflamed The noun (6 verses) answering the participle of v. 14. Matthew now makes the fever the grammatical subject of its own departure, as though it were a thing with a will, which is close to Luke's picture of Jesus rebuking it.
ἀφῆκενaphēkenleftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
aphíēmi: to send away, release, forgive One of the high frequency verbs of the Gospel (131 verses), and the same verb Matthew uses of forgiven debts and forgiven sins. Here it is the fever that does the releasing, under compulsion. John 4:52 uses this identical pairing of πυρετός and ἀφίημι for the nobleman's son, which is the strongest verbal echo the Verifier finds outside the synoptic parallels.
αὐτὴνautēnherG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Feminine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠγέρθηēgerthēshe got upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
egeírō: to waken, to raise Aorist passive. The same verb, in the same form, is what the angel says at the empty tomb. Matthew is not making a resurrection claim here, and we should not press one on him; but he has chosen the raising verb over the plain verb for standing up, and Mark's parallel has Jesus doing the lifting.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διηκόνειdiēkoneibegan to serveG1247
√ διακονέω — to be an attendant, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
diakonéō: to be an attendant, to serve Imperfect, the tense of ongoing action, and the root from which the church's word for deacon comes. Matthew has used this verb once before, at 4:11, where angels minister to the newly tested Christ; Pulpit makes exactly that cross-reference. The first human being in this Gospel to be healed by a touch answers by doing what the angels did.
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
16

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Jesus, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Opsias genomenēs pollous daimonizomenous prosēnenkan autō kai exebalen ta pneumata logō kai etherapeusen pantas tous echontas kakōs

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeWhenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὈψίαςOpsiaseveningG3798
√ ὄψιος — lateAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
γενομένηςgenomenēscameG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Participle MiddleGenitive Feminine Singular
gínomai: to come to be Aorist middle participle in a genitive absolute. Gill devotes his longest note in this unit to why the hour is named, quoting the Jerusalem Talmud on the three stars that must appear before the sabbath is certainly over, and concluding: it was not lawful to carry a sick man until then. The clause is therefore not scene-painting; it is a legal boundary, and the crowd is waiting on the far side of it.
πολλούςpollousmanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
δαιμονιζομένουςdaimonizomenouswho were demon-possessedG1139
√ δαιμονίζομαι — to be exercised by a dæmonVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Plural
daimonízomai: to be exercised by a daemon Present participle, middle or passive in form, marking a condition being undergone rather than a single event. A restricted vocabulary item (13 verses) and heavily Matthean. Ellicott reads its prominence here and in Mark as evidence of what had most impressed the disciples about that sabbath morning in the synagogue.
προσήνεγκανprosēnenkanwere broughtG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautōto [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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξέβαλενexebalenHe drove outG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ekbállō: to eject, to cast out Aorist, a forcible verb: to throw out. Matthew pairs it in this Gospel with the giving of the same authority to the Twelve (10:1), so the verb that acts here is the verb that will be delegated. Gill's gloss is blunt and worth keeping: the spirits quit their tenements at his order, "though unwillingly enough."
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
πνεύματαpneumataspiritsG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
λόγῳlogōwith a wordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounDative Masculine Singular
lógos: something said, including the thought Anarthrous dative of means. The contrast Matthew is drawing is not word against touch in the abstract but word against apparatus: no incantation, no ritual, no formula. Poole presses the identification further, that it is "by the same power by which he made the world and all things therein."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐθεράπευσενetherapeusenhealedG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeúō: to wait upon, to heal Aorist, and the governing verb of the second half of the summary. The lexicon's root sense is not medical at all: "to wait upon menially," from which the sense of tending and so of curing develops. It is a different root from διακονέω in v. 15, so we claim no wordplay; but Matthew's two words for what happens in this house, the serving the woman does and the healing Jesus does, both descend from the vocabulary of waiting on someone. Matthew hands this same verb to the Twelve at 10:1 along with the authority to cast out spirits, so what is described here is transferable.
πάνταςpantasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
pâs: all, every, the whole Pulpit puts the whole stress here: "None were so ill as to be beyond his power." Geneva's marginal gloss reads it as all sorts rather than all individuals. Both readings are available in the Greek adjective; the text itself does not adjudicate between them, and we should not pretend it does.
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἔχονταςechontasvvvG2192
√ 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, physically or morally An adverb, not an adjective. The lexicon allows both physical and moral senses, and Matthew's idiom here is plainly physical, which matters for v. 17: the burden Isaiah's words are made to cover in this context is bodily.
17

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hopōs plērōthē to rhēthen dia tou prophētou Ēsaiou legontos elaben Autos tas hēmōn astheneias kai ebastasen tas nosous

Word by word18 · parsed
ὅπωςhopōsThis wasG3704
√ ὅπως — what(-ever) how, iConjunction
πληρωθῇplērōthēto fulfillG4137
√ πληρόω — to make replete, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Singular
plēróō: to make replete, to fill full Aorist passive subjunctive under ὅπως. Matthew's fulfilment formula does not say Isaiah predicted this evening; it says this evening filled his words full. The commentators split openly on the force of it: Benson allows only "a lower sense than that primarily intended by the prophets," Poole says the words are "neither seem truly quoted, nor doth the sense appear the same" and then argues they are still honestly used, while Pulpit takes the strongest line, that Matthew means Christ healed by actually bearing what he removed.
τὸtowhatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
ῥηθὲνrhēthenwas spokenG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Neuter Singular
eréō: to speak, to say Aorist passive participle, neuter, agreeing with the article τὸ: "the thing that was spoken." The agent is left unnamed, and the prophet enters only as the channel, διὰ, through whom.
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
diá: through The preposition that keeps prophet and speaker distinct. Isaiah is the conduit, not the source, of the sentence Matthew is about to quote.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
προφήτουprophētouprophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἨσαΐουĒsaiouIsaiahG2268
√ Ἡσαΐας — Hesaias (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
λέγοντοςlegontosG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ἔλαβενelabenHe took upG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
lambánō: to take, to receive Aorist indicative. The verb of receiving or taking to oneself. Barnes insists that the nouns it governs mean "diseases of the body" in both Hebrew and Greek, and that "in neither does it refer to the disease of the mind, or to sin." Gill and Poole hold the wider sense alongside the narrower one. This is the fault line of the whole verse, and it is a real disagreement among the sources, not a settled point.
ΑὐτὸςAutos. . .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 PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
autós: self, he himself An emphatic nominative in a clause that did not need a pronoun at all. Matthew's whole argument depends on it: the healer did not delegate the burden, dispense a cure from a distance, or command it away from outside. Ellicott builds his reading on exactly this: "It was not merely that He came, as one of boundless wealth, who might scatter alms broadcast, but that He Himself took and bore the sufferings which He removed."
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἡμῶνhēmōnourG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Plural
ἀσθενείαςastheneiasinfirmitiesG769
√ ἀσθένεια — feebleness (of mind or body)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
asthéneia: feebleness of mind or body The lexicon's own gloss covers both mind and body, which is why this verse cannot be settled by the dictionary alone. In context, given ἔχοντας κακῶς in v. 16, the bodily sense is primary here; whether Isaiah's Hebrew carried more is the question Poole, Gill and Barnes each answer differently.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐβάστασενebastasencarriedG941
√ βαστάζω — to lift, literally or figuratively (endure, declare, sustain, receive, etcVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
bastázō: to lift, to endure, to sustain Aorist. The lexicon's range runs from lifting a physical weight to enduring. Pulpit assigns it the note of oppressiveness: not the moment of taking up but the weight while carried. The same verb is used in the Gospels of carrying a cross.
τὰςtasourG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
νόσουςnosousdiseasesG3554
√ νόσος — a malady (rarely figuratively, of moral disability)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
nósos: a malady A restricted word (11 verses), used by Matthew for the catalogue of diseases healed. Its appearance inside the Isaiah citation is what ties the quotation to the summary of v. 16: the word for what the crowd brought is the word Matthew puts in the prophet's mouth.

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 house, the fever, the hand — 8:14-15

Matthew's Greek gives the scene one finite verb before the miracle: εἶδεν, "he saw." Pulpit reads the parallels carefully and concludes that no one had yet told him about her, "Presumably on entering, before they asked him about her," while Ellicott reports Luke's sharper picture, that the household "asked Him about her, as if consulting about a case of which they almost despaired." The two are not in conflict: he sees, and then they ask. What he sees is described by a perfect participle of a violent verb, βεβλημένην, which Cambridge renders "Literally, struck down," and by a present participle of a verb that occurs in only two verses of the Greek New Testament, πυρέσσουσαν, still burning. Gill, following Luke, calls the distemper "very raging and furious."

Then a chain of four verbs, each of which the English smooths. He fastens onto her hand (ἥψατο, aorist middle, from a root the lexicon defines as "to attach oneself to"). The fever releases her (ἀφῆκεν, transitive, with her as its object, the same verb Matthew uses of forgiven sin). She is raised (ἠγέρθη, aorist passive). And then the tense changes: διηκόνει, imperfect, not a single act but a continuing one. Pulpit is the only commentator in this brief who reads the tense shift as intentional, contrasting "the single act of arising from her bed and her continued ministry at the meal," and cross-referencing Matthew 4:11, where angels minister to Christ after the temptation. Ellicott notes what does not happen: "The 'great fever' had not left behind it its usual sequel of weakness and exhaustion." Poole draws the plainest moral: that she could rise "argued her cure miraculous; that she did do it, argues her sense of Christ's goodness, and thankfulness."

ii. Sundown, and the town at the door — 8:16

The genitive absolute Ὀψίας γενομένης is not atmosphere. Ellicott, Barnes, Gill and Pulpit converge on one explanation: it was the sabbath, and the sick could not lawfully be carried until it ended at sundown. Gill supports this at length from the Jerusalem Talmud on the three stars by which nightfall was judged, concluding that "they could not, according to their canons, bring them sooner." Ellicott offers the alternative, that evening was simply cooler, and then sets it aside in favour of the sabbath reading. Barnes independently notes that "On the Sabbath they would not even bring their sick to be healed," but as soon as it closed, "they came in multitudes."

Two details of method are recorded. First, λόγῳ, a bare anarthrous dative: by a word. Pulpit sets it "In contrast to saying over them the long formulas of exorcism used by others," and Poole identifies the power as "the same power by which he made the world and all things therein." Cambridge adds the observation that there was no touch here at all, since "Christ never laid his hand on demoniacs," a generalization worth flagging, because Poole on this same passage records from Luke 4:40 that he laid his hands on the sick that evening. The distinction Cambridge is drawing is between the demonized and the merely ill, and it survives that objection, but it is Cambridge's synthesis rather than Matthew's statement. Second, πάντας, all. Pulpit puts the whole weight there: "None were so ill as to be beyond his power." The Geneva margin takes the adjective distributively, "Of all sorts." The Greek permits both, and we should not pretend it decides.

iii. He himself took them up — 8:17

Matthew then does something he has done before and will do again: he reaches for Isaiah. The clause is a purpose clause, ὅπως πληρωθῇ, aorist passive subjunctive, and the sources disagree openly about how much it claims. Benson concedes the least, that Matthew uses the prophet "in a lower sense than that primarily intended by the prophets," adding that such usage is "elegances rather than imperfections." Poole states the difficulty as sharply as any critic could: the words "neither seem truly quoted, nor doth the sense appear the same," since Isaiah speaks of sins and Matthew applies the line to bodies. His answer is the evangelists' known habit, that they "took themselves only concerned to keep to the sense, not exactly to the words." Barnes goes the other way and claims the Greek here "is an exact translation of the Hebrew," arguing that both nouns mean bodily disease and that neither refers to sin. Gill holds both ends at once, and produces the rabbinic evidence that Isaiah 53 was read messianically by Jews themselves, citing Sanhedrin 98b on the messianic name "a leper."

Pulpit presses hardest, and its reading is the one that takes the emphatic pronoun Αὐτὸς most seriously: "He wrought his miracles at his own expense, and that expense the greatest." Ellicott had already framed the same point: not a rich man scattering alms, but one who "Himself 'took' and 'bore' the sufferings which He removed," which is why Ellicott finds Mark's and Luke's note about Jesus seeking solitude at dawn "entirely in harmony" with the verse. The two verbs are not synonyms: Pulpit distinguishes the transference (ἔλαβεν) from the oppressiveness of the load once borne (ἐβάστασεν), and Gill pictures the shoulder taking the weight.

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

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Matthew has arranged this unit so that the smallest scene explains the largest. A woman is thrown down and burning; he grips her hand; the fever lets go; she is raised; she serves. That is the shape of the evening that follows, in miniature: a whole town thrown down, a word, release, and Matthew reaching for the prophet to say what it cost. The hinge is the emphatic pronoun in v. 17, Αὐτὸς, a word the Greek did not need. Matthew puts it there because his claim is not that Jesus has a remedy but that Jesus has a shoulder. The verbs he quotes are lifting verbs, and the second one, ἐβάστασεν, is the one that keeps carrying after the lifting is done.

We hold this under Sola Scriptura with two stated limits. First, the sources genuinely disagree about how far Matthew's use of Isaiah 53:4 reaches, and we do not resolve it: Barnes confines it to bodies, Benson calls it a lower sense, Poole and Gill and Pulpit extend it toward the cross. Second, nothing in the Greek of v. 15 asserts a resurrection; the passive ἠγέρθη is the ordinary verb for being got up, and it would be an overreach to build doctrine on it. What we will say is smaller and, we think, defensible: Matthew chose the raising verb rather than the standing verb, and the first thing the raised woman does is the thing the angels did for Christ in 4:11. In this Gospel, being lifted and serving are the same motion seen twice.

He did not carry a cure to the sick; he carried the sick. (⚙ synthesis, not a verse)

⚙

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 fever in three Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

This is the strongest verbal link in the unit, and the Verifier's basis is unusually clean. The participle πυρέσσουσαν (G4445) occurs in only 2 verses of the Greek New Testament: here and at Mark 1:30. The noun for mother-in-law, πενθερά (G3994), occurs in 5. Luke adds πυρετός (G4446, 6 verses) and Mark 1:31 adds the raising and serving verbs (G1453, G1247). Poole lays out the differences without flattening them: Mark says he took her by the hand and lifted her up, Luke says he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and "Here is no contradiction, only some amplifications of the story." JFB declines to expound Matthew at all here, sending the reader to Mark 1:29-34.

Mark 1:30 · Mark 1:31 · Luke 4:38 · Luke 4:39

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4445 πυρέσσω (in 2 vv, effectively unique to this pericope), G3994 πενθερά (in 5 vv), G4446 πυρετός (in 6 vv), plus G1453 ἐγείρω and G1247 διακονέω at Mark 1:31. Greek to Greek throughout. The link is synoptic parallel, not one text citing another.

The fever that lets go: a rare verb pair across the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew's construction in v. 15 is not unique to him. At John 4:52 the nobleman's household reports the hour when ἀφῆκεν αὐτὸν ὁ πυρετός, the same noun and the same verb of release. At Acts 28:8 Publius's father lies with fever, and Paul lays hands on him, pairing πυρετός with χείρ. Three healings of fever in three books, and each records the hand or the hour, as though the point being preserved in every case is the exactness of the moment the fever let go. Gill in this unit makes the same observation from the other side, that Luke has Jesus rebuke the fever "Just as he did the winds and sea."

John 4:52 · Acts 28:8 · Luke 4:39

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4446 πυρετός (in 6 vv) with G863 ἀφίημι at John 4:52 and Luke 4:39; G4446 with G5495 χείρ at Acts 28:8. Greek to Greek, New Testament only. Rare noun, hence the verbal tier; no text quotes another.

The mother-in-law healed, the mother-in-law divided verbal / quotation: confirmed

πενθερά (G3994) is a rare word: 5 verses in the Greek New Testament. Two of them are this healing and its Markan parallel. Two more are Matthew 10:35 and its Lukan counterpart Luke 12:53, where Christ says he has come to set a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ⚙ The observation is ours and we keep it modest: the one in-law relation Matthew names as healed by the touch of Jesus is the same relation he later names as sundered by the claim of Jesus. We are not asserting that Matthew intended the echo. We are noting that the vocabulary is scarce enough that the two passages stand out against each other, and that nothing in the brief's sources draws the connection.

Matthew 10:35 · Luke 12:53

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3994 πενθερά (in 5 vv), a rare noun, linking Matthew 8:14 to Matthew 10:35 and Luke 12:53. Greek to Greek. The verbal link is certain; the thematic irony drawn from it is ⚙ synthesis and is marked as such in the body.

Matthew's own summary formula for the crowds structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 16 is built from a cluster of words Matthew reuses whenever he describes the sick being brought. Compare 4:24, where they bring him all τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας and the demonized; 12:22, where a demonized man is brought and healed; 15:22, where the Canaanite woman's daughter is badly demonized. Barnes on this verse and Pulpit both cross-refer the reader back to 4:24 for the meaning of possession, and Poole says outright, "We before, Matthew 4:24, showed who were meant by persons possessed by devils." The Verifier confirms the shared vocabulary, though none of the individual lexemes is rare enough to score a verbal link on its own; what is real here is the recurrence of the whole cluster, which is a habit of composition rather than a citation.

Matthew 4:24 · Matthew 12:22 · Matthew 15:22 · Matthew 10:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1139 δαιμονίζομαι (in 13 vv), G2560 κακῶς (in 16 vv), G4374 προσφέρω (in 45 vv) across Matthew 4:24, 12:22, 15:22; G1544 ἐκβάλλω with G4151 πνεῦμα and G2323 θεραπεύω at Matthew 10:1. Greek to Greek within one book, so a verbal tier would be grammatically available. We decline it and tier this structural deliberately: not one of the shared lexemes is rare (13, 16, 42, 45, 75 and 344 verses respectively), and the repetition is Matthew's own editorial idiom rather than one verse citing another. Under-claiming is the safer error here.

"He took up our infirmities": Matthew citing Isaiah against the Septuagint structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 17 is an explicit, formulaic citation: Matthew names Isaiah and quotes him. The sources are unanimous that the source text is Isaiah 53:4 and divided about the rendering. Pulpit states flatly that the quotation is "from the Hebrew." Barnes claims "The Greek in Matthew is an exact translation of the Hebrew, and the same translation should have been made in both places," faulting the English versions rather than Matthew. Poole concedes that the words "neither seem truly quoted, nor doth the sense appear the same" and defends the evangelist on the ground of sense rather than wording. Poole and Gill both bring 1 Peter 2:24 alongside, where the same prophecy is applied to sins borne on the tree, and Poole concludes that "This scripture was twice fulfilled in Christ."

The tier here is a deliberate under-claim. The citation is explicit and formulaic, which would ordinarily be the strongest kind of link. But it crosses from Greek into Hebrew, and shared Strong's lexemes cannot be computed across the two lexicons, so no verbal score exists to record. We tier it structural and say why.

Isaiah 53:4 · 1 Peter 2:24

basis: Explicit named citation (Matthew's fulfilment formula, ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ Ἠσαΐου). Cross-Testament: Greek to Hebrew, so shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and no verbal tier can be scored. Commentators in the brief report that Matthew renders the Hebrew rather than following the Septuagint (Pulpit: "from the Hebrew"; Barnes calls it an exact translation of the Hebrew; Poole grants the wording is not exact). 1 Peter 2:24 applies the same prophecy to sins, which Poole and Gill both note.

Raised, and then serving typological

⚙ A figural reading, offered as such. Mark's parallel has Jesus raise her by the hand; Matthew has the passive ἠγέρθη, she was raised, followed by the imperfect διηκόνει, she kept serving. Pulpit is the source that notices the tense contrast and that sends the reader to Matthew 4:11, where angels minister to Christ after the temptation using this same verb. We read the sequence as a pattern rather than a prediction: in this Gospel, being lifted by Christ issues in diakonia, and the word for what she does is the word the church will later take for its servants. We flag this as novel in its wording. The homiletic version of it is old and common, but none of the ten commentators in this brief states it in these terms, and Matthew makes no such claim himself.

Mark 1:31 · Matthew 4:11

basis: Verifier basis at Mark 1:31: shared Greek lexemes G1453 ἐγείρω (in 138 vv) and G1247 διακονέω (in 32 vv), both common. Matthew 4:11 shares G1247 as Pulpit cross-references on this verse. The verbal ground is weak (common lexemes), so the link is offered as figural, not verbal, and marked novel in wording.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The healer who pays for the healing ancient/widely-held

The claim of v. 17 is not that Christ had a remedy for sickness but that he took sickness onto himself. The emphatic nominative Αὐτὸς, unnecessary in Greek, carries the point; the two verbs are lifting verbs. Ellicott: "It was not merely that He came, as one of boundless wealth, who might scatter alms broadcast, but that He Himself 'took' and 'bore' the sufferings which He removed. He suffered with those He saw suffer." Pulpit states the mechanism most strongly: not magic, not power exerted externally, but "himself bearing the sicknesses that he removed. He wrought his miracles at his own expense, and that expense the greatest." Poole holds the two fulfilments together, the bodily healings here and the guilt borne on the tree at 1 Peter 2:24. Gill demonstrates from Sanhedrin 98b and other rabbinic sources that Isaiah 53 was read messianically within Judaism itself, so the application is not a Christian novelty imposed on the text. Benson alone restrains it, allowing the healings only "a lower sense" beside the highest sense of the cross. That restraint is part of the record, not an objection to it.

Isaiah 53:4 · 1 Peter 2:24 · John 1:29

Word and touch: two hands of the same authority ancient/widely-held

Read across chapter 8, Matthew is cataloguing methods, and the commentators noticed. Gill: "Sometimes he healed by a word, as the centurion's servant; and sometimes by a touch, as here; and sometimes by both, as the leper." Cambridge sets v. 16 against v. 15 on exactly this axis, the word without the touch for the demonized. Pulpit adds the pastoral reason for the touch here, that with her as with the leper "the word alone would not have been enough," because the faith in that room was below the centurion's. ⚙ Our reading of the pattern: authority in this chapter is not a single technique but a person who adjusts to what the sufferer can bear. The centurion needed no contact and said so; the leper and the fevered woman were reached with a hand. Henry draws the figure inward, that in spiritual healing "the Scripture speaks the word, the Spirit gives the touch," which we record as his reading rather than Matthew's statement.

Matthew 8:3 · Matthew 8:8 · Luke 4:40

The sabbath that had to end before mercy could be carried novel

⚙ A reading we offer for testing. Four of the ten commentators here (Ellicott, Barnes, Gill, Pulpit) independently explain the genitive absolute of v. 16 by the sabbath: the sick could not lawfully be carried until sundown, so the town waited at the boundary of the day. Gill documents the rule from the Jerusalem Talmud down to the three stars. The theological weight of that observation is not drawn out by any of them, and we draw it out with care. Matthew places a crowd of the afflicted outside a legal line, held there by the day of rest, until the sun sets and they may be brought to the one who will later say in this same Gospel that the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath. The law that gave the rest also delayed the mercy. We mark this as novel in this form, and we claim nothing about Matthew's intention: the sources supply the fact of the sabbath, and the inference is ours.

Matthew 12:8 · Mark 1:32 · Leviticus 23:32

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. Base text BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering. One textual variant is recorded in the sources for this unit: at 8:15 Cambridge notes "There is high MS. authority for 'unto Him'" in place of "unto them," and Pulpit reports the Revised Version reading "him, with manuscripts." The interlinear supplied in the brief has the singular dative αὐτῷ, "Him." Readers should know the plural stands in the older English versions. At 8:16 Pulpit also notes the Revised Version's "a word" against "his word"; the Greek λόγῳ is anarthrous, which favours the Revised reading.

Sources. Ten public domain commentators were available for this unit. JFB contributes no exposition at all here, referring the reader wholesale to Mark 1:29-34, so no JFB excerpt appears in this synthesis; that is a gap in our coverage, not an omission by choice. Geneva supplies only a brief marginal gloss at 8:14 and 8:16 and nothing at 8:15 or 8:17. Henry's note is a single block covering 8:14-17 rather than verse by verse. Ellicott, Benson and Barnes are absent from 8:15 or 8:16 in part because their notes are grouped across verse ranges.

What is uncertain. The central interpretive question of this unit, how far Matthew's citation of Isaiah 53:4 extends, is genuinely unresolved among the sources and we have not resolved it. Barnes confines both nouns to bodily disease and denies any reference to sin; Benson permits only "a lower sense"; Poole, Gill and Pulpit extend the verse toward the atonement. We have reported the disagreement rather than choosing. Gill's rabbinic citations (Sanhedrin 98b, Zohar, Pesikta) are given at second hand from his own footnotes and we have not verified them; Pulpit, treating the same Talmudic saying, warns of "Raymund Martini's false reading, 'the Sick One,'" which is a live caution about how that material has been transmitted in Christian polemic. Cambridge's identification of Luke's "great fever" with typhus is nineteenth century medical inference, not a statement of the text. Cambridge's claim that "Christ never laid his hand on demoniacs" is a generalization across the Gospels rather than an exegesis of this verse, and Poole on this same passage records from Luke 4:40 that hands were laid on the sick that evening.

⚙ layer. Every reading marked ⚙ in this unit is ours and fallible: the mother-in-law irony in the threads, the raised-and-serving typology, and the sabbath reading under Christ. Each is flagged in place. The interlinear data, the parse tags, the lexical glosses, the thread bases and every quotation are sourced and were not generated 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)